Page 1879 – Texas Weekly Online

Riley Gaines unleashes on red state Dem candidate after footage reveals ‘ignorant’ stance on school sports

FIRST ON FOX: Riley Gaines blasted an “ignorant at best or a sellout at worst” Democrat House candidate for claiming to be “in the middle” on issues, then expressing support for students in Montana to play sports based on gender identity. Monica Tranel, who is running for the seat currently held by Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., has made several claims of taking a more moderate position on issues, writing in a May 8 post on X that “being in the middle is in my DNA.” On Tranel’s campaign website, the Democrat also said that she is running for Congress “to represent the missing middle.” Despite claiming to “come to the center” on issues, new footage obtained by Fox News Digital shows Tranel expressing support for students in Montana competing in sports based on their gender identity rather than their sex at birth and enshrining individuals identifying as female as real women under the law. Riley Gaines, a swimmer who was forced to compete in the 2022 NCAA championship against a biological male, told Fox News Digital that Tranel’s “position blatantly underscores a disconnection with the people of Montana who value fairness in women’s sports” BALANCE OF POWER: SENATE GOP’S CAMPAIGN CHAIR CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC ABOUT RETAKING MAJORITY IN 2024 ELECTIONS “Allowing males to compete in women’s categories undermines the integrity of women’s athletics and negates the level playing field that Title IX was designed to protect,” Gaines said. “This isn’t just a sports issue; it’s about ensuring that the voices and hard-fought rights of women are not sidelined in the guise of progress.” While Tranel claims to come to the middle, a national Gallup poll found that nearly 70% of Americans believe individuals should compete in sports based on their biological sex rather than gender identity. “Claiming to represent the ‘missing middle’ while advocating for policies that ignore the majority’s views on the common sense understanding of men’s and women’s sports participation makes Tranel ignorant at best or a sellout at worst,” Gaines added. “True centrism respects and reflects the consensus of the community, not just the niche interests of unelected bureaucrats and officials.” MILLIONS OF DOLLARS POUR INTO CRUCIAL SENATE RACE AS DEMS TRY TO DERAIL GOP CAMPAIGN: ‘RELENTLESS ASSAULT’ A spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) agreed that the comment is “completely out-of-step” with Montana values. “Allowing trans athletes to play in women’s sports is completely out-of-step with what Montanans believe, proving once again Monica is wrong for Montana,” NRCC spokeswoman Delanie Bomar told Fox News Digital. The video of Tranel was recorded just weeks before the Montana Supreme Court overturned a state law banning biological males from competing in women’s sports. Tranel appeared in the clip to be unaware of the ban that was in place at the time, but she proceeded to say that she believes “trans kids” should participate in sports. When asked about whether she believes biological males should participate in women’s sports, Tranel did not specify her stance on the issue, telling Fox that she supports “Montanan’s privacy and freedom.” “I will always support Montanan’s privacy and freedom, and as a mother with daughters in the Montana school system, nothing is more important to me than their safety and growth. I trust Montana parents to make the best decisions for their kids,” Tranel said in a statement. “Ryan Zinke would rather engage in deceptive political games, than meet with Montanans, which is why he supports policies that would limit families ability to control their own lives,’ she said, taking a hit at her potential GOP opponent. “So let me state clearly, I am the only candidate in this race that supports Montanan’s freedom and privacy to live their lives as they see fit.” A spokesperson for Zinke, the Republican seeking re-election in the red state, said “Tranel is a far left activist who is trying to convince voters she’s a moderate.” “Her record and her own words prove she’s an extremist. Monica was the lawyer for a child rapist’s appeal and tried to get him out of jail, she supports mutilating and transitioning children, and she fully supports men in girls’ locker rooms and sports,” Colton Snedecor, Spokesperon for Zinke, told Fox News Digital in a statement. “Montana voters deserve to know her true colors.” Tranel ran against Zinke for a seat to represent Montana’s 1st Congressional District in the 2022 midterms, but lost to the former Navy SEAL.

Biden asserts executive privilege over recordings from classified documents probe

The White House asserted executive privilege over audio and video recordings related to Special Counsel Robert Hur’s interviews with President Biden. “I write to inform you that the President has asserted executive privilege over the requested audio recordings and is making a protective assertion of privilege over any remaining materials responsive to the subpoenas that have not already been produced,” Associate Attorney General Carlos Uriarte wrote in a letter Thursday to Reps. Jim Jordan and James Comer, chairmen of the Committee on the Judiciary and Committee on Oversight and Accountability, respectively. “It is the longstanding position of the executive branch held by administrations of both parties that an official who asserts the President’s claim of executive privilege cannot be prosecuted for criminal contempt of Congress.” Hur led the investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents following his departure as vice president under the Obama administration. Hur announced in February that he would not recommend criminal charges against Biden for possessing classified materials after his vice presidency, citing that Biden is “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” JUSTICE DEPARTMENT REBUKED FOR DELAY TACTICS IN BIDEN-HUR TAPES “Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone from whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt. It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him – by then a former president well into his eighties – of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness,” Hur wrote in his report. The findings sparked widespread outrage that Biden was effectively deemed too cognitively impaired to be charged with a crime but could serve as president. Trump has meanwhile slammed the disparity in charges as a reflection of a “sick and corrupt, two-tiered system of justice in our country.” HOUSE REPUBLICANS SUBPOENA DOJ MATERIALS RELATED TO SPECIAL COUNSEL HUR INTERVIEW WITH BIDEN Biden met with Hur for about five hours last year, when he was grilled about his handling of the classified documents. The executive privilege, according to the letter, also includes interviews between Biden and ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer. Attorney General Merrick Garland has asked Biden to block the release of the audio recordings. BIDEN, NOT SPECIAL COUNSEL HUR, BROUGHT UP SON’S DEATH IN QUESTIONING “The audio recordings of your interview and Mr. Zwonitzer’s interview fall within the scope of executive privilege. Production of these recordings to the Committees would raise an unacceptable risk of undermining the Department’s ability to conduct similar high-profile criminal investigations–in particular, investigations where the voluntary cooperation of White House officials is exceedingly important,” Garland wrote to Biden in a letter obtained by Fox News. White House Counsel Ed Siskel also wrote to Jordan and Comer Thursday that House Republicans would “chop” up the recordings for “partisan political purposes.” FOREIGN OUTLETS PULL NO PUNCHES OVER BIDEN ‘CONFUSION’ AND ‘RAGE’ AFTER SURPRISE PRESS CONFERENCE “The absence of a legitimate need for the audio recordings lays bare your likely goal — to chop them up, distort them, and use them for partisan political purposes,” White House Counsel Ed Siskel wrote in a letter to Republican House leaders Thursday morning revealing Biden’s decision. “Demanding such sensitive and constitutionally-protected law enforcement materials from the Executive Branch because you want to manipulate them for potential political gain is inappropriate.” CONGRESSMAN, ARMY VET SAYS BIDEN BEING ‘USED,’ FEARS OTHERS ARE MAKING DECISIONS: ‘IT’S ABUSIVE’ The letters come after The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project, as well as Judicial Watch and CNN, filed FOIA requests seeking the release of the tapes, and House Republicans unsuccessfully subpoenaed the recordings. The DOJ announced in April it would not abide by a subpoena from House Republicans, while maintaining its cooperation with Congress’ Biden family investigation has been “extraordinary.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Garland was facing potentially being held in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over the documents. Biden’s order, however, protects Garland from criminal prosecution over the matter. Fox News Digital’s Charles Creitz contributed to this report.

NRA and conservative legal group sue Democrat governor over 7-day waiting period to buy guns

FIRST ON FOX — A conservative legal group and gun rights activists have teamed up to challenge a newly-enacted seven-day waiting period to buy a gun in New Mexico. The Mountain States Legal Foundation (MSLF) has partnered with the National Rifle Association (NRA) in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that claims New Mexico is denying citizens their Second Amendment rights and their natural right to self-defense. The groups allege in court documents that the waiting period law passed by the Democratic-controlled legislature and signed by Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is unconstitutional. “This arbitrary law is just the latest attempt by Governor Grisham and her anti-gun comrades in the New Mexico legislature to limit the Second Amendment rights of their law-abiding constituents,” said Mike McCoy, director of the Center to Keep and Bear Arms at MSLF. The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico names Grisham and New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez (D) as defendants. TOP GOP LEADERS IN NEW MEXICO SENATE AND HOUSE OPT OUT OF RE-ELECTION Grisham signed House Bill 129 into law in March, and it went into effect on Wednesday, enacting a mandatory seven-day waiting period for the purchase of firearms. During this time, sellers are required to conduct a federal instant background check of the buyer. Should the background check take longer than seven days, the seller must wait to transfer the firearm to the purchaser until the background check is completed. Violators would be found guilty of a misdemeanor, according to the New Mexico Department of Public Safety. “This legislation strikes at the heart of issues that are keeping New Mexicans up at night,” Grisham said in a statement after signing the bill. “We are losing far too many lives when guns get into the wrong hands and violent criminals are allowed to recommit again and again. This legislation addresses both.” In court documents, plaintiffs Paul Samuel Ortega and Rebecca Scott, both residents of New Mexico, assert the Waiting Period Act “burdens the right to keep and bear arms.” Plaintiffs also claim the state government “could never meet its burden to establish a historical analogue to justify its regulation.” SEMI-AUTOMATIC GUN BAN NIXED IN COLORADO’S DEMOCRATIC-CONTROLLED STATEHOUSE AFTER HISTORIC PROGRESS The lawsuit references the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 2022 decision in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, which established a new standard to determine whether a gun restriction is unconstitutional. To meet that standard, the government must show there is a “historical tradition of firearm regulation” that supports the sort of law in question. Since Bruen, a multitude of federal and state gun control measures have been challenged in courts with mixed results. “The Second Amendment protects a private right of individuals to keep and bear arms for the purpose of self-defense; but this ridiculous waiting period law delays the ability of law-abiding citizens to exercise this God-given right,” McCoy told Fox News Digital. TEXAS AG FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST BIDEN ADMINISTRATION FOR NEW GUN SALE REQUIREMENTS: ‘COME AND TAKE IT’ “Forcing domestic violence victims in need of a firearm to protect themselves to wait seven days to acquire one is wrong, and let’s hope their abusers ‘wait a week’ too before they attack again,” he added. “The NRA is proud to team up with the Mountain States Legal Foundation to challenge New Mexico’s waiting period law,” said Randy Kozuch, Executive Director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action. “This new law is a clear violation of the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding New Mexicans, and the NRA is committed to seeing that this unconstitutional law be wiped from the state statutes.” The MSLF stated that plaintiffs “seek nothing short of a complete invalidation of the law by the federal courts, and a return to constitutional sensibility.” The offices of the governor and the attorney general did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

North Carolina bill to stop protesters from using masks to hide identities advances without health exemption

Republican lawmakers in North Carolina are pushing forward with their plan to repeal a pandemic-era law that allowed the wearing of masks in public for health reasons, a move spurred by anti-Israel demonstrations that have included masked protesters camped out on college campuses. The legislation – House Bill 237 – cleared the state’s Senate on Wednesday in a 30-15 vote along party lines despite several attempts by state Senate Democrats to change the bill. The bill, which would raise penalties for someone who wears a mask while committing a crime, including arrested protesters, could still be altered as it heads back to the House. Opponents of the bill say it risks the health of those masking for safety reasons. Those backing the legislation say it is a needed response to the protests, including those at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that escalated to police clashes and arrests. The bill also further criminalizes the blockage of roads or emergency vehicles for a protest, which has occurred during anti-Israel demonstrations in Raleigh and Durham. “It’s about time that the craziness is put, at least slowed down, if not put to a stop,” Wilson County Republican Sen. Buck Newton, who presented the bill, said on the Senate floor Wednesday. NORTH CAROLINA REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL RUNOFF SHOWS TRUMP’S SWAY IN GOP STATE POLITICS “There seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding of what this bill does and how the law operates, and it’s no wonder that so many folks are scared,” Newton added, according to NC Newsline, questioning the motivations of those against the legislation. “I think some of us are wondering what the real motivations are of folks on the other side of the House, scaring the bejesus out of everybody and making them feel like if they have a need at times to wear masks because they’re immunocompromised somehow, they’re going to get arrested.” Most of the pushback against the bill has centered around its removal of health and safety exemptions for wearing a mask in public. The health exemption was added at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic along largely bipartisan lines. This strikethrough would return public masking rules to their pre-pandemic form, which were created in 1953 to address a different issue: limiting Ku Klux Klan activity in North Carolina, the Associated Press reported, citing a 2012 book by Washington University in St. Louis sociology professor David Cunningham. Democratic lawmakers repeated their unease about how removing protections for people who choose to mask for their health could put immunocompromised North Carolinians at risk of breaking the law. Legislative staff said during a Tuesday committee that masking for health purposes would violate the law. “You’re making careful people into criminals with this bill,” Democratic Sen. Natasha Marcus of Mecklenburg County said on the Senate floor. “It’s a bad law.” “Is it really that you find masked chemo patients that threatening? Something about them makes you really angry?” Marcus added, according to WRAL. “Or is this, more likely, a desire to score some political points with the anti-mask crowd during an election year, at the expense of vulnerable people?” Simone Hetherington, an immunocompromised person who spoke during Wednesday’s Senate Rules Committee, said masking helps her protect herself from illnesses and fears the law would prevent that practice. “We live in different times and I do receive harassment,” Hetherington said about her mask wearing. “It only takes one bad actor.” But Republican legislators continued to express doubt that someone would get in legal trouble for masking because of health concerns, saying law enforcement and prosecutors would use discretion on whether to charge someone. Newton said the bill focuses on criminalizing masks only for the purpose of concealing one’s identity. NORTH CAROLINA GOP ELECTS TRUMP-ENDORSED EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AS ITS NEXT CHAIRMAN “I smell politics on the other side of the aisle when they’re scaring people to death about a bill that is only going to criminalize people who are trying to hide their identity so they can do something wrong,” Newton said. Three Senate Democrats proposed amendments to keep the health exemption and exclude hate groups from masking, but Senate Republicans used a procedural mechanism to block them without going up for a vote. Future changes to the bill could be a possibility, but it would ultimately be up to the House, Newton told reporters after the vote, according to the AP. Robeson County Republican Sen. Danny Britt also said during an earlier committee that he anticipated “some tweaking.” House Rules Committee Chairman Destin Hall, a Caldwell County House Republican, told reporters before the Senate vote that the House planned to “take a look at it” but members wanted to clamp down on people who wear masks while committing crimes. The masking bill will likely move through a few committees before hitting the House floor, which could take one or two weeks, Hall said. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

‘Living in fear’ amid relentless battle for eastern DR Congo

Kanyabayonga, Democratic Republic of the Congo – Innocent Kasereka sits in a rundown hospital in the war-torn eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), his neck bandaged where he was brutally slashed with a knife. The 30-year-old recounts how he was caught in the middle of the conflict between the Congolese armed forces (FARDC) and M23 rebels that has been raging since late 2021. The attack on Kasereka took place at a coffee plantation in the agricultural town of Kibirizi in North Kivu province at the start of May. It had been seized two months earlier by M23 and the Rwandan army, which has been fighting alongside the rebel group. “When the M23 arrived in Kibirizi they held a meeting and assured us that we were safe,” Kasereka said, forlornly, in the hospital director’s office. Instead, he said he was attacked by people “in M23 uniform”. Bloodied and traumatised, he managed to climb a hill to safety in a government-held part of the town. Innocent Kasereka sits in a hospital in Kanyabayonga, southern Lubero territory, North Kivu province [Alexis Huguet/AFP] The Congolese army, backed by a rag-tag collection of armed groups known as Wazalendo, Swahili for Patriots, launched an offensive to retake Kibirizi from the M23 at the end of April. Fighting raged in the centre of the town and FARDC mortar shells destroyed houses and killed those living there, a Congolese army colonel acknowledged. “Collateral damage,” he said. But the army failed to retake Kibirizi, leaving its inhabitants at the mercy of the M23 who began to “attack the population” when the Congolese army left, Kasereka said. The men who cut Kasereka’s neck, and sliced the throat of his friend Germain, who died, accused them of belonging to a group of militia who had ambushed them. “They suspected us of being traitors and of having facilitated the entry of the Wazalendo into the town,” Kasereka said. In 2022, more than 100 people were killed for the same reason in Kishishe, a town some 10km (6 miles) from Kibirizi. The United Nations later found that M23 was responsible for the massacre. Children watch wounded pro-government militiamen walk in the courtyard of a hospital in Kanyabayonga [Alexis Huguet/AFP] Kasereka has been recovering for about 10 days at a hospital in the town of Kanyabayonga, about 10km from where he was attacked. In the bed next to him, an 18-year-old fighter, also named Germain, lies in dirty bedsheets with bandages around his wounded arm. Germain has been fighting for four years with the FPP/AP (Front of Patriots for Peace/People’s Army), one of the largest armed groups in the area that is part of the Wazalendo. But he was wounded by rocket shrapnel during the failed bid by the Congolese army and its allies to regain control of Kibirizi. For almost two years, the FARDC and Wazalendo have not seen a single victory, as M23 continues its advance in North Kivu province. Augustin Darwin, FPP/AP spokesman, said he had no confidence in the FARDC as it failed to respect agreements with armed groups. He accused the Congolese army of “withdrawal after withdrawal” and “fleeing before the enemy”. FPP/AP fighters in North Kivu [Alexis Huguet/AFP] His soldiers have “no boots, no uniforms [and] do not receive rations”, Darwin said from the group’s headquarters in Mbavinwa, a small village about 10km from Kanyabayonga. “They are demoralised,” he added. If there were less embezzlement in the army, “the FARDC wouldn’t even need the Wazalendo”, he said. Kanyabayonga has become a refuge for tens of thousands of displaced people who have fled the fighting and abuse by M23 rebels. But the town’s mayor, Chrisostome Kasereka, worries the area could be bombed. “We are living in fear,” he said. In recent weeks, three mortar shells have fallen around Kanyabayonga, the mayor said, as his secretary showed the remnants of a projectile missile found in a field. Civil society leaders from Kibirizi, Kanyabayonga and Kishishe also say certain FARDC officers have “facilitated passage to the rebels”. The FARDC officers were summoned to the capital, Kinshasa, as part of an inquiry in mid-March, but some of them have already returned to Kanyabayonga. “Impunity is what makes things not work in our Republic,” Kasereka despaired. Congolese armed forces and Wazalendo fighters have launched a new offensive in Kibirizi. “Every day, trucks full of soldiers arrive here,” one of the town’s civil society leaders said. “If they [the FARDC soldiers] do the ‘strategic withdrawal’ thing again, we will see a fight between the Wazalendo and the FARDC … and we ourselves will take up arms,” he warned. Adblock test (Why?)

Jailed ex-PM Imran Khan appears before Pakistan top court by videolink

The court appearance of the 71-year-old leader was not livestreamed on the court’s website or aired on news channels. Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistan’s jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan has made a virtual appearance before the Supreme Court through a videolink from prison in connection with a case regarding amendments to the country’s anticorruption law. Thursday’s hearing was the first time Khan, imprisoned since August 2023 in several cases, made an appearance before the top court. However, the court appearance of the 71-year-old leader was not livestreamed on the top court’s website or aired on the country’s news channels. Al Jazeera reached out to Information Minister Attaullah Tarar for his comments on why the hearing was not broadcast on news channels or the Supreme Court website, but did not receive any response. Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Party (PTI) accused Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa of collusion with the government for not allowing the hearing from being broadcast to the people. “Our party believes that the chief justice of the country is in connivance with the security establishment and their aim is to hurt PTI in every possible manner,” the main opposition party’s Aamir Mughal told Al Jazeera. “Establishment” in Pakistan is a euphemism for its powerful army, which has directly ruled over the country for nearly three decades and enjoys immense political power. Chairman Imran Khan’s picture from Adiala Jail pic.twitter.com/OQxVKHFrh3 — PTI (@PTIofficial) May 16, 2024 Shortly after Khan lost a no-confidence vote in parliament in April 2022, the government that succeeded him amended the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) 1999, clipping the powers of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Pakistan’s main anticorruption agency. The changes in law barred the NAB from investigating a case unless the transactional value was more than 500 million rupees ($6m) or the number of “affected individuals” in a case exceeded 100. It also said its trial against an accused must be concluded in a year and that the agency must present evidence against an individual before making an arrest. The amendments to the law saw the withdrawal of at least 22 corruption-related cases from the NAB courts. The cases involved current Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, President Asif Ali Zardari, and former Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani among others. In July 2022, Khan filed a petition in the Supreme Court, charging the government of protecting “influential people” and legitimising corruption through the amendments, and asking the court to scrap the changes. The top court on Thursday adjourned its hearing on the matter. Khan did not speak during his video appearance. Khan’s appearance before the top court came a day after he was granted relied by two other courts. The Islamabad High Court gave him bail in a high-profile land deal case while another court in the capital acquitted him in a 2022 case in connection with a protest march. But Khan continues to remain in jail due to his conviction in two other cases related to the leaking of state secrets and unlawful marriage. He was sentenced for 14 years in another case related to illegal sale of state gifts but the sentence was overturned by Islamabad High Court in April this year. It was in the land deal case that Khan was briefly detained on May 9 last year, triggering nationwide protests by the PTI and leading to an unprecedented government crackdown on the party, which included Khan’s imprisonment in several cases in August. PTI politician Sayed Zulfikar Bukhari told Al Jazeera he was hopeful Khan will be a “free man soon”. “We have always maintained that as these cases go to higher courts, not only will Khan get bail, but he will also win these as they are all baseless and have no factual standing,” he said. Adblock test (Why?)

Why Egypt backed South Africa’s genocide case against Israel in the ICJ

As Israel devastates Gaza, Egypt has largely had to watch on with rising concern about the developments on its border. Its border with the Palestinian enclave has been a route for aid going in and people coming out but Israel has had the ultimate say over access to the border, even if it did not have a physical presence there until last week. And it was that move – to send Israeli troops to the Rafah border crossing – that experts believe has cemented Egypt’s belief that Israel is not taking its security and political concerns seriously, and is instead “disrespecting” them. Egypt has now taken its own steps – on May 12, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that Egypt had joined South Africa’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) genocide case against Israel. “The significance of this move is that it is sending a signal that Egypt is not happy with what’s happening in Gaza and how Israel is behaving,” said Nancy Okail, an expert on Egypt and the president and CEO of the Center for International Policy, even as she downplayed the effect of Egypt’s decision on the ICJ’s final verdict, labelling it a “symbolic gesture”. Egypt has grown increasingly alarmed with Israel’s military operations in Rafah, where about 1.5 million Palestinians from all over Gaza had sought refuge. [embedded content] The takeover of the Philadelphi Corridor, which separates Egypt from Gaza, is particularly worrying for Cairo; the Egyptian parliament has warned that the Israeli military’s presence there was a violation of the Camp David Accords that brought peace between Egypt and Israel. “The way Israel has acted in the last week and a half has been incredibly troubling for Egyptian officials,” said Erin A Snyder, a scholar of Egypt and a former professor at Texas A&M University. “They have been effectively showing disrespect for the relations that they have [with Egypt].” Red lines crossed? The possibility that Israel’s ultimate goal in Gaza is to force out its Palestinian population has worried Egypt since the beginning of the war in October. Early on, Israel’s intelligence ministry drafted a paper that proposed the transfer of Gaza’s 2.3 million people to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. Although the Israeli government downplayed the report, Israeli politicians, including the far-right duo of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, said they supported the “voluntary” migration of Palestinians from Gaza. The repeated suggestions have set off alarm bells in Egypt, which views any such transfer of millions of Palestinians into its territory as a red line that cannot be crossed, and President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has warned Israel against any such move. Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi at a news conference in Cairo, on October 25, 2023 [Christophe Ena/Pool/AFP] “Egypt has been sounding the alarm on the destabilising prospects of an Israeli military operation in Rafah and on any military action that could result in the alleged resettlement plan that emerged out of Israel last fall,” said Hesham Sallam, a scholar on Egypt and the Middle East at Stanford University. Israel has seemingly taken measures to assuage Egypt’s concern by instructing Palestinians in Rafah to evacuate to al-Mawasi, a coastal area to the west of Rafah, away from Egypt. Israel claims that al-Mawasi is a “safe humanitarian zone”, but aid groups say tens of thousands of people are crammed into the area without access to adequate food or water. Over the last week, 450,000 people have fled Rafah, according to the United Nations, and nearly a million remain. “The Israelis are intent on wrapping things up in Rafah in a way that looks similar to what they did in Khan Younis, or at least eventually,” said H A Hellyer, an expert on Middle East geopolitics at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Royal United Services Institute. “That is deeply concerning to Cairo because they don’t want more escalation along the border.” Dead end talks? Egypt has hosted ceasefire talks between Hamas and Israel, playing a critical role in mediating between the two sides, along with Qatar and the United States. Boys watch smoke rise as Israel strikes eastern Rafah on May 13, 2024, amid Israel’s continuing war on Gaza [AFP] However, Egypt seems frustrated with Israel’s refusal to end the war in exchange for the release of Israeli captives held in Gaza, according to Timothy Kaldas, an expert on Egypt and deputy director of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy think tank. “The Israelis didn’t seem to take the ceasefire talks that Egypt was hosting seriously … and it’s not clear to anybody what would get Israel to agree to a ceasefire,” he told Al Jazeera. “Egypt is probably pretty frustrated that this conflict has no end in sight.” Two days before Israel stormed into eastern Rafah, Egypt, Qatar and the US lobbied Hamas and Israel to sign a deal. Hamas agreed to a modified version of the ceasefire proposal presented at the talks, but Israel rejected it. Days later, Egyptian military officials cancelled a planned meeting with Israeli counterparts due to their disagreement over the Rafah operation, according to the Israeli press. “We don’t know what the meeting was supposed to be about. But certainly this move – overlapping with [joining the ICJ case] – is an indication that there is a great deal of frustration with Israel from the Egyptian side,” Sallam said. Israeli PM Netanyahu in Jerusalem on February 18, 2024 [Ronen Zvulun/Reuters] Another delegation of Israeli intelligence officials is said to have arrived in Cairo on Wednesday for talks with their Egyptian counterparts over Rafah. Peace treaty in danger? Egypt has little leverage left beyond suspending its peace treaty with Israel, a move experts believe is unlikely. That step could jeopardise the $1.6bn in US military assistance Egypt receives annually as part of the peace agreement. “I generally doubt that there is any serious risk to the Camp David Accords,” said Kaldas. “The Egyptians benefit in a number of ways from maintaining that agreement.”

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