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Anchor Marco Werman speaks with The World’s Matthew Bell in Jerusalem about reaction there to news that Egypt is permanently opening its Rafah border crossing. The Rafah border is the only way in and out of Gaza that does not pass through Israel. Download MP3

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MARCO WERMAN:  I’m Marco Werman and this is The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI, and WGBH Boston. Egypt’s government raised some eyebrows today by announcing plans to reopen the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip. The crossing was kept shut by the government of former president Hosni Mubarak. In an interview with Al Jazeera, the current Egyptian foreign minister condemned the blockade of the Palestinian territory and said preparations to end it are already underway. The World’s Middle East correspondent, Matthew Bell, has covered the political transformation in Egypt, and he joins us from Jerusalem. Matthew, what’s the thinking in Cairo here?

MATTHEW BELL:  Egypt says that it wants to open the border at Rafah to relieve the suffering that the blockade has brought on the Palestinian people. That has a lot to do with overturning a policy from the Mubarak era that’s been deeply, deeply unpopular with the Egyptian public. Mubarak was no friend of Hamas in Gaza. Their spiritual forefathers came from Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. Mubarak’s government was an active player in the blockade of Gaza, and that goes back to 2006 when Palestinian militants kidnapped the Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, whose been held ever since. To put this in context, I talked with Steven Cook, who’s an expert on Middle East politics at the Council on Foreign Relations, and he says that the plan to open the border was not surprising. It’s about Egypt’s new rulers making a clean break with the Mubarak era by changing the way that they deal with Israel.

[Audio Clip] STEVEN COOK: The Egyptians want to normalize their relations. The interim Foreign Minister, Nabil Alalawi, talked about a normal relationship with Israel, not a strategic relationship. And there’s a broad sense that, at least the way Mubarak defined Egyptian national interest, was too close to Israel’s security concerns and Israel’s (inaudible) interest, and that Egypt itself is a powerful country, is an important country, and that its interests are different.]

BELL: Cook went on to say, Marco, that he doesn’t think Egypt’s military leaders, or the leading contenders for the Egyptian Presidency, would go so far as to tear up Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel or even scrap the Camp David agreement. But there is a sense among experts I’ve talked with that Egypt’s foreign policy toward Israel and toward the United States will change fundamentally.

WERMAN: So, what’s been the reaction from Israel, where there’s got to be concern about what an open border with Egypt would mean for the Islamist group, Hamas, which controls Gaza, and not to mention kind of a shift away from Israeli concerns back to Egyptian concerns?

BELL:  The Israelis have been very, very careful about the way they have talked in public about Egypt, and that is ever since the turmoil began back in January. But there’s clearly concern in Israel about what’s happening there. Israel’s worried that an open border between Egypt and Gaza would make it easier for Palestinian militants there to get a hold of weapons. At the same time, Egypt is upgrading its relationship with Hamas and Gaza. Just this week, the Egyptians brokered a reconciliation agreement between the main Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas. Egypt is also improving its diplomatic ties with Iran. None of this, Marco:it will come as no surprise to you:is good news from the perspective of Israel’s government.

WERMAN: The World’s Matthew Bell speaking with us from Jerusalem. Thanks so much, Matthew.

BELL: Thank you, Marco.

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