Egypt: "We have to keep out Gazans for their own good"

A telling interview:

[Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Husam Zaki,] responding to the recent calls from Lebanon and Egypt to open the Rafah crossing, said that the decision was not one under Israeli control, but rather an Egyptian decision that took into account the best interests of Gazans.

Zaki defended Egypt’s policy saying that by opening the Gaza Strip crossing Egypt would allow Israel to wash their hand of Gaza, and the burden of the occupation would fall on Egypt.

Foisting the consequences of the Israeli occupation and siege of Gaza onto Egypt would put the issue of Palestinian autonomy in Gaza at an impasse. The only result of opening Rafah would be an end to the Palestinian cause, Zaki said.

You see? Gazans would want to fan out and live throughout the Arab world if they are given half a chance (40% said so in a recent poll.) If Egypt would open the border, they would inundate Egypt and want to become citizens, just like any other Arabs can become citizens. Gaza would no longer be an Israeli problem but rather an Arab problem, one that Arabs are extraordinarily capable of solving - and completely unwilling to.

Even after decades of indoctrination and forced nationalism, a large percentage of Gazans would not want to stay to live in "Palestine." They are Arabs, they are Muslims, they are members of their tribes and families - but they still do not identify strongly as "Palestinians," and the rest of the Arab world knows it.

So the Arab world has been telling themselves this twisted idea that their systematic discrimination against Palestinian Arabs is really for their own good - to keep them "united"and to keep the cause alive. Because the only thing that keeps it alive is keeping it a problem and forcing Palestinian Arabs to live as second-class citizens in the Arab world, often still in so-called "refugee camps."

The subtext from the Arabs is that they know what is better for "Palestinians" than the PalArabs know themselves. This is astonishingly insulting, but no one complains about it because the leadership of the Palestinian Arabs subscribe to the same twisted mentality themselves. The losers, as always, are the actual Palestinian Arabs who have been forced to stay in their situation by their "helpful" Arab brethren.