Editorial
Major General Dr. Khaled El-Khamry
Head of the National Center for Middle East Studies
This special issue of our center’s periodical, entitled “Middle East Papers,” is published amid critical developments in the region with the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip, which began on October 7, 2023. Such aggression is, properly, a genocidal war against Palestinians and an explicit attempt to liquidate the Palestinian cause and prevent any possible political solution, even if temporarily.
The aggression’s circumstances and effects have compelled think tanks and research centers—including our own—to document its dimensions, keep an eye on the roles of relevant and direct parties, and create hypothetical scenarios regarding the aggression’s escalation or containment efforts.
The issue holds a distinguished research effort by a group of experts, specialists, and researchers in Egyptian, Arab, Israeli, and international affairs. The studies presented sought to explore the depths of this aggression and determine its motives, which may date back to periods earlier than October 7, 2023, amid the continued Israeli occupation of Arab lands and Israel’s intransigence against any political settlement based on the two-state solution.
The studies also aimed to document the stances of concerned parties, with a focus on the Egyptian effort, given that Egypt is the main party concerned with the Palestinian cause and has a historical commitment to supporting the Palestinian right that has been stolen for years.
The regional and international circumstances accompanying the issuance of this special issue of our periodical revealed Egypt’s role as the key country in the region and the most capable of engaging with its various issues, most notably the central issue of the Palestinian cause.
The studies reflected the double standards of the Western world, its complete bias towards alleged narratives, and its unlimited support for an expanded settlement project, which is based on emptying the Gaza Strip of its population, either forcibly or voluntarily.
The collapse of the human rights system, which the West advocates and frequently employs as a means of interfering in other nations’ internal affairs, is further demonstrated through the issue. The ongoing aggression and targeting of civilians and necessities of life in the Gaza Strip without any form of deterrence is contributing to the increasing collapse of that human rights system.
These studies, together with the special issue that contains them, persist as historical documents as they testify to a scientific dilemma that has yet to be resolved: the dialectic of force and law, and which one rules the world, or should rule the world.
