It is time to talk about how Egyptian bribes are undermining American national security. The Washington Post has reported that the Egyptian government attempted to funnel $10 million in cash to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. The was a Department of Justice investigation into the matter but it was closed by Trump’s Attorney General Bill Barr due to “a lack of sufficient evidence.” It is tempting to turn this into a partisan issue. But of course, Democrat Senator Robert Menendez was found guilty of taking "hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes, including cash, gold, a Mercedes Benz, and other things of value – in exchange for Senator Menendez agreeing to use his power and influence to protect and enrich those businessmen and to benefit the Government of Egypt." Menendez not only got Egypt massive amounts of aid, but he also provided Egypt with “highly sensitive” information — including details about US Embassy personnel in Cairo. That means that we know that Egypt tried (and succeeded at least for Mendez) in bribing a US Presidential candidate and the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. That is an attempt to subvert US foreign policy away from the national interest of the country, to serve a corrupt country with a terrible human rights record. The relationship is fundamentally corrupt. Nancy Okail, president of the Center for International Policy, a US-based think tank said, “This is not just an issue of one corrupt person. It is an issue of a problematic relationship that is not founded on the ideals and values of respect to democracy and human rights." All this has happened as it became apparent that Egypt had been cooperating with Hamas far more than believed. Their pressure was perhaps the major element delaying an attack on Rafah, and they may have cooperated with Hamas on keeping some tunnels operating under the Philadelphi crossing. The US has mostly supported them despite this behavior. How much of that is due to corrupt influences? This is not a partisan issue. This is an issue of national security. And both the Biden and Trump administrations should have been much tougher on this attempt to subvert our national security.
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