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A Gas Deal or a Political Signal? Egypt and Israel’s Energy Agreement
The deal to export gas from Israel to Egypt– recently approved by the Israeli government, was not presented as a routine economic announcement. Instead, Israel’s leadership framed it as a central national and strategic achievement, using it to recast the country’s energy narrative. Yet that carefully constructed message — polished at the press conference podium…
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A Struggle Over the Treasures of the Eastern Mediterranean
Despite the rapid developments unfolding behind its borders with Libya, Sudan, and the Gaza Strip, Egypt has continued to focus primarily on its maritime frontiers. For that reason, the issue of maritime boundaries with Libya in the Mediterranean Sea figured prominently in the discussions held by Libyan Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar during his visit to…
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Egypt and Iran Protest Seattle World Cup Encounter
Egypt and Iran have both lodged formal complaints with FIFA over their scheduled match in Seattle during the 2026 World Cup, where local authorities plan to hold a celebration for the LGBTQ community. The football federations in both countries publicly rejected the idea of playing the June 26 match at Seattle’s stadium, where local organizers…
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Egypt’s Election Mess
Egypt’s 2025 parliamentary elections were expected to proceed seamlessly and uneventfully reflecting a relatively closed political environment and largely pre-determined electoral maps. But the landscape was upended less than 24 hours before results were due to be announced, when President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi issued a sudden and highly unusual statement. In a brief message, Sisi…
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The Mamdani Effect
On a Tuesday evening in Cairo, the screens were on fire. A crowded downtown café was glued to the Liverpool–Real Madrid match, eyes tracking every touch by Mohamed Salah – the young man who carried his name from a village in Egypt to the stands of Anfield in Liverpool. He became a symbol of a…
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Egypt – Israel: Beyond Economics
After two years of delays, Egypt is preparing to finalize the gas deal signed with Israel in the coming days. The deal, initialed in August, is not just a commercial agreement. It is the story of a strategic transformation reshaping the region’s energy map—placing Cairo at the heart of gas liquefaction and export to Europe…
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Islam and Politics.. From the Saqifah to the Modern Age
In his weekly show on Alhurra’s digital platforms, writer and journalist Ibrahim Eissa dives into one of the most contentious questions in Islamic history: Religion and politics in Islam. For the outspoken Egyptian commentator, political power in Islam was never divine—it was always political. That is, until the moment “politics laid its hand on religion.”…
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Islamist Extremists Are Winning the Argument about the Decadence of the West
Muslims in the West today face a real predicament: “their Islam is being hijacked,” according to writer and thinker Ibrahim Eissa. Currents of political Islam, he argues, impose intellectual isolation, dominate pulpits and mosques, and claim sole authority to represent Muslims—under the banner of “Islamic exceptionalism.” Why does the Muslim in the West succeed in…
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The Tragedy of the “Only Version” of Islam
In his weekly show on Alhurra, Writer Ibrahim Essa discussed the concept of “moderate Islam.” The following is the episode’s text, re-edited for easier reading. We constantly hear the phrase “moderate Islam,” and we are told, “This institution represents moderate Islam,” or “This imam or sheikh speaks for moderate Islam.” But is there truly such…