Egyptian soldiers used gunfire at the Rafah crossing to prevent Palestinians from escaping Israeli aggression. Does this make Egypt an unofficial ally of Israel?
No. This is an example of the fallacy (unfortunately too widespread) that “my enemies enemy is my friend”. There can be three, four or more way conflicts. Egypt is pursuing Egypt’s interests. On that day, they happened to resemble Israel’s interests. But that no more means that they are allies than the fact that you are traveling on the same road in the same direction at the same time as someone else means you are friends. This has been a prevalent mistake over the years. Particularly, the US has supported anybody, however appalling, who was opposed to those the US was opposed to. This has resulted in supporting a whole lot of tinpot dictators of no worth at all.
