Well-known Egyptian playwright and intellectual Ali Salem said in a television interview Wednesday night that Hamas, not Israel, was “the real enemy” of Egypt.

The Jerusalem Post reports:

Egyptian writer and playwright Ali Salem, who has a record of peaceful statements regarding Israel, said Israel is Egypt’s “friend” and Hamas is “the real enemy.”

It is not in Israel’s interest for Egypt to suffer from a lack of security, Salem said on Al-Arabiya TV in an interview Wednesday, the Egyptian El-Watan website reported.

The intellectual said Hamas and Islamic State present the most serious threat to Egypt.

In the past, Salem’s outspokenness on behalf of Israel has cost him.

In 2001, the Union of Egyptian Writers expelled Salem. He had “visited Israel several times and published a book on those visits, in addition to several articles supporting normalization, which contradicts the general bent of union members and the resolutions of the general assembly in several sessions,” said a union statement reported in an article about the writer in The Middle East Quarterly journal in 2002.

In 1994, after the signing of the Oslo Accords, Salem drove into Israel and wrote a book about his experiences.

In an interview last year (embedded below), Salem was asked whether Israel or Iran was more dangerous to Egypt. He answered, “Iran.”

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