Israel's relations with Egypt

 Israel's relations with Egypt

Prologue:

It has been almost four decades since former Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat extended a hand of peace to Israel.

The peace treaty between Egypt and Israel was signed 16 months after Egyptian president Anwar Sadat's visit to Israel in 1977, after intense negotiations. ... The agreement notably made Egypt the first Arab state to officially recognize Israel.

Although many Egyptians continue to regard Israel as a threat and sympathise with the Palestinian cause, the relationship between the two countries has become markedly explicit under Sisi.

The dark past

Through centuries, the Jewish people have endured persecution, danger, and death. 

They have experienced unparalleled pain as a nation throughout the long years of their dispersion. Hundreds of years of persecution culminated in the Holocaust as Hitler and the Nazis systematically attempted to annihilate the Jewish people. Six million Jews were murdered.

Then in 1948, Israel was born.

Sadly, today 72 years hence, the Jewish people continue to fight for their survival. They are surrounded by enemies, both within their borders and without. Weeks of incessant rocket and missile attacks have totally disrupted life as children and adults race for shelter within 15–90 seconds of a Code Red alert or siren.

For benefit and knowledge of all Indians, in this series of articles, we shall have a look at Israel's relations with its contentious neighbours.

According to the Green Line of the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Israel borders Lebanon in the north, the Golan Heights and Syria in the northeast, the West Bank and Jordan in the east, the Gaza Strip and Egypt in the southwest.

Relations Between Israel and Egypt

Israel's relationship with Egypt has been extremely complex and has changed considerably over the years. 

Like all other Arab countries, Egypt too had protested Israel’s creation in 1948. 

Egypt refused to recognize the state of Israel until 1979. 

Egypt and Israel have engaged in four wars. Today, they cooperate extensively, mainly on security issues.

Egypt had resisted Zionist aspirations through its popular support (led by the Muslim Brotherhood) of the 1936 Arab Revolt. 

In 1948, when the first Arab-Israeli war broke out in response to Israel’s creation, Egypt took part in the Arab coalition. The Arabs were ultimately defeated and the war had devastating effects for Palestinians as the Israelis expelled them from Israel and captured an amount of land that exceeded the area allotted from the U.N. partition.

Egypt and Israel clashed again in 1953 over the Suez Canal— a key shipping lane for the world. 

Eygpt President Abdel Nasser closed the Suez Canal as well as the Straits of Tiran, a vital access point for natural gas and trade, to Israel. Israel invaded the Sinai with French and British support, only withdrawing after international and U.S. pressure.

The most important of the Arab-Israeli conflicts is the 1967 War. Egypt deployed 100,000 soldiers to the Sinai Peninsula, signed a defense treaty with Jordan, and once again the closed the Straits of Tiran to Israel in preparation for an attack on Israel’s western border. 

Israel anticipated the attack, and preemptively bombed the Egyptian forces, chasing them back from the Sinai and completely destroying their air force. 

Israel then moved east and defeated Egyptian partners, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon. 

As a result of the 6 day war, Israel seized control of the territories of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights. 

Egypt and all other Arab countries who were a part of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) then created an embargo against Israel and various other western countries (including the U.S.), creating a huge spike in oil prices.

The last war between Egypt and Israel was the 1973 Yom Kippur war.

Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on the Israelis during Yom Kippur, the holiest Jewish holiday, catching the Israelis off guard. Initially the Egyptians and Syrians were able to make territorial gains against the Israelis, but Israel eventually cut off the attacking forces and launched a counterattack. A ceasefire was brokered with the mediation of the U.S. and Soviet Union.

The war made Israel realize that it could not sustain continued animosity with its neighbors, and led them to the 1978 Camp David Accord and a peace treaty with Egypt the following year. 

As part of the treaty, Israel withdrew from the Sinai with the condition that Egypt keep it demilitarized and recognize the state of Israel. 

Egypt’s recognition of Israel led to the expulsion of Egypt from the League of Arab States for what the Arab's viewed as a betrayal of the Palestinian cause.

Egypt and Israel have enjoyed peaceful, though not friendly, relations since the peace treaty. The 2011 revolution in Egypt worried the Israelis, who were deprived of their old official channels of communication with the Egyptian government. Following the revolution, there was a takeover of the Embassy of Israel in Cairo by thousands of Egyptians. The takeover was in response to Israel’s accidental killing of Egyptian security forces in the Sinai Peninsula. 

The election of Morsi, a political Islamist, worried the Israelis further; however, Morsi held fast to all treaties that existed between the two nations. In fact, Morsi brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the 2012 conflict.

The Sisi regime has cooperated with Israel extensively, being called by The Economist “the most pro-Israel president Egypt has ever had.” Sisi has overseen the import of natural gas from Israel and has cooperated on security issues, specifically in the Sinai Peninsula where Egypt faces a growing insurgency involving the Islamic State and other violent extremists. 

A testament to the strength of the relationship is the fact that Israel easily approved the increased militarization of the Sinai so Egypt could fight its evolving insurgency.

Israel’s willingness to allow Egypt to deploy into areas that clearly defy the security appendix of the Camp David Accords demonstrates a “flexibility and coordination between Egypt and Israel [that came] early in Sisi’s tenure.

The relationship between the two countries has become so lucid that there have been multiple, but unconfirmed, reports of Israel carrying out drone strikes in Sinai with Egypt’s consent.

The common ground has also extended to a dislike of Hamas, the political and armed movement that governs two million Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip.

Egypt has accused Hamas of being linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, while Israel considers it a threat to its sovereignty. 

Since Sisi’s coming to power in 2014, Egyptian authorities have kept the Sinai border crossing with Gaza largely sealed. The move has suffocated its residents, whose only other passage to the outside world is through Israel, which imposes an airtight blockade.

Since President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi came to power in 2013, security cooperation between Jerusalem and Cairo has reached unprecedented levels. 

The two countries share common goals in containing Iranian regional influence, countering Islamic radicalism, and maintaining peace in the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip. Their 170-mile border—for decades a lawless frontier and hotbed for illicit trafficking and terror activities—now stands quiet.

By making peace with each other, both the countries stand to benefit.

(Next: Israel and Jordan)

@ Dayanand Nene

(With media inputs).