Both countries are full members of the Union for the Mediterranean.
Their shared border has two official crossings, at Taba and Nitzana, however, the crossing at Nitzana is for commercial traffic only.
A "Cold" Peace
The peace between Egypt and Israel has lasted for more than thirty years, and Egypt became an important strategic partner of Israel. In January 2011, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, a former defence minister known for his close ties to Egyptian officials, stated that "Egypt is not only our closest friend in the region, the co-operation between us goes beyond the strategic."Nevertheless, the peace is often described as a "cold peace", with many in Egypt skeptical about its effectiveness. The Arab-Israeli conflict kept relations cool and anti-semitic incitement is prevalent in the Egyptian media.
In 2003, Egyptian Air Force UAVs entered Israeli airspace and overflew the nuclear research facilities at Nahal Sorek in fear of the development of nuclear weapons, as well as the Palmachim Airbase. Israel threatened to shoot the drones down.
Although diplomatic relations were established in 1980, the Egyptian ambassador to Israel was recalled between 1982 and 1988, and again between 2001 and 2005 during the Second Intifada.
Public opinion
According to an Egyptian Government 2006 poll of 1000 Egyptians (taken at the time of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict), 92% of Egyptians view Israel as an enemy nation. In Israel, the 1978 Camp David Accords were supported by 85% of Israelis, according to a 2001 poll taken by the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, based in Israel.Egypt mediated several unofficial ceasefire understandings between Israel and Palestinians. There have been many popular protests in Egypt against peace with Israel (from all levels of society, including amongst intellectuals, students and democratization movements such as Kifaya). These typically intensify following Israeli actions in its conflicts with Palestinians and in Lebanon, which Israel views as self-defence, but are seen in Egypt as harsh repression of Arabs.
Post-Mubarak relations
Peace treaty
The Egyptian Revolution of 2011, part of the Arab Spring, led to fears in Israel about the future of the treaty. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated initially that he expected any new Egyptian government to adhere to the peace treaty with Israel, as it had served both countries well. After the Egyptian Army took power on 11 February 2011, it announced that Egypt would continue to abide by all its international and regional treaties. Yet Israeli-Egyptian relations reached their lowest level since the 1979 Egypt?Israel Peace Treaty. The Israeli-Egyptian border became a region of conflict and instability following the rise of terrorist activity in the Sinai Peninsula and following hostility manifestation from masses of Egyptian protesters against Israel in the streets of Cairo .Following the Egyptian revolution of 2011, the Muslim Brotherhood, likely to hold a key role in any future government, announced that the peace treaty with Israel may be put to a referendum. In 2012, the Muslim Brotherhood declared their support for the treaty, and Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu affirmed he had no problem dealing with the Muslim Brotherhood so long as the peace treaty was respected. Post Mubarak, the Egyptian authorities continued to protect an IDF memorial in the Sinai in keeping with their treaty obligations. The Israelis remained positive about the treaty after MB candidate Mohammed Morsi was elected president in June 2012.
Border instability
The 2011 southern Israel cross-border attacks took place in August; attackers from Egypt killed eight Israelis (six civilians, one police officer and one soldier); eight attackers were reportedly killed by Israeli security forces, and two more by Egyptian security. Five Egyptian soldiers were also killed. Israel later expressed regret over the incident. A few days later, a young Egyptian climbed to the roof of the apartment building which houses the Israeli Embassy and removed the Israeli flag, which was later burned by protesters. Nevertheless, Egypt stated that Israel's apology was insufficient.The 2011 attack on the Israeli Embassy in Egypt followed in early September. Thousands of Egyptian demonstrators broke into the Israeli embassy in Cairo on Friday September 9. The Egyptian police stationed at the site attempted to bar entry, firing tear gas into the crowd. After demonstrators entered the first section of the building, the Israeli ambassador and the staff of the embassy were evacuated by Egyptian commandos. After the attack Israel flew out the Israeli ambassador and about 85 other diplomats and their family members. Following the attack, the Egyptian army declared a state of emergency in the country. Egyptian officials condemned the attack and said that the events were part of an external conspiracy to hurt the stability and foreign relations of Egypt.
The Israel-Egypt barrier is a 5-meter-high fence being built by Israel across the desert along its border with Egypt. The fence will stretch along 240 kilometers, from the Kerem Shalom passage in the north to Eilat in the south, though Eilat itself will stay exposed. The fence was originally planned to block the infiltration of refugees and asylum seekers from Africa, but took on heightened urgency with the fall of Mubarak's regime. According to IDF estimates, Eilat and Route 12, are currently the most dangerous places in the area.
Economic issues affecting the local Bedouin (comprising about 60% of the population of the Sinai peninsula) may contribute to the instability along the border with Israel.
In 2012, the Egyptian foreign ministry told Israel that it would not be "appropriate" for Israeli pilgrims to make an annual visit to the tomb of Rabbi Yaakov Abuhatzeira (or Abu Hatzira), a 19th-century Jewish holy man, in the Nile Delta. Gamal Heshmat of the Muslim Brotherhood said that activists planned to stage sit-ins and other protests to block the route to pilgrims. Activists are against "normalization" of relations with Israel.
Other issues
During the final years of the Mubarak administration, the leading Egyptian official conducting contacts with Israel had been the head of Egyptian intelligence Omar Suleiman. Suleiman was ousted from power at the same time as Mubarak, and Israel was said to have very few channel of communication open with Egypt during the events of 2011.In November 2011, Netanyahu expressed a negative view of the Arab Spring and a yearning to go back to the days of Hosni Mubarak; the Arab Spring was turning into an "Islamic, anti-Western, anti-liberal, anti-Israeli and anti-democratic wave". However some analysts argued that this negative attitude was itself likely to endanger the peace treaty with Egypt.
Egypt's post-Mubarak rulers were however instrumental in mediating between Hamas and Israel for the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange that led to the liberation of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners between October and December 2011.
The pipeline which supplies gas to Egypt, Jordan and Israel was attacked eight times between Mubarak's ousting on February 11 and November 25, 2011. Egypt had a 20-year deal to export natural gas to Israel. The deal is unpopular with the Egyptian public and critics say Israel was paying below market price for the gas. Gas supplies to Israel were unilaterally halted by Egypt in 2012 because Israel had allegedly breached its obligations and stopped payments a few months prior. Critical of the decision, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu also insisted the cut-off was not to do with the peace treaty but rather "a business dispute between the Israeli company and the Egyptian company"; Egyptian Ambassador Yasser Rida also said the Egyptian government saw it as a business disagreement, not a diplomatic dispute. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the same, adding that perhaps the gas supplies were being used as campaign material for the Egyptian presidential election. Minister of National Infrastructure Uzi Landau dismissed claims that the dispute was purely commercial in nature. A former Israeli energy minister, Joseph Paritzky, said the termination of supplies vindicated his original opposition to signing a deal with Egypt. He had advocated instead helping the Palestinians to develop a gas field off of Gaza.
After an exchange of rocket fire between Gaza and Israel over a few days in March 2012, the Egyptian parliamentary committee for Arab affairs urged the Egyptian government to recall its ambassador to Israel from Tel Aviv, and to deport Israel's ambassador in Egypt. Largely symbolic, since only the ruling military council can make such decisions, the demand is not likely to impact the countries' relations, with their security cooperation just as good as before Mubarak was toppled, but it signals the seismic change in post-Mubarak Egypt. The rockets that hit Israel were launched by Islamic Jihad in response to the assassination by Israel of Zuhir al-Qaisi, secretary-general of the Popular Resistance Committees; the assassination may have been aimed at thwarting an attack on the Egypt-Israeli border similar to the one of August 2011.
Egypt undermined the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip by opening the Rafah border to persons in May 2011. The Muslim Brotherhood in the Egyptian parliament wished to open trade across the border with Gaza, a move said to be resisted by Egypt's Tantawi government.
See also
- History of the Jews in Egypt
- Taba Border Crossing
- International recognition of Israel
-
References
External links
- Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the relation with Egypt
- Israeli embassy in Cairo
-
Israel Category:Bilateral relations of Israel Category:Egypt?Israel relations
ar:?????? ????? ????????? he:???? ?????-?????
Source: http://article.wn.com/view/2012/08/06/16_Egypt_border_guards_killed_Islamists_suspected_g/
reuters world news japan rnam king world news science world news for kids top world news 2011 us world news 2011
No comments:
Post a Comment