Egypt–Israel relations

Egypt-Israel relations

Egypt	Israel

Menachem Begin, Jimmy Carter and Anwar Sadat at Camp David, 1978

Egypt–Israel relations are foreign relations between Egypt and Israel. The state of war between both countries which dated back from the 1948 Arab–Israeli War ended in 1979 with the Egyptian–Israeli Peace Treaty a year after the Camp David Accords. Full diplomatic relations were established on February 26, 1980. Egypt has an embassy in Tel Aviv and a consulate in Eilat. Israel has an embassy in Cairo and a consulate in Alexandria.

Their shared border has two official crossings, at Taba and Nitzana, however, the crossing at Nitzana is for commercial traffic only.

Country comparison

	Egypt	Israel
Populations	84,550,000	8,051,200
Area	1,002,450 km² (387,048 sq mi)	20,770/22,072 km² (8,019/8,522 sq mi)
Population density	84/km² (218/sq mi)	365/km² (945/sq mi)
Capital	Cairo	Jerusalem (disputed)
Largest city	Cairo	Jerusalem (disputed)
Government	Provisional government appointed by military junta	Unitary parliamentary republic
First Leader	Muhammad Naguib	Chaim Weizmann
Current Leader	Adly Mansour	Shimon Peres
Official languages	Arabic	Hebrew, Arabic
Main religions	90% Islam, 10% Christianity	75.4% Judaism, 16.9% Islam
GDP (nominal)	$275.748 billion ($3,261 per capita)	$272.737 billion ($34,651 per capita)
GDP (PPP)	$576.350 billion ($6,817 per capita)	$274.504 billion ($34,875 per capita)
Military expenditures	$7.85 billion (3.1% of GDP)	$14.5 billion (6.9% of GDP)

History

Jimmy Carter, Moshe Dayan and Hassan Ali at Blair House

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."^[1]

Nevertheless, the relationship is sometimes described as a "cold peace",^[1][2] with many in Egypt skeptical about its effectiveness.^[3][4] The Arab-Israeli conflict kept relations cool and anti-Semitic incitement is prevalent in the Egyptian media.^[5][6][7]

Israel-Egypt Armistice Commission building

In 2003, Egyptian Air Force UAVs entered Israeli airspace and overflew the nuclear research facilities at Nahal Sorek and Palmachim Airbase. Israel threatened to shoot the drones down.^[8]

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.^[9]

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 channels of communication open with Egypt during the events of 2011.^[10]

Egypt undermined the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip by opening the Rafah border to persons in May 2011.^[11] 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.^[12]

After an exchange of rocket fire between Gaza and Israel in March 2012, the Egyptian parliamentary committee for Arab affairs urged the Egyptian government to recall its ambassador to Israel from Tel Aviv, and deport Israel's ambassador in Egypt.^[13] This was largely symbolic since only the ruling military council can make such decisions.^[14][15]

Economic ties

Bagir Ltd, an Israeli clothing company manufactures its sustainable tailored clothing line, ECOGIR, made from recycled plastic bottles, at Metco, a tailored clothing factory in Port Said. Fifty percent of the goods are exported to the United States and the other fifty percent to the UK market.^[16]

According to the Israel Export & International Cooperation Institute, there were 117 exporters to Egypt active in Israel in 2011 and exports of goods from Israel to Egypt grew by 60%, to $236 million.^[17]

Future of peace treaty

Egyptian army memorial in Israel

The Egyptian Revolution of 2011, part of the Arab Spring, led to fears in Israel about the future of the treaty.^[18] 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.^[19] 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.^[20] 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 ^{[citation needed]}.

In 2011 attack on the Israeli Embassy in Egypt, 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.^[21] 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.^[22]

In 2012, the Muslim Brotherhood declared their support for the peace treaty,^[23][24] and Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu affirmed he had no problem dealing with the Muslim Brotherhood so long as the peace treaty was respected.^[25] Post Mubarak, the Egyptian authorities continued to protect an IDF memorial in the Sinai in keeping with their treaty obligations.^[26] The Israelis remained positive about the treaty after MB candidate Mohammed Morsi was elected president in June 2012.^[27]

In August 2012, the Egyptian Military entered the de-militarized zone without Israeli approval in violation of the peace treaty terms.^[28] Egypt has also been reported to have deployed Anti-Air Missiles on the Israeli Border, a move which clearly targets Israel, as the Bedouin groups in the Sinai have no aircraft. In the 1970s this was the first step Egypt took in the lead up to its launching of the October war.^[29]

Border incidents

Egypt-Israeli border north of Eilat

The 2011 southern Israel cross-border attacks took place in August; attackers from Egypt killed eight Israelis; eight attackers were reportedly killed by Israeli security forces, and two more by Egyptian security. Five Egyptian soldiers were also killed. A few days later, an Egyptian climbed to the roof of the Israeli Embassy and removed the Israeli flag, which was burned by protesters.^[30][31][32]

On 5 August 2012, the 2012 Egyptian–Israeli border attack occurred, when armed men ambushed an Egyptian military base in the Sinai Peninsula, killing 16 soldiers and stealing two armored cars, which they used to infiltrate into Israel. The attackers broke through the Kerem Shalom border crossing to Israel, where one of the vehicles exploded. They then engaged in a firefight with soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces, during which six of the attackers were killed. No Israelis were injured.^{[33][34][35][36]}

Israel is building a 5-meter-high fence along its border with Egypt known as the Israel-Egypt barrier. The fence will stretch along 240 kilometers, from the Kerem Shalom passage in the north to Eilat in the south. The fence was planned to block the infiltration of refugees and asylum seekers from Africa, but took on heightened urgency with the fall of Mubarak's regime.^[37]

Security cooperation

Security cooperation was increased as a result of the 2012 Egyptian–Israeli border attack and the ensuing Operation Eagle against Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai. Egyptian Colonel Ahmed Mohammed Ali said that "Egypt is co-ordinating with the Israeli side over the presence of Egyptian armed forces in Sinai. They know this. The deployment of the armed forces on all the territory of Sinai is not a violation of the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel."^[38]

Diplomatic mediation

Egypt's post-Mubarak rulers were 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.^[39]

Gas pipeline

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.^[40] 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.^[41] 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.^[42] Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the same, adding that perhaps the gas supplies were being used as campaign material for the Egyptian presidential election.^[43] Minister of National Infrastructure Uzi Landau dismissed claims that the dispute was purely commercial in nature.^[43]

See also

• History of the Jews in Egypt
• Taba Border Crossing
• International recognition of Israel
• Sultan, David (2007). Between Cairo and Jerusalem: The Normalization between Arab States and Israel - The Egyptian Case. Tel Aviv University. 

References

External links

• Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the relation with Egypt
• Israeli embassy in Cairo

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