JERUSALEM—For the first time since the Israeli embassy in Cairo was trashed by a mob in 2011 and staff members were nearly lynched, a senior Israeli diplomat publicly visited the city yesterday for intensive talks with Egyptian officials.
The visit by the new director-general of the Israeli foreign ministry, Dore Gold, came a week after Egypt announced the appointment of a new ambassador to Israel three years after the post fell vacant.
The developments reflect both the turbulence of the Arab Spring, which placed stresses on the relationship between the Jewish state and the largest country in the Arab world, and the growing confidence of Egypt’s current ruler, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, as he settles into power.
According to Israel’s Maariv website, Dore discussed with the Egyptian officials major regional challenges facing both countries, primarily the Iranian nuclear project and the rise of extremist groups, such as the Islamic State. The website quoted Gold as telling the Egyptian officials that on these issues "our two countries speak the same language."
This aspect of their talks was not mentioned by Egyptian officials in briefing their media apparently because this level of intimacy in matters of high policy would be objectionable to many, if not most, Egyptians who are uncomfortable about Egypt’s relations with the Jewish state. What the Egyptian public does accept is Egyptian pressure on Israel to come to terms with the Palestinians and that is precisely what was emphasized in official announcements of Gold’s visit.
Egypt’s state news agency, MENA, said Gold’s meetings with his counterpart, Osama Elmagdoub, and other officials were centered on how to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks which have been moribound for more than a year. According to the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, Almajdoub told Gold that the Palestinian issue "is the heart of the conflict in the region. It is the Arabs’ central problem and its solution is a basic condition to reaching stability in the region."
Although Israeli diplomats have not been publicly visible in Egypt in the past few years, Israeli military and intelligence officials come there frequently to exchange information with their counterparts in Cairo about radical Jihadist groups in Sinai, who threaten both Israel and the Egyptian regime, and to discuss other issues of mutual concern, such as Gaza.
The two countries have had diplomatic relations since 1979, six years after they fought each other in the bloody Yom Kippur War.
Hosni Mubarak was still president of Egypt when mobs broke into the Israeli embassy, occupying the top floor of a Cairo high rise. They were battering the door of the "secure room" where several Israeli security officials had found shelter after the rest of the staff had left. It was only after an urgent phone call from President Obama to President Mubarak—placed at the urging of Israeli officials—that Egyptian security forces were dispatched to rescue the Israelis.
Since then, Israeli embassy services are still provided from an unofficial location in Cairo with discreet security protection. The Sisi administration is said to have shown readiness recently to permit the Israelis to build a new embassy and a site has reportedly been selected.