Egyptian FM's Visit to Israel First in 10 Years
JERUSALEM, Israel – While Egypt struggles against well-entrenched Islamic terror cells in the Sinai Peninsula, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry paid an official visit to Israel to talk about mediating negotiations with the Palestinian Authority to help achieve a balanced solution to the conflict.
Shoukry's visit was the first by an Egyptian foreign minister in nearly 10 years.
Over the weekend, Egyptian security forces thwarted a terror attack at a checkpoint in northern Sinai. A few days earlier, troops killed 14 terrorists in a shootout near al-Arish, Rafah and Sheikh Zuweid, confiscating several machine guns, ammunition, grenades and wireless devices. They also arrest 12 suspects and dismantled a bomb.
Standing alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Shoukry told reporters that peace between Israel and the Palestinians would have "far-reaching, dramatic and positive impact" on the rest of the Middle East."
Netanyahu called on the P.A. "to follow the courageous example of Egypt and Jordan and join us for direct negotiations."
Egypt's ability to reinsert itself into the conflict has everything to do with President Fattah Abdel el-Sisi's accomplishments during his first two years in office.
"Sisi celebrated two years in power and is now strong enough to put Egypt in the arena of the Middle East as a regional power," former Israeli Ambassador to Egypt Zvi Mazel told CBN News. "Egypt has a role to play."
Mazel said Shoukry's visit was a 'positive step" because it tells the Arab world and the Palestinians that Israel and Egypt are cooperating again as they did during former Prime Minister Hosni Mubarak's 31-year reign.
Mazel says his visit essentially said, "We are back and we are together with Israel trying."
Egypt's president is looking for closer bilateral relations with Israel.
"Sisi is obsessed by the economy," Mazel said. "He needs Israel. He knows Israel can help him grow the economy."
Sisi recently oversaw construction of a second Suez Canal, which cuts crossing time in half and triples revenues. Last year, Egypt's economy grew by 3 percent, a stunning turnaround from the economy Sisi inherited.
While Israel continues to support Egypt's struggle against Islamic terror cells in the Sinai, there's been minimal help from the Obama administration.
It's a complex situation, Mazel explained.
During the one-year term of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, terror cells in the Sinai were free to function without government interference.
Israel readily provided military intelligence and support as Sisi began addressing the complex terror situation in the Sinai and elsewhere in the country.
Reinserting itself in the Israeli-Palestinian situation is a natural role for Egypt, the first of Israel's neighbors to sign a peace treaty in 1979, followed by Jordan in 1994. Both treaties have weathered Middle East storms and today stand as examples for others.
