Without heat, Sissi of Egypt welcomes the prime minister for talks, on the first visit of this decade

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met on Monday with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in Sharm el-Sheikh, at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, at a markedly warm summit.

Monday’s meeting marked the first public visit by an Israeli prime minister to Egypt in more than a decade, since former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

A spokesman for the Egyptian presidency said before the talks that the two leaders should “discuss bilateral issues related to bilateral relations, ways and efforts to revive the peace process, as well as recent developments in the region and the international scenarios “.

A flight from El Al carrying the prime minister departed from Tel Aviv to Sharm el-Sheikh in the early afternoon. Bennett was expected to return home to Israel later Monday.

Bennett was invited to visit Egypt and meet with Sissi last month, during a meeting he held with Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel in Jerusalem. The prime minister said last month that he had accepted the invitation and would soon visit it to “strengthen and expand relations between the countries in the region.”

The meeting saw a rare smiling photo of the two leaders. Even more surprising, an Israeli flag was placed behind Bennett, in contrast to previous meetings between Israeli and Egyptian prime ministers.

“We are seeing a formal announcement from the president’s spokesman. We haven’t seen this in a long time. The attitude is: it is a prime minister and a president, and everything is normal and everything according to protocol. That’s the news here, ”said Yitzhak Levanon, a former Israeli ambassador to Egypt.

Bennett’s visit to Egypt comes amid tensions between Israel and terrorist groups in Gaza, with three rocket attacks in as many days provoking retaliatory Israeli airstrikes.

Egypt, in recent months, has tried to play a more public role as a responsible and effective intermediary between Israel and Hamas. Cairo played a central role in the ceasefire negotiations that ended the May-Israel-Gaza war after 11 days and has since worked to advance a long-term ceasefire, as well as a prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas.

Earlier this month, London-based online newspaper Rai al-Youm reported that Sissi was also leading a push to start peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.

The report, which states that Egypt should host Israeli, Palestinian, American, European and Arab officials to discuss the proposal, came days after Sissi welcomed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and the King of Jordan Abdullah II for conversations.

Shortly before news of Bennett’s trip was revealed, Israel announced that it was lifting COVID restrictions on Israelis’ travel to the Sinai Peninsula, a popular tourist destination. During Kamel’s visit to Israel last month, the National Security Council announced that it had reduced its security warning for Sinai for the first time in years.

Meanwhile, EgyptAir, Egypt’s national airline, is scheduled to launch direct flights from Tel Aviv to Cairo next month, after years of concealing flights – mandated by Israel’s 1979 peace treaty with Egypt. through a subsidiary.

The road to Washington leads through Jerusalem

Although he did not make a public trip to Egypt in a decade, Bennett’s predecessor, Netanyahu and Sissi, held several public meetings in New York, usually on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. The former Israeli prime minister was also reported to have made a secret and unofficial visit to Egypt in 2018.

Levanon, who was Egypt’s ambassador from 2009 to 2011, was present at the last public meeting between Netanyahu and Mubarak. Netanyahu did not formally visit Egypt again, although the two sides met to hold “working meetings” in secret over the years, Levanon said.

Israel and Egypt have strengthened their diplomatic ties in recent years. The two governments share close security interests in the Gaza Strip: Egypt, like Israel, sees Hamas rulers of the enclave as a serious threat, as well as Sinai and the eastern Mediterranean.

The regional calculation has also been altered over the last year by another development: the Abraham Accords. Four Arab states agreed on various levels of diplomatic ties with Israel under the agreements, removing part of the taboo of normalization, Levanon said.

Egypt also sees Israel as a major strategic ally, especially because the new administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has promised to crack down on human rights-violating regimes. Cairo is regularly ranked by independent observers as one of the freest countries in the region.

“There is growing criticism in Washington of human rights violations in Egypt, especially with the new Biden administration. Israel has been seen as a path to Washington’s good graces, as the path to Washington passes through Jerusalem.” , said Ofir Winter, an expert on Egyptian-Israeli relations at the Tel Aviv Institute of Homeland Security Studies.

The Egyptian regime led by Sissi has long distrusted public antagonism that could involve a visit by an Israeli prime minister, Winter said. Although Egypt and Israel have been at peace for decades, the relationship has often been unpopular in Egypt and ties have largely involved shared security interests.

But in recent years, the Sissi government has strengthened its position at home, aided by more severe repression against human rights activists and the media.

“There is a new sense of confidence that the regime is now projecting at home, towards its internal audience,” Winter said.

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