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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Netanyahu said happy to leave Israel-Egypt ties hanging on security
2017-08-09
Netanyahu is a realist: Egypt and Jordan will never be friends, just allies of convenience, because that is as far as they are willing to go.
[IsraelTimes] Citing sources familiar with a Knesset defense meeting, Haaretz says army, foreign and economy ministry officials all lament diminished relations in other areas, absence of embassy.

Officials from the foreign and economy ministries have raised concerns over the continued closure of the Israeli embassy in Cairo but were apparently brushed off by the Prime Minister’s Office, which is said to be satisfied with close security cooperation with Egypt.

The issue of the months-long shuttering of the embassy in Cairo was discussed at a Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting last month, Haaretz reported on Tuesday.

Israel pulled out Ambassador David Govrin and all of the embassy staff at the end of last year amid security concerns.

Sources familiar with the proceedings told Haaretz that Foreign Ministry representatives told politicians that without an embassy in place, contacts between the two countries were reduced to talks with the Egyptian ambassador in Tel Aviv, making the upkeep of relations difficult. As a result, there has been a significant drop in relations, outside of security cooperation, impacting economic, civilian, and political ties.

According to Haaretz, the embassy has not been reopened in part due to "Egyptian foot-dragging on adequate security measures."
However,
women are made to be loved, not understood...
 representatives from the NSC, which is under the Prime Minister’s Office, told the meeting that while civilian and political relations with Egypt do need to be rehabilitated, Netanyahu puts a higher premium on maintaining security cooperation.

"They said that the Egyptian army and security mechanisms manage most of Egypt’s foreign affairs anyway," a source who was familiar with the discussion at the meeting said. "So reopening the embassy is important, but the relations with the Egyptian army are more important."

Economy Ministry representatives noted that from the Egyptian point of view, not having the embassy there is easier as it is in line with local public opinion.

All of the sources spoke to Haaretz on condition of anonymity.

According to Haaretz, the embassy has not been reopened in part due to "Egyptian foot-dragging on adequate security measures."

According to the report there have been talks in recent months on arranging for the embassy staff to return, but there has not been any progress.
A model for how Jordan will handle things, only they will keep demanding more concessions from Israel around Al Aqsa and peace negotiations with the Palestinians.
On September 9, 2011, several thousand protesters forcibly entered the Israeli embassy in Giza, Cairo, after breaking down a perimeter wall to the compound. The protests began in response to the inadvertent killing of five Egyptian security guards by IDF soldiers during an attempt to catch bandidos forces of Evil who had ambushed and killed eight Israelis along the Israel-Egypt border.

The embassy closed, and was reopened in September 2015 before being shut again after staff were returned to Israel last year.
Posted by:trailing wife

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