Imprimir

Cairo sees peace as a threat to its supremacy.

Relations between Israel and Egypt have drastically deteriorated since the eruption of the Al-Aksa Intifadah. After the Palestinian boy Mohammed Al-Durrah was killed in the line of fire between Palestinian snipers and Israeli soldiers, Egypt announced that it would name after that boy the street where the Israeli embassy sits in Cairo.

At the United Nations, Egypt was at the vanguard of those countries condemning Israel. At the last Arab Summit, Hosni Mubarak’s regime supported the final communique that condemned Israel, which among other things, called for an international court of justice to judge Israeli leaders under «war crimes» charges.

For abstaining from inviting a war against Israel, Egypt was applauded by the Western world for its moderation. After Israel shelled Gaza in retaliation for a Palestinian terrorist attack against a school bus, Mubarak recalled his ambassador to Tel-Aviv, protesting Israel’s excessive force. Shortly afterward, the Egyptian secret service discovered an Israeli spy ring operating on Egyptian soil. The timing of this «discovery» – as well as its deliberate publication in the media – did not cause much surprise in Israel, which denied the whole issue.

Far from being uncharacteristic of Cairo’s foreign policy, all this is nothing more than a reflection of its general hostility toward its northern neighbor. During the past 20 years, Egypt has adopted and implemented a policy commonly referred to as «cold peace.» Whereas it is preferable to a «hot war,» it can hardly be regarded as constructive for peace-keeping. Contrary to what the 1978 Camp David Accords stipulate, Egypt actively restricts all kinds of cultural, scientific, economic and tourist exchanges with Israel.

The few Egyptians who apply for a visa to enter Israel are interrogated by the secret police. Save Itzhak Rabin’s funeral, President Mubarak has never visited Jerusalem. Likewise, Mubarak did not attend the signing ceremony of the peace agreement between Israel and Jordan, as one would expect from the leader of the first Arab country to establish diplomatic relations with Israel.

One can, more often than not, find Egypt at the forefront of those countries trying to internationally isolate Israel – be that at the UN, the Non-Proliferation Treaty conventions, or economic conferences such as those in Casablanca (1994) and Amman (1995) where Israel did not appear in the Middle East maps in the Egyptian brochures. Whereas the film Schindler’s List (whose theme is unrelated to the conflict) was forbidden, Hitler’s Mein Kampf and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion – a 200-year-old Soviet forgery accusing the Jews of world domination –are bestsellers throughout the country.

For their part, official Egyptian media are replete with articles denying the Holocaust, comparing Israeli leaders to Hitler and Nero, and attributing to the Jews the most ludicrous conspiracy theories. Pepsi, according to an Egyptian group calling for a boycott of Israeli and American products, stands for «Pay Every Penny to Save Israel.»

Why all this? Why does Egypt boycott its Jewish neighbor, when it was precisely the first Arab nation to ever reach a peace agreement with Israel?

Simple: Egypt wants to keep its hegemony in the Middle East. Were Israel to integrate regionally, it would soon become the regional leader – economically, scientifically and technologically – at Egypt’s expense. Peace is seen by Cairo as a threat to its supremacy in the area.

Why not then completely cancel diplomatic relations with the Jewish state? Even more simple: Since it signed a peace agreement with Israel, Egypt received more than $30 billion in American economic assistance. Consequently, Mubarak implements a dual policy. He keeps a «cold peace» with Israel in order to guarantee the flow of American dollars to his coffers, while he minimizes Egypt’s relations with Israel and demonizes it as much as possible to prevent Israel’s regional integration.

This American policy of financial appeasement, fully supported by Israel, consists of tempting moderate Arab countries with economic help in exchange for diplomatic relations with Israel. But it has its restrictions. The same policy will be condemned to failure so long as a parallel policy of regional democratization will not be pursued.

Just as Tel-Aviv University professor Martin Sherman pointed out: «By making the inherently aggressive dictatorships of the region more prosperous, we will not make them more pacific, only more powerful.» Sadly, Egypt’s «cold peace» remarkably confirms this statement.

The author is a political analyst and journalist in Jerusalem.