Alwaght- While the Israeli leaders have been cheerful to sign normalization agreements with some Arab sheikhdoms and found themselves on the threshold of an end to their historical isolation, they are now living the frustration of not realizing their dream. Even Egypt was the first Arab country to normalize with the Israeli regime is now seeing its relations with Tel Aviv tense more than any other time in the past 40 years.
In recent days, Israeli media reported that relations with Cairo are frayed since recent Gaza war. They said that difference between the two sides erupted over the terms of the ceasefire. Cairo went infuriated at Tel Aviv’s lack of commitment to the terms of the agreement and not respoding to the Egyptian demands to commit to the terms of truce. Whereas Egypt was about to declare a ceasefire, the Israelis assassinated one of the commanders of the Islamic Jihad in the south of the Gaza Strip, as ceasefire statement emphasized that Egypt would try to release Islamic Jihad commanders Bassam al-Saadi and Khalil al-Awadeh.
Though Israeli media sought to imply that Cairo-Tel Aviv tensions stem from Gaza developments in recent weeks, the reality is that the tensions mirror the depth of their differences and possible start of a new era in which their close cooperation will end.
Normalization agreements and Egypt marginalization
In the past decades, Egypt has been playing as a mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Since signing of the Camp David Accords in 1978, this role made Cairo one of pillars of the American strategy in the region. Actually, the Egyptians have had a considerable leverage granted by the US and European countries. Washington's military and financial aids to Cairo were provided on the basis of Egypt's role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
But the 2019 normalization agreement promoted the belief among Cairo leaders that the center of gravity in the Arab world has shifted to the Persian Gulf in recent years and that Egypt has lost its former position in the US regional strategy. Israel's rapid development of scientific, tourist, and trade relations with the UAE and possibly Saudi Arabia in the not-so-distant future has further overshadowed Egypt's influence, especially given the UAE's financial and technological capabilities to accelerate such partnership.
The contradictory Israeli behavior in Gaza war and ceasefire terms and undermining the Egyptian credibility in the eyes of the Palestinians is a product of Egyptian significance downgrading in the Israeli foreign policy.
Dreaming of reviving regional position
Although Egypt has lost its former role in the Palestinian case to some extent, there is a ground it can embark on to revive its role. The reality is that in the past four decades, Egypt has always acted as a mediator but in favor of the Israelis. However, now the passivity and radical anti-Palestinian stance taken by some Persian Gulf monarchies have provided an opportunity for Egypt to take political advantage.
The UAE, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia are closing their eyes to the Israeli atrocities lest the normalization process with Tel Aviv takes damage. So, Egypt can take advantage of the hostile Arab and Muslim world stances to the Palestinian cause and make a difference in the pro-compromise camp and enhance its regional position with backing to the Palestinian struggle for liberation.
This change of approach gives President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi the possibility of evoking memory of Egypt of Gamal Abdel Nasser in the minds of the Arabs; the era when Arab nationalism was mainly known for supporting Palestine and confronting the Israeli occupation, making Nasser the campion of Arabs.
The Saudi and Emirati rulers, who once claimed to be supporters of Palestine, are now fully on the Israeli front, and turning their backs on the Al-Quds cause, they even consider this Muslim city to belong to the Israeli occupiers and a capital to a Jewish state. Therefore, the Arabs moving away from the Palestinian cause provides favorable conditions for the Egyptians to show that in the absence of Egypt, the tensions in the occupied territories would escalate. Actually, the Egyptians now can remind the Israelis of their mediatory role over the past four decades.
With the recent Israeli war on Gaza and intensification of the Israeli crimes in the West Bank in recent months that captivated the Muslim world attention to the Palestinian cause, Egypt can seize the opportunity to realize its goal to shore up its regional role and retake the position it lost after Persian Gulf monarchies' normalization with the Israelis.
In addition to the Arabs, other effective actors in the Palestinian issue have also adopted policies that can end up beneficial to the Egyptians. Turkey, which until now pretended to be a patron of the Palestinians and in the past decade, because of the severance of relations with Israel, took the side of the Palestinians, resumed its relations with Tel Aviv in recent months and is further cozying up to Tel Aviv day by day. So, Cairo can put to good use the shift of policy of its non-Arab rival to revive its regional place.
Revival of its regional place is not the only fruit of pro-Palestinian policy of Egypt. It can be legitimizing to the government of el-Sisi amid growing public discontentment prompted by troubled economic conditions in the past few years.
It is perhaps for this reason that in the past three years Cairo has whittled away at its relations with Tel Aviv. Practical actions in this regard included stripping the citizenship of Egyptians living in Israel, banning contacts with Israeli academics, and limiting further economic normalization in such areas as tourism, agriculture, and water resources with the Israelis.
