Israel, Egypt warm up relations over gas deal, fighting terror

BLOOMBERG

When Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi turned a standard speech on electricity supplies into an unexpected appeal for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, one man who wasn’t surprised was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The televised address in May capped months of backstage diplomacy by a group including former British premier Tony Blair.
Nearly four decades after their peace accord changed the face of the Middle East, Israel and Egypt are slowly turning a cool relationship into an alliance. They have tightened security cooperation to unprecedented levels and have been laying the legal groundwork for a multi-billion dollar energy contract, as gas discoveries in the Mediterranean and the persistent threat from extremists shift the political dynamics across the region.
“In this time of turmoil and instability all around the Middle East, it’s very important for reasonable countries to keep some kind of cooperation,” Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said in an interview in his office in Jerusalem.
In the latest sign of the warming relations, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry visited Israel on Sunday to discuss efforts to renew stalled Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking, the first public visit by an Egyptian foreign minister in nine years.
“My visit to Israel today is a continuation of Egypt’s longstanding sense of responsibility towards peace for itself and all the peoples of the region, particularly the Palestinian-Israeli peoples,” Shoukry said, standing beside Netanyahu at a press conference. Netanyahu said it “illustrates the change that has taken place in Israeli-Egyptian ties, including President El-Sisi’s important call to advance peacemaking, with the Palestinians as well as Arab states.”
In his speech at a new power plant in Assiut, 400 kilometers (250 miles) south of Cairo, El-Sisi said he saw “a great chance for a better future,” between Israel and the Palestinians.
An ensuing statement by Netanyahu championing Egypt’s involvement
was coordinated, the people familiar with the talks said, speaking
on condition of anonymity. French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said it was “complementary” to his country’s effort.
Returning as a key power broker in the region would help burnish Egypt’s international image as it struggles to revive its economy. “There is definitely a high level of cooperation that could be unprecedented, especially in the field of combating terrorism,” said Mohamed Kamal, a former lawmaker and a political science professor at Cairo University. “Egypt will handle this issue in a rational way, based on national interest.”
Potential gas deals would take cooperation to another level. Israeli supplies would ease Egypt’s energy crunch until it can develop its own field, the largest in the Mediterranean. After Israel and Turkey ended a six-year rift last month and said they would start talks on energy supplies, Netanyahu publicly sent a message
of reassurance to El-Sisi. Israel’s Leviathan field “can supply Egypt, and that is something we are working to advance, as well as Turkey,” he said at a news conference in Rome last month.