Egypt

Background

Egypt, like Jordan, has a very important role in the ongoing drama of the Arab-Israeli relationship. Being the first Arab nation in the region to recognize and make peace with Israel, Egypt set a precedent that changed the entire trend in the interactions between Israel and the Arab nations.

Egypt, like the other Arab nations in the region, was, at least in name, a province in the Ottoman Empire until the start of the 1st World War. However, by the end of the 19th century, the British had established strong authority over the country and ruled it as a sort of colony. During the War, Egypt was fully occupied by Britain as a protectorate. After the war, the British continued to have a military presence in Egypt in defense of their interests, which included the Suez Canal. Egyptian resistance to British domination, culminating in the revolution of 1919, led eventually to a declaration of independence for Egypt in 1922. However, this independence was illusory and lasted until the 2nd World War when the British again took over Egypt to confront the Axis. In order to shore up their reputation and establish some level of authority, the ruling political party in Egypt, the Wafd, initiated the formation of the Arab League in 1945. This was a loose federation of Arab nations against the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine (Cleveland 182-191).

In the 1940's, Egypt along with the rest of the Arab league was the main representative of the Palestinians in the negotiations on Palestine. These countries adopted an extremely hard line in these negotiations, due to the prevailing views and emotions in their domestic environments, and consequently rejected a UN proposal for partitioning of Palestine. Soon after the statehood of Israel was proclaimed in 1948, Egypt and the Arab League launched an invasion into the newly formed country. The Arab attacks were repulsed on all sides. Egypt ended up in control of a small piece of Palestinian land, the Gaza Strip (Cleveland 250-251).

The regime in Egypt was overthrown by a group of young officers led by Gamal Abd al-Nasser in 1952. Soon after, in 1956, a treaty between Nasser and Britain ended the lingering British presence. Nasser was then free to conduct his own foreign policy. The border with Israel was a serious issue. Israel regularly led massive retaliations into Egyptian territory against small-scale commando raids by Palestinian refugees in Gaza. Nasser, beginning in 1955, spent millions on Soviet military equipment. His defiant stance against the west and imperialism soon made him a hero in the Arab world. In 1956, he daringly nationalized the Suez Canal, an act which enraged Britain. Israel too was concerned about the Egyptian military buildup. These two launched a military strike into Egypt in 1956 in an effort to eliminate Nasser. However, both the US and the Soviet Union objected to the invasion, and Britain and Israel were forced to accept a UN-sponsored cease-fire. This served as a Triumph for Nasser who, in the eyes of many, had repulsed two of Egypt's enemies and retained the Suez Canal. However, Nasser's triumph would not remain complete. His effort to unite the Arab World by initiating the formation of a joint republic of Syria and Egypt, The United Arab Republic, failed in 1961. Even more devastating for Nasser was the 1967 War. In an effort to bolster the Pan-Arab alliance against Israel, Nasser deployed troops into the Sinai Peninsula, blockaded Israeli shipping, and signed different treaties with various Arab nations. Although it now seems that Nasser was bluffing, Israel took the threat seriously and invaded. Although other Arab countries soon after entered the war, Israel, with its superior air force, was victorious on all fronts. The entire Sinai Peninsula was wrestled away from Egypt in six days. Skirmishes and instances of full combat continued between Egypt and Israel until 1970, when a cease fire was signed. Yet, Egypt refused to sign a peace treaty with Israel, and Israel refused to give up the Sinai Peninsula. This defeat, in effect, put an end to Nasserism (Cleveland 284-322).

After Nasser's death in 1970, Anwar Sadat came to power in Egypt. At this stage, Israel was confident of its position and was not in mood to make any concessions. Sadat believed that if he could show that the Israeli army was vulnerable, he could capture the attention of the world powers and soften Israel's position. Thus, in October of 1973, he made the decision to attack the Israeli army in the Sinai peninsula. The Egyptian army performed extremely well initially, restoring some pride to the nation. Israel, however, recovered and retook all of the territory Egypt had gained in the beginning of the war. Sadat was eventually able to involve the Soviet Union and the US in restoring cease-fire. Soon after, negotiations led to a partial Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai and Western economic assistance for Egypt (Cleveland 335-339).

Yet, the economic situation in Egypt did not improve, and soon Sadat came to believe that a resolution of conflict with Israel may lead to an improvement of the Egyptian economy. Sadat traveled to Israel in 1977 for negotiations on peace. The negotiations proved difficult. In addition to Egyptian-Israeli peace, Sadat also wanted to discuss a comprehensive plan for middle east peace, and the establishment of self-determination for the Palestinian people. Begin, the Israeli premiere, wanted to discuss only Egyptian-Israeli matters and had no intention of relinquishing any authority in the West Bank or Gaza. The negotiations continued in Washington, and eventually resulted in the Camp David Accords signed in 1978. The most important aspect of the Camp David Accords was a document formulating a framework for the achievement of Palestinian autonomy over five years. However, the wording of this document was open-ended and it never materialized. In 1979, Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty that led to Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula. In effect, Begin had exchanged Sinai for full control over Gaza and the West Bank and a peace treaty with Egypt, the most powerful Arab state (Cleveland 339-341).

The Arab world was shocked and enraged. Egypt was tossed from the Arab League, and all other Arab countries in the region broke relations with Cairo. Egypt and Sadat became increasingly dependent on the West, while ostracized from the Arab world. The domestic discontent over Sadat's actions eventually led to his assassination in 1981 by an extremist group. The new president, Husni Mubarak, took over after Sadat. Although he endorsed the Egyptian-Israeli treaty, he initiated a more receptive stance domestically and undertook slow, but successful, efforts to restore Egypt into the Arab World (Cleveland 341-343). What has ensued under Mubarak, has been called the "cold peace". Egypt strongly objected to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, and scaled down, to a certain extent, Egypt's interactions with Israel until the partial Israeli troop withdrawal in 1985. However, Egypt never canceled the peace (Lesch 61-82), and still managed to re-enter the Arab League. In fact, by 1991, Egypt was again the head of the League.

Goals

The Gaza strip, and not the West Bank, became the birthplace of Palestinian nationalism. The reasons for this can be traced back to how these regions were administered after the 1948 war. The Jordanian monarchy, ruling over the West Bank in this period, worked hard to inculcate the Jordanian identity among its inhabitants. In contrast, Egypt merely administered the Gaza Strip, allowing Palestinian identity and nationalism to persist. Indeed, this pattern continued to a certain extent after the 1967 War. Although Jordan continued to look for influence in the West Bank and a certain amount of authority in Jerusalem, Egypt did not seek as much in Gaza. Indeed, Egypt continued to consider itself the major proponent of Palestinian rights. In 1978, Sadat pushed for the Israeli recognition of Palestinian self-determination in his negotiations with Israel. Yet, the Peace agreement between Egypt and Israel, as mentioned, only strengthened Israeli authority over the Gaza and the West Bank and alienated Egypt from the Arab World (Tessler 23-42).

After the Egyptian-Israeli peace agreement, there was "relatively few remaining bilateral issues for the countries to resolve", and thus Egypt changed its focus to the possible broad significance of the peace agreement (Tessler 23-42). Could Egypt continue pursuing a comprehensive peace in the Middle East that would include Palestinian autonomy and re-enter the Arab fold, while at the same time maintaining a peace with Israel? Indeed, Egypt, slowly, but successfully reconciled with the Arab nations, and by the early 1990's was the head of the Arab League. At the same time, it has maintained a correct, but not specially warm, relationship with Israel (Lesch 61-82). Egypt continues to criticize objectionable Israeli policies in the occupied territories, and has actively backed the Palestinian and Arab cause in the past few years, especially during the recent impasse regarding Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank. Thus, the focus of Egyptian policy in the region revolves around using its position to support the Palestinians, but also to maintain peace.

Other issues also involve Egypt with the middle east peace process. As in Jordan, many Palestinian refugees also reside in Egyptian territory. The establishment of the Palestinian Authority's infrastructure should help the cooperation between the PLO and Egypt in resolving this issue. Indeed, preliminary negotiations have already taken place regarding this. Relations between Egypt and Israel in their present state have to also be considered. Tourism, a certain amount of trade, and cultural and scientific contact are important aspects of these relations (Lesch 61-82). In addition to all this, a common dilemma that Israel, the PLO, and Egypt share involves the activity of terrorist groups. Indeed, in March of 1996, "Arafat called for an international campaign to combat terrorism, an idea originally aired by … Mubarak" (Hiro 503). Therefore, the fight against terrorism is another issue Egypt has taken up within the context of the mid-east peace.

Overall, Egypt and Jordan, countries most willing to make peace with and live alongside Israel, are also anxious to show their support for the Palestinian cause. However, they each have their own respective national interests and needs which they have raised in the process of achieving and maintaining peace in this volatile region.

Further Research

The above information was gathered from:

Cleveland, William L. A History of the Modern Middle East. Boulder: Westview Press, 1994.

Hiro, Dilip. Sharing the Promised Land: An Interwoven Tale of Israelis and Palestinians. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1996.

Klein, Menachem. "Operating the Triangle by Bilateral Agreements". The Jordanian-Palestinian-Israeli Triangle: Smoothing the Path to Peace. Ed. By Joseph Ginat and Onn Winckler. Portland, Oregon: Sussex Academic Press, 1998.

Lesch, Ann Mosely. "Egyptian-Israeli Relations: Normalization or Special Ties". Israel, Egypt, and the Palestinians: From Camp David to Intifada. Ed. Ann Mosely Lesch and Mark Tessler. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989.

Tessler, Mark. "Post-Sinai Pressures in Israel and Egypt". Israel, Egypt, and thePalestinians: From Camp David to Intifada. Ed. Ann Mosely Lesch and Mark Tessler. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989.