Israel and Gaza: Preparing for War
Israel and Gaza: Preparing for War
WITH the five-day aerial battle between Israel and Hamas poised to escalate into all-out ground war, the unlikely figure of Egypt’s Islamist president, Muhammad Morsi, is emerging in Israeli minds as the one regional leader who can bring about a credible ceasefire. Mr Morsi declared on November 17th that there were “indications”—but no certainty—that the two sides could use indirect diplomacy to end the present round of violence. Mr Morsi is in close contact with the US and European governments. He held talks in Cairo with Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the Qatari ruler, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, both of whom are anxious to contribute to cease-fire diplomacy.
The Egyptian president, a long-time leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, spoke of “the Israeli side”, referring to Israel by its name instead of using some deprecatory sobriquet like “the Zionist enemy”. That is small consolation for an Israeli establishment still hankering after the much easier rapport it had with Egypt’s ousted Mubarak regime, especially in matters military. Israel uttered ominous warnings during the early months of the “Arab Spring” about the dangers of the long-banned Muslim Brotherhood rising to power in Egypt. Mr Morsi’s election victory elicited further dour prognostications. Like Hamas, its ideological and political acolyte, the Brotherhood does not recognise Israeli sovereignty.
But Mr Morsi has walked a careful line between Israel’s unpopularity with his domestic constituency and Egypt’s strategic and political interest in maintaining its 33-year-old peace treaty with the Jewish state. This caution was in evidence when, in response to Israel’s air attacks in Gaza last week, he chose to recall his ambassador for consultations—a relatively moderate form of diplomatic protest. His dispatch of the prime minister, Hisham Kandil, on a “solidarity visit” to Gaza on November 16th was a clear signal of Egypt’s desire to mediate, and was recognised as such by Israeli officials and public alike.