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Israel-Egypt relations advance in baby steps

Cario's openness to warming bilateral ties with Jerusalem has been limited, but recent progress might signal that even Cairo understands that times have changed.
A Israeli police car is park in front of the Egyptian Embassy in the city of Tel Aviv on September 11, 2011, two days after Egyptian demonstrators went on the rampage in Cairo, breaking into the Israeli embassy and forcing the personnel to be evacuated. The trouble followed several weeks of protests outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo after 5 Egyptian border police were shot dead last month by the Israeli military during a search operation for militants who shot at an Israeli bus in Israel, close to their

Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen came back to Israel March 9, after two days of visiting Sharm el-Sheikh in the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula. Cohen met with his Egyptian counterpart Nasser Fahmi and with other senior Egyptian intelligence officials to discuss a series of security issues, including Egyptian efforts to increase the security of Sinai resorts so tourists will return.

The visit was exceptional not only for its length and publicity, but also because the delegation also included several Israeli businesspeople, senior figures in Israel’s food, tourism, agriculture and energy industries. The inclusion angered Economy and Trade Minister Amir Peretz, who was apparently not consulted beforehand. It appears that Israel’s ambassador to Egypt Amira Oron was not consulted either.

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