Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shakes hands with Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry, left, in Jerusalem,July 10, 2016.Dan Balilty/The Associated Press
A rare visit to Israel Sunday by Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry signals remarkably closer ties between the two countries and, perhaps, the best remaining chance to forge a two-state solution to Israel's 68-year-old conflict with the Arabs of Palestine.
The last time an Egyptian minister journeyed to Israel was in 2007 when Hosni Mubarak was still Egypt's ruler and Ehud Olmert was Israeli Prime Minister. Relations between the two sides were cold.
A lot has transpired in both countries since then and, for the first time in generations, intelligence information is nearly totally shared and Egypt and Israel's military forces are co-operating in unparalleled actions in Sinai, a desolate region of vital security interest to both countries.
It is Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, the former armed forces chief, and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who deserve credit for this budding new relationship.
Two years ago, following Israel's 2014 war against Hamas in Gaza, talks began in secret between Israel and Egypt aimed at security co-operation for their mutual benefit.
Egypt worked to eliminate the hundreds of tunnels beneath the Gaza-Egypt border through which Hamas smuggled a lot of its arms, and Israel agreed to waive sections of the Israel-Egypt peace treaty of 1979 that severely limited the military forces Egypt is allowed in the Sinai.
As a result, Egypt was able to deploy substantial armoured forces to combat the Islamist extremist group known as Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, which in 2015 became allied with the Islamic State.
This week, Bloomberg reported that Israel, with Cairo's consent, has been operating drones in Sinai airspace and has carried out strikes against Ansar fighters on Egyptian territory.
Signs of the new Israel-Egypt relationship are becoming visible to the general public as well.
In February, Tawfiq Okasha, an Egyptian MP and TV talk-show host, announced he had invited to his home for dinner Israel's ambassador to Egypt, Haim Koren. The revelation drew caustic attacks from most of Egypt's media and a shoe was thrown in Mr. Okasha's face by a fellow MP.
But the genie was out of the bottle – it was clear that President el-Sissi had approved such contact with what many Egyptians still regard as an enemy state.
Indeed, Mr. Koren told Israeli television that he had met several times with the Egyptian President himself.
Until the el-Sissi era, Israeli ambassadors were largely shunned, Egyptian tanks were positioned outside the ambassador's home and the embassy office was hidden from view.
That has changed since Mr. el-Sissi came to power.
In May, the Egyptian President opened a new power station and delivered a far-reaching speech that called on the Netanyahu government to join with other Israeli parties to negotiate a peace with the Palestinians based on the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002 that would be backed by the Arab world.
It was that speech that nearly led to an expanded coalition government in Israel that would have included the Labour Party under Isaac Herzog. At the last minute, however, Mr. Netanyahu chose instead to bring Avigdor Lieberman into the cabinet in the powerful post of Defence Minister and to make his right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party part of the coalition.
The change in direction startled Egyptian officials at the time and Israeli media reported this week that the day after the Lieberman appointment, Mr. Netanyahu telephoned the Egyptian President to assure him that even the hawkish new Defence Minister would support the Egyptian proposal.
The Arab Peace Initiative, put forward by Saudi Arabia and endorsed by the Arab League, offers Israel full diplomatic relations with the Arab world in exchange for withdrawing from all the lands occupied in 1967 – Gaza and the West Bank including east Jerusalem. The plan was largely ignored by Israel when it was introduced as it came at a particularly violent period of the al-Aqsa Intifada.
Mr. Shoukry said Sunday he was in Jerusalem to follow through on those ideas.
"My visit comes in the context of President el-Sissi's vision for establishing peace between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples – bringing this long conflict to an end," he said. "This will have a far-reaching and dramatic, positive impact on the conditions in the entire Middle East."
In late June, Mr. Shoukry also visited Ramallah to discuss peace proposals with the Palestinian leadership of Mahmoud Abbas that led to the idea of a joint working group that would implement confidence-building measures.
"The vision of the two-state solution is not far-fetched," Mr. Shoukry said Sunday, but requires "steps to build confidence."