Both countries are important strategic partners today, but there was a time when Egypt attacked Israel.
Egypt has proposed a two-day ceasefire in Gaza, in order to exchange some Palestinian prisoners and four Israeli hostages. Last week, Ronen Bar, head of the Israeli security agency Shin Bet, presented this proposal at Israel’s National Security Cabinet. Most of Israel’s ministers and security officials supported it, but Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir opposed it.
After this, instead of voting on the proposal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent Ronen Bar back to Egypt for talks. With this excuse, let us find out from history whether Egypt is a friend or enemy of Israel.
Egypt had opposed the proposal for the establishment of Israel.
If we look at the history of the last 40 years, we can see that Egypt and Israel are important strategic partners. However, this was not always the case. We are in the year 1947, when the proposal to establish Israel by dividing Palestine was presented at the United Nations, the Egyptian government had opposed it. Due to this, in 1948 the first Arab-Israeli war took place, in which Egypt also fought against Israel. The fighting ended with an armistice on February 24, 1949, but the two countries remained enemies of each other.
Egypt suffered greatly in the Six Day War.
Due to the tense atmosphere, war started again between the two countries in the year 1956. After this, in the year 1967, there was again a war between Israel and its neighboring countries Egypt, Syria and Jordan. This war lasted six days from June 5, 1967 to June 10, 1967 and Israel destroyed the Egyptian Air Force. Israel had also conquered a large part of Egypt. After the end of this war, the United States attempted to implement United Nations Resolution 242, according to which peace was to be implemented in exchange for Israel’s withdrawal from its neighboring Arab countries. However, the peace initiative begun in November 1967 failed in 1971.
Egypt attacked together with Syria.
After peace talks stalled, the Egyptian and Syrian armies attacked Israel again on October 6, 1973. Their goal was to regain territory lost in 1967. These attacks were carried out on Yom Kippur, the holiest day. for the Jews, about which Israel’s intelligence agency was unable to gather any information in advance, while Syria and Egypt made secret preparations for months.
At the beginning of this war, Egypt and Syria were victorious in the Sinai and Golan for a few days. The Egyptian army crossed the Suez Canal from the south and destroyed the fortifications of the Israeli army. The Syrian army captured Israeli positions in the eastern Golan. Due to a lack of tanks and manpower, Israeli troops had to withdraw from several positions in the southern area of the Golan Heights.
Egypt and Syria had the support of the Soviet Union.
On the one hand, Israel suffered losses, while, on the other, Egypt and Syria received support from the Soviet Union. In this sense, the United States decided to support Israel and on October 10 offered military equipment and air support to Israel. Because of this, the Israeli army strengthened again and began the attack. Israel not only recovered most of its lost territories but also acquired some lands from Egypt and Syria.
World war situation arose due to non-acceptance of the ceasefire
The United Nations imposed a ceasefire on October 22, but Israel did not stop the attacks. Because of this, the Soviet Union warned Egypt to send troops. At the same time, the United States felt that if the Soviet Union went to war, a world war could begin once again. Therefore, he pressured Israel to respect the ceasefire. After this, not only did this war end, but it also ended the stalemate in the peace talks that were going on previously.
A peace treaty was signed between the two countries thanks to the efforts of the United States.
Thanks to the efforts of then-US President Jimmy Carter, a peace treaty was signed between Egypt and Israel in 1979. The following year, on January 26, 1980, full diplomatic relations were established between the two countries. Just a month later, on February 26, 1980, both countries sent ambassadors to each other. Afterwards there were some tensions between the two countries. The ambassadors were also called back, but there was no war situation like before. Since then, there has been general peace between these two countries, which share borders on the coast of the Gulf of Aqaba on the Red Sea, and both have also become strategic partners.
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