News

Sometimes you can almost physically feel the political earth shifting
beneath your feet. One of those moments occurred in Cairo a few days
ago, when the main Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, signed an
Egyptian-brokered reconciliation agreement to reconstitute a single
Palestinian government.

This event will be seen in retrospect as a historic turning point in the
contemporary history of the Middle East – not so much for what it means
for the Palestinians, but more for what it tells us about the return of
Egypt to its natural role in regional diplomacy. This is the first
tangible sign of the return of sanity and dignity in the affairs of
state and diplomacy in Cairo’s foreign policy, after decades of
emasculation, subservience and marginalization.

Other signs will follow
quickly, including the opening of the Gaza-Rafah crossing, the
resumption of normal relations with Iran, rational relations along the
Nile Valley, more effective and realistic regional nuclear policies, and
greater regional trade and economic complementarities.

(Egypt’s relegation to the sidelines of contemporary politics and
diplomacy since the 1980s was due largely to its foreign policy being
captured by a combination of money-obsessed conservative Arabs and
narrow-minded ideologues in Washington who were almost totally under the
sway of pro-Israeli Zionist zeal... >>>