Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry was in Jerusalem for meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and a flurry of public statements to the media.
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Shoukry last month met Palestinian Authority officials in Ramallah and is said to have gained their support on the initiative.
“Ever since the cessation of negotiations between the Palestinian and Israeli sides in April 2014, the situation on the ground has been in constant deterioration, ” he said before a work meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The United States, the European Union and many others in the global community have called for a halt to settlement building. Yet, Egypt’s success will hinge on its ability to convince the two administrations to concede to past sticking points.
“Every visit by a foreign minister is welcome, but real steps are needed for real negotiations with the Palestinians, or they will only result in pictures”, Livni said.
“As was the case in previous affairs, when things that turned out to be baseless were attributed to Netanyahu, there will be nothing here as well, because there is nothing”, the statement said. The French initiative hopes to bring both sides back to the table at the end of the year and was received well by the Palestinians.
In late June a Palestinian teen fatally stabbed Israeli Hallel Yaffa Ariel, 13, in her bed in the Kiryat Arba settlement before security guards killed him.
“The administration and Congress agree that Netanyahu will back off from the tough stance he adopted when he stated that “it’s not yet clear that we will come to an agreement” with the USA regarding the new MOU and that Israel may have to wait for the next president, whoever it is”, an aide to a senior legislator told the business daily Globes.
Egypt, by contrast, is a unique friend, particularly of Israel.
Egypt was the first of a handful of Arab states to recognize Israel in a US-sponsored peace accord in 1979. In particular, the two are now sharing intelligence in a common battle against Islamic State militants operating in Egypt’s Sinai desert and the Gaza Strip.
“There’s a commonality between Israel and Kenya in that they share the same concerns about terrorism and border security that we do, but on a much bigger scale”, Magal Chief Executive Saar Koursh said in an interview. The statement did not mention the return of Palestinian refugees in exile.
Also on Sunday, hundreds of Israeli settlers marched between the Palestinian village of Tarama and the Israeli settlement of Otniel, south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank.
The Hebron area settlers have been affected by the recent wave of violence that has rocked Israel and the Palestinian territories since last October.
The trip came amid talk of renewing an Arab peace initiative and with Israel’s military having recently saluted “unprecedented” intelligence cooperation with Egypt to combat the Islamic State group.
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The Palestinians seek the establishment of an independent state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip – lands captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war.
