ABSTRACT
I have already written that, for the first Israeli team, landing in Cairo was similar to the landing of the first man on the moon - a hostile and totally unknown world. True, before us, many Israeli delegations had come but they were kept far from the city center in almost total isolation and were taken in luxurious limousines to meetings, guided shopping and traditional tourist sites. Their contacts with the local population were limited to formal meetings with their official hosts, who, generally speaking, received them with warmth and lavish hospitality. Only very few succeeded in rubbing shoulders with the man-in-the-street or meeting the Egyptian intelligentsia. If they ever managed to do so, it was mostly by chance and for a few minutes. They took back home positive, though superficial, impressions. For them, the most salient experience was their visit to Cairo, the capital of the Arab world. The day-to-day life did not interest them - it was totally irrelevant; their stay never exceeded a few days and was devoted to their specific mission, during which they were pampered by their Egyptian hosts.
