ABSTRACT
This chapter examines two pivotal decisions taken by the Egyptian leadership in late 2004: the exchange of prisoners with Israel and the signing of the Qualified Industrial Zones (QIZ) Treaty, both designed to bolster Cairo's economic and political relationship with Israel. Because the Egyptian-Israeli relationship has always been trilateral (with the active and constant involvement of the United States), an account of the Egyptian-American relationship will first be given. Next, an overview of the Egyptian-Israeli relationship, and its different phases, will be presented, from the signing of the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty in 1979 to 2004. A survey of this period will demonstrate that the relationship between Cairo and Tel Aviv over this quarter of a century was truly a “Cold Peace.” Cairo was persistently reluctant to develop normal economic relations with the Jewish state, though at times Egypt did use the normalization card in exchange for political gains. Cairo's abrupt decision to transform the “Cold Peace” into a warm one is the focus of the subsequent section of the chapter, which illustrates that this phase does not fit the general pattern of Egyptian-Israeli relations. A brief survey of US foreign policy and the changes it underwent after the events of September 11th is then given. The final section of the chapter shows that the underlying logic of those decisions was predominantly political, and that the decisions were aimed at improving Cairo's standing in Washington, rather than at improving its relationship with Israel per se. More specifically, Cairo sought to alleviate the rising American political pressure with regard to political reform and democratization by using the “Israeli gate.”
