Eissa: Sisi may visit Israel and deliver a speech in the Knesset

Writer and journalist Ibrahim Eissa has said he expects that Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi may perform a historic visit to the Israeli Knesset following the example of former Egyptian President Anwar Al-Sadat.

Speaking on his TV talk show on Al-Qahira Wa Al-Nas satellite channel, Ibrahim Eissa said: “We may expect a first visit to be performed by Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu to Cairo to meet with Sisi. Or we may be about to see a second and another historic initiative just like that taken by President Sadat in 1977, a visit to Israel, even to the Knesset itself.”
He continued: “Perhaps we are about to see a new and another historic initiative by which President Sisi will visit Israel and will address the Knesset itself in an endeavour to build or to end the conflict in the interest of a peaceful settlement and a peace treaty.”
He added: “We are detecting in the minds of the Egyptian presidency a new idea and a new initiative, but this time it is not for the sake of Arab-Israeli peace but for the sake of Palestinian-Israeli peace.”

Eissa then discussed Egypt’s stance toward Hamas. He said: “What we understood from the Egyptian initiative is that Hamas is no longer shunned in Egyptian politics, and that it is not put in one basket together with the Muslim Brotherhood although it is an integral part of it. This is something the movement understood and expressed respect for it.”