Israel not ready to ‘blindly trust’ Egypt on reconciliation

The Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has said that reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas would pave the way for peace between the Palestinians and Israel, and that Egypt’s efforts in Palestinian reconciliation are just the beginning of the road to peace.

The establishment of an independent Palestinian state that meets the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people will lead to a secure, stable, and prosperous life, said Al-Sisi.But neither Al-Sisi nor the Egyptian intelligence has informed Israel of the details of the steps they are carrying out to achieve this goal, which has angered Israeli authorities.

“Israel went to the United States to complain about Egypt because it wanted to know what was going on in Cairo, Ramallah, and Gaza, and it was not ready to blindly trust Egypt,” said the Atlas Centre for Israeli Studies.On Monday Jason Grenblatt, President Trump’s special envoy to the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations issues, will arrive in Cairo, where he will try to clarify “where the Egyptian president is leading the talks and what his goals are”.According to the Hebrew site Debka, Hamas has presented two proposals to Egypt and President Mahmoud Abbas.

The first is that it will not demand representation in a future Palestinian national unity government – there will be no Palestinian ministers from Hamas, a step that cannot be opposed by Israel.In addition to this, if the presidential and parliamentary elections are held by the Palestinian Authority, Hamas has said it will not compete with Mahmoud Abbas as a movement, nor will it compete with Fatah.

Read: Israel bars Hamas West Bank leaders from attending Cairo talks

Hamas is in favour of forming a new party, the Palestinian Justice Front, which its supporters will vote for, which means that President Mahmoud Abbas’ victory in the presidential elections is certain, as is Fatah’s victory in the parliamentary elections.