Jack Cohen – Cold Peace, Warm Normalization
At a party in the UAE, Egyptian entertainer Mohamed Ramadan and Israeli singer Omer Adam had a picture taken together that was printed in several newspapers and became an item on social media. As a result there was an unprecedented outcry in Egypt, Ramadan was called “a Zionist” and “a traitor” for supporting normalization, then the Egyptian actor’s Union expelled him, so he can’t work, then the Egyptian journalist’s Union forbade their members from writing anything complimentary about him. Then a law suit was filed against him for “insulting the Egyptian people.” He wrote that he was not aware that Adam was an Israeli and he changed his profile picture to that of the Palestinian flag.
This is a typical popular reaction in Egypt, and Jordan, to anything to do with Israel, they are still in the era of the three noes of Khartoum. But, Egypt and Jordan have peace agreements with Israel, the former signed in 1979 and the latter in 1994. But, as is well known, these peace agreements were signed by the political leaders at the time, Pres. Sadat and King Hussein, for good political reasons. They realized that they could not defeat and destroy Israel even though they had given it their best try, particularly in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when they caught the Israelis by surprise. If they couldn’t win then they never could. Pres. Sadat at least gained the honor of having crossed the canal, which earned him the nickname “hero of the crossing.” But, there was no popular support for these peace agreements, and there never has been. That is why the relationship with these two countries is called “a cold peace.” As an example the Israeli Embassy in Cairo was attacked by a mob on September 9, 2011, during the so-called Arab Spring.
By contrast, the normalization agreements between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain have resulted in a warm relationship. Not only are there diplomatic relations, but many business relationships have already been established and tourism at least from Israel is in full-swing, even during the corona pandemic. Hotels in the UAE and Bahrain have kosher menus and everything is being done to cement the relationship. How different from the situation with Egypt and Jordan, where the population remains totally hostile to Israel and terrorists have attacked Israeli citizens there. One interesting aspect of this situation is that in Egypt under President Gen. Abdel Fattah al Sisi, it is forbidden to criticize the regime, so attacking Israel, that the regime has good relations with, is an indirect way of attacking the Government of Egypt, particularly by the supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The re-establishment of relations of Israel with Morocco seem also to be warming. One lives in hope that eventually the people of Egypt and Jordan will drop their hostility to Israel and Jews and make their peace treaties into warm normalizations, but there is no evidence that that is happening.
Jack Cohen
