Israel ponders return of ambassador to Cairo
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said consultations are underway with Egypt over the possible return of Israel’s ambassador to Cairo. The diplomat left the capital after an angry mob stormed and sacked the Israeli embassy Friday night.
“We are in touch with the Egyptian government over the necessary arrangements for the return of the ambassador, so that he and his staff will be appropriately protected in order to maintain Israeli representation in Cairo,” Arabic TV channel Al Arabiya quoted him as saying at the weekly cabinet meeting.Three people died and more than a thousand were injured in clashes after a demonstration demanding faster political reforms turned against the Israeli embassy. The incident prompted the evacuation of nearly all diplomatic staff. Anti-Israeli sentiment rose sharply last month after Israeli forces, responding to a cross-border militant attack, mistakenly killed five Egyptians.Dr Jonathan Spyer, from the Global Research in International Affairs Center believes Israel has simply lost its power in the region. “There are processes underway in the region right now which Israel can in no way exert any influence on,” he told RT. “We are in the midst; it might be said, of a tectonic shift in a strategic picture of the Middle East. And Israel, to a great extent, is only an observer in this process. And one of the most central things which is now taking place is that Turkey, for example, is moving forward to try to take advantage of the void, in a sense, that is being left by the fall of Egypt and strategic changes taking place.” “These are processes of historical magnitude which Israel cannot really influence,” Spyer went on. “Israel, in a certain sense, is only going to be able to pursue a policy of damage limitation hoping very much to keep these relationships with Egypt, with Turkey as much on track as they possibly can.”“It does not really matter exactly what Israel does. Israel is going to be increasingly isolated, it is going to be put in a very defensive situation and that, I think, is the reality in the region we are now looking forward to at the moment,” he concluded.
