Egypt’s foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry has attended the funeral of former Israel Prime minister Shimon Peres.
None of the Arab world countries sent top officials except Egypt which enjoyed the so-called “warm peace” as described by al-Sisi in his speech at the United Nation last week.
While Egypt sent its foreign minister Sameh Shoukry, however, Bahrain, Jordan and Oman sent their representatives.
The funeral was also attended by Head of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas, something which angered many Palestinians who criticized him for honoring an enemy.
Hamas movement called Abbas to boycott the funeral of former Israeli President Shimon Peres. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said Abbas should “retract his decision to participate in the funeral of Criminal Shimon Peres.”
Peres is one of the main architects of the tripartite aggression against Egypt in 1956 and the establishment of settlements in the occupied West Bank. He was behind a 1996 attack on a village (Qana massacre) in southern Lebanon that killed more than 100 people. He was also widely considered the architect of Israel’s secretive nuclear weapons program.
Since the military coup led by Abdel Fattah al-Sisi against the first democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi, the relation between the al-Sisi regime and Israel has developed on the security and intelligence levels in Sinai Peninsula.
Moreover, the al-Sisi regime is working on enhancing intimate diplomatic relations to open the way for full normalization. In his latest speech during the official inauguration of the Asiut power plant, al-Sisi promised Israel “warmer” peace adding that Egypt is ready to mediate to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
The latest visit by Egypt’s FM Sameh Shoukry to Israel, which was the first state visit for an Egyptian foreign minister in nine years, yet it looked like the meeting of old friends and partners. They watched football together, exaggeratedly exchanged pleasantries, and met in Jerusalem, not Tel Aviv.
Moreover, Egypt’s FM Sameh Shoukry was cited considering Israel practices against Palestinians within the context of “security” rather than “aggression” during a meeting with High School top students at the foreign ministry headquarters last August.
When Shoukry was asked Whether killing Palestinian children by the Israelis is considered terrorism, he replied, “It cannot be described as ‘terrorism’ without an international consensus on an accurate definition of terrorism. There are some international terms as ‘state terrorism’ which is practiced by some countries against people living outside its borders or suppressing opposition inside its borders but it remains within a political framework, “he said.
Last week speaking to U.N. General Assembly, Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi praised his relation with Israel and renewed his promise to fulfill warm peace to Israel if the Palestinian Israeli conflict was resolved. Al-Sisi described the Israel-Egypt model as “a real opportunity to write a bright page in the history of our region to move towards peace.”
He told delegates he was departing from the written text of his speech to make an appeal that will bring “prosperity and peace to both the Israelis and the Palestinians.”
He also stressed that Egypt is committed to getting the peace process going in different parts of the region, specifically between Israel and the Palestinians.
Moreover, al-Sisi urged Israel and the Palestinians to look to the “wonderful” example set by his country and the Zionist entity and agree on a solution that lets them exist in peace as two neighboring states.
