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Egypt, Israel Seek to Cooperate on Israeli-Palestinian Confidence-Building
(Washington Post) William Booth and Ruth Eglash - Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi sent his foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, to Jerusalem on Sunday to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to explore ways to break the stalemate between Israelis and Palestinians. U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry, who has essentially given up trying to broker a deal in the remaining months of the Obama presidency, has encouraged Sissi's outreach. "After the United States, Egypt is the more plausible player to take on the role of shuttle diplomacy between the Israelis and Palestinians," said Itzhak Levanon, a former Israeli ambassador to Egypt. "The Egyptians see we have a Middle East that is falling apart, in bloodshed and crisis, with no solution on the horizon, not for Syria, Yemen, Libya and Iraq. They have to deal with terrorists internally, too, and suddenly they see something that was not there a few years ago - the small country of Israel has been building excellent relations with Russia, it has open channels with the Saudis and reconciled with Turkey, and last week met with the heads of seven African states," Levanon said. "We are in a situation now where it is better for Egypt to be on Israel's side than not."