LONDON: Israel’s war in Gaza could have a lasting effect on its ties with Egypt, Middle East Institute expert Mirette Mabrouk has cautioned. The warning came during a panel discussion to mark the 45th anniversary of the peace deal signed between the two Middle East neighbors.
Mabrouk suggested the perception of Israel among the Egyptian public could be severely damaged by the ongoing conflict, adding that the government in Cairo had “exerted an enormous amount of self-control” but would not be able to ignore public attitudes indefinitely.
“After Gaza, it is impossible, impossible to dissociate the societal effects of what is happening on any economic relationship going forward,” she said.
“At the moment it is impossible to overestimate national feeling in Egypt about what is happening in Gaza, and this is important, because the government cannot afford to discount public opinion.”
Her thoughts were echoed by the former assistant secretary-general for humanitarian affairs at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Hesham Youssef, who said that while enduring peace between Israel and Egypt was of vital importance to Cairo, so was the future of the Palestinians.
“This treaty has been strategically important … for the whole region,” Youssef said, adding that without it, it was unlikely peace would have followed between Israel and Jordan, or that the Abraham Accords would have ever become viable.
“Egypt paid a very high price for the treaty,” he said. “During the 45 years, Egypt never put its commitments in doubt in relation to the peace treaty.”
Former Knesset member Ksenia Svetlova said Egypt had always been clear with Israel on what it saw as the doorway to a lasting regional peace for Israel, including with Lebanon and the Palestinians.
“Egypt was very keen and very straightforward with Israel from the very beginning — by the beginning, I mean the seminal speech of President Anwar El-Sadat, the hero of peace, in the Israeli Knesset, when he said exactly that: We need to work for peace … peace in the Middle East, not only peace between Israel and Egypt,” she said.
“We have seen huge development … that shows that cooperation indeed can happen, but I can tell you that Egypt, again, it says today to Israelis, just like it said to Israelis back in 1977 when El-Sadat visited the Knesset, there cannot be a huge movement, a real movement toward normalization … until there (is) a way out, a solution, for the conflict with the Palestinians.”
Youssef said that, while not jeopardizing the peace with Egypt, the ongoing war in Gaza was a source of great concern in Cairo.
“After Oct. 7, Egypt recognized the gravity of what happened, and its impact on the Israel people … and the Egyptian reaction was quite measured. But as time passed by, and the ferocity of the attacks increased, and the number of civilian casualties multiplied, Egyptians’ concerns also grew.”
He added that the US needed to take a greater role in pushing for peace and a two-state solution, which Egypt, he said, was working on closely with Washington.
“This is Egypt’s destiny, and Egypt’s efforts will continue, relentlessly, until peace is achieved,” he said.
Mabrouk added that since the outbreak of the war, “while economic relations between the two countries are steady … at the moment, everything appears to be on hold” between Israel and Egypt.
She added that in part this was due to the response of external actors to the conflict, citing a drop of 50 percent in Red Sea traffic through the Suez Canal and the accompanying collapse of business in the Israeli port town of Eilat as examples of how the conflict was damaging economic relations between the two nations.
Former Ambassador of Israel to Germany Jeremy Issacharoff praised the enduring peace between Israel and Egypt, but warned while Cairo had a “very considerable role” to play in the peace process, until the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7 were released, the situation would remain hard to resolve.
“I think it’s going to really damage a lot of the possibilities of actually creating a post-war reality that leads to a radical change in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” Issacharoff said of the hostages still being held in Gaza.
“Egypt can play a very considerable role regarding the issue of the hostages. It is very important to understand just how crucial this issue is in the public eye of Israelis today.”
Issacharoff added that Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, could make a huge difference to the future of Gaza, adding: “Bringing Saudi Arabia into the situation could be a vital factor, along with the UAE, in stabilizing the situation in Gaza in terms of reconstructing, and using all the different elements that can be used in order to begin to establish stability and begin to give some sort of stable infrastructure to that area.”
He added that Egypt would play a crucial role, too, in working with the Palestinian Authority to restore order in Gaza and to resurrect the two-state solution.
“Egypt has a vital role with the PA,” he said. “I think the PA — I don’t see any alternative of having it come and re-establish its own rule in Gaza.”
He added: “We have, along with the revitalized PA, to find a way to address and avert the almost imminent or already existent humanitarian crisis in Gaza, but also in stabilizing the West Bank — otherwise, again, we are not going forward.”
Egypt expert warns Gaza war’s impact on Egyptian-Israeli ties ‘impossible to ignore’
https://arab.news/zygxr
Egypt expert warns Gaza war’s impact on Egyptian-Israeli ties ‘impossible to ignore’
- Former diplomat Youssef says Egyptian response to conflict ‘measured’ but adds ‘concerns growing’ over situation in Rafah
- Former Israeli ambassador warns hostages need to be released, suggests future Saudi-UAE role in Gaza reconstruction
Retouched images of Israel’s first lady, distributed by the state, ignite a fiery ethics debate
- Since the manipulation of images was revealed, the government has taken the unprecedented step of crediting Sara Netanyahu in its releases that include manipulated images
JERUSALEM: The photos seemed destined for posterity in Israel’s state archives.
In the snapshots, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is joined by his wife, Sara, as well as US Ambassador Mike Huckabee and a group of Israeli soldiers, as they light Hannukah candles at Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews pray. The leaders exchange triumphant looks.
But something is off.
Sara Netanyahu’s skin is poreless, her eyes overly defined and her hair perfectly coiffed — a look officials acknowledge is the result of heavy retouching.
Critics say the issue isn’t the use of photo-editing software, which is common on the social media accounts of celebrities and public figures. They say it’s the circulation of the images in official government announcements, which distorts reality, violates ethical codes and risks compromising official archiving and record-keeping efforts.
“All the pictures to this day in the archives in Israel are authentic pictures of reality as it was captured by the lenses of photographers’ cameras since the establishment of the state,” said Shabi Gatenio, the veteran political journalist who broke the story in The Seventh Eye, an Israeli site that covers local media. “These images, if entered into the database, will forever infect it with a virtual reality that never existed.”
Since the manipulation of images was revealed, the government has taken the unprecedented step of crediting Sara Netanyahu in its releases that include manipulated images. And it’s not clear if official archive will include images of her taken during the second half of last year, when Gatenio said the editing appears to have begun.
The first lady’s personal spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Nitzan Chen, director of the Government Press Office, told The Associated Press that images of the prime minister are never manipulated and that his office would not upload any retouched photos to the official archive.
Personal Photoshop habit enters political realm
Sara Netanyahu, 67, has long used photo-editing software on her images. Her social media account is filled with images in which her face appears heavily retouched.
But the topic raised eyebrows since her Photoshop habit entered the public record.
Gatenio said he first noticed this last July, when the couple visited President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., and again in September, as Sara Netanyahu joined her husband on the tarmac ahead of a trip to New York for the UN General Assembly.
At the time, the prime minister’s office released a video of the send-off along with a photo, credited to Avi Ohayon, an official government photographer.
Comparing the photo to the raw video, Hany Farid, a digital forensics expert at the University of California, Berkeley, said the image had been post-processed, bearing local manipulations to smooth the first lady’s skin and remove wrinkles.
Since then, photos showing the first lady meeting with Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha, in Washington also appear to have been retouched, Farid said.
“There’s been some Photoshop editing to — let’s call it — ‘beautify,’ lighten, smooth the face,” Farid said.
“Is it nefarious? No. Is it a problem? Yes. This is about something bigger than, ‘she Photoshopped her face to make herself look younger.’ This is about trust. Why should I trust any official photo coming out of that administration?”
Chen, the head of the Government Press Office, said office lawyers are trying to determine how to handle and properly identify photos “processed by people other than GPO photographers.”
He said the Justice Ministry is also examining the “criteria, limitations and possibilities” of the edited images, though he stressed there is nothing illegal about touching up photos. The issue, he said, is being transparent when such changes are made.
For now, his office has decided to add Sara Netanyahu’s name to press releases that include retouched images. Since November, press releases showing photos of her smiling next to Trump and the family of the last hostage in Gaza in Washington, visiting a Miami synagogue and attending a funeral for an Israeli mayor have included this label.
At least one outlet, the Times of Israel, has said it will no longer carry official state photos that appear to have been manipulated. The Associated Press does not publish images that appear to have been retouched or digitally manipulated.
A broader phenomenon
Chen said the prime minister is never edited: “No Photoshop, no corrections, no color. Nothing.”
While his face may not be retouched, the prime minister’s official Instagram account tells another story.
The page has posted a bevy of content that appears to be AI-edited or generated, including a picture of the couple with Trump and first lady Melania Trump celebrating the new year in Washington.
The photo raised suspicions in Israel because it shows Sara Netanyahu wearing a black dress absent from other photos of the event, where she wore a dark red frock. Appearing in the sky above the couples are brightly colored fireworks and American and Israeli flags that Farid said were “almost certainly” generated by AI.
It is now marked with a tag on Instagram indicating that it may have been altered or generated using AI. It is not clear when the tag was added nor by whom.
Netanyahu is not alone. Many world figures, including Trump, use AI-generated image manipulation frequently in their public output.
Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler, who runs the “Democracy in the Digital Age Program,” at the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem think tank, called it “part of the populist playbook” and said there was “no question” that Netanyahu was emulating how Trump uses the technology.
Netanyahu’s official Instagram has posted video of Trump and Netanyahu in a B-2 bomber that appears entirely AI-generated. It is captioned “on our victory lap,” referencing the joint Israel-US attacks on Iran last year.
“This is exactly what Netanyahu and his surrounding circle have tried to do for many years,” she said. “Presenting himself as a superhero, his wife as a supermodel, their family as a super loyal family. Even when it wasn’t the case, even at the expense of actual political work, administrative work and social work.”
She said Israel has reached a critical point in official government record-keeping and communications.
“The question of archiving the truth, archiving history, will be one of the questions of our time.”
