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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Israel
Index
Despite the Arab-Israeli conflict, Israel has established
formal diplomatic relations with Egypt and maintained a de facto
peaceful relationship with Jordan. Israeli leaders have traveled to
Morocco to discuss Israeli-Arab issues, and Morocco has often
served as an intermediary between Israel and the other Arab states.
In 1983 Israel signed a peace treaty with Lebanon, although it was
quickly abrogated by the Lebanese as a result of Syrian pressure.
Some secret diplomatic contacts may also have occurred between
Israel and Tunisia.
Egypt
In late 1988, about ten years after the signing of the Camp
David Accords and the Treaty of Peace Between Egypt and Israel
(see The Peace Process
, ch. 1), a "cool" peace characterized
Egyptian-Israeli relations. These relations had originally been
envisioned as leading to a reconciliation between Israel and the
Arab states, but this development has not occurred. EgyptianIsraeli relations have been restrained by a number of developments,
including the June 1981 Israeli bombing of an Iraqi nuclear
reactor, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon directed against
Palestinian forces a year later, the establishment of an increasing
number of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip,
and the "watering down" of proposals for the autonomy of the
Palestinian inhabitants of these territories as envisaged by the
Camp David Accords and the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty.
Relations between the two countries warmed somewhat during
Peres's tenure as prime minister and minister of foreign affairs in
the National Unity Government. They again cooled, however,
following the establishment of the Likud-led cabinet in December
1988, and prime minister Shamir's rejection of Israeli
participation in an international peace conference with the PLO.
Nevertheless, the two countries continued to maintain full
diplomatic relations, and in 1985 about 60,000 Israeli tourists
visited Egypt, although Egyptian tourism to Israel was much
smaller. Cooperation occurred in the academic and scientific areas
as well as in a number of joint projects in agriculture, marine
science, and disease control.
Another issue that had impeded normal relations between Egypt
and Israel concerned the disposition of Taba, an approximately 100-
hectare border enclave and tourist area on the Gulf of Aqaba in the
Sinai Peninsula claimed by the two countries, but occupied by
Israel. Following a September 1988 ruling in Egypt's favor by an
international arbitration panel, official delegations from Israel
and Egypt met to implement the arbitral award.
Data as of December 1988
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