Ron Vsman Linda, a previous Israeli diplomat in Cairo, said that the Egyptian regime deals with the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) as its primary enemies, while Israel does not seem to be a central enemy of the Egyptian regime, according to Al-Jazeera.
In an article in Yediot Ahronot today, Linda said, “The period of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood in power” was very short, which prevented Mohamed Morsi from bringing about any far-reaching changes in the country, so the relationship between Egypt and Israel has not been greatly affected; because the same army officers before the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood to power are those who preserved the Israeli-Egyptian relations.”
Linda -the political adviser to the late President Shimon Pérez- attributed this position to the fact that Israel “is considered in the eyes of decision-making circles in Cairo as meeting Egypt’s strategic, political and security needs. She added that Egypt looks less critical of the Israeli policy at international forums, in return for Israel’s continuing efforts to maintain the US support to the regime in Cairo. ”
She pointed to the existence of a “security cooperation and coordination of intelligence between Tel Aviv and Cairo, that has culminated in an unprecedented way since the peace agreement in 1979, where Israel agreed to allow Egypt to bypass some articles of the Camp David agreement in the Sinai Peninsula to enable the Egyptian army to deal with the threat posed by Islamic groups against its soldiers. ”
Egypt living a state of instability
Linda, who is currently assistant to the director of “Local Government Center” in Israel, also indicated the economic crisis that prevailed in Egypt, saying that “Egypt has recently been living in a state of instability and volatility at breakneck speed,” adding that Egypt “is witnessing harsh armed operations, a large part of them are not circulated in the media, and therefore the security situation has deteriorated so much in Egypt.”
Sisi’s Repression against the Muslim Brotherhood
“Egypt sees daily arrest campaigns against anyone suspected of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, so Egypt’s prisons are overcrowded with prisoners, and the Egyptian army is now preoccupied with the state management in all areas, without placing any limits on its powers.”
Linda concluded that “the internal ideological division in Egypt has become very deep, as well as the bad economic situation, and the popular anger over this situation, which may contribute to the destabilization of the Egyptian military control of the country. Therefore, the army continues to mobilize its supporters around it against those whom the Egyptian military consider as an enemy, such as the ISIS affiliate or the Muslim Brotherhood. “
