Israel quietly withdraws ambassador from Egypt 'over security concerns'

Israel quietly withdraws ambassador from Egypt 'over security concerns'
Israeli ambassador David Govrin left Egypt late last year
14 February 2017 • 12:43pm
Israel quietly withdrew its ambassador from Egypt several weeks ago amid fears about his safety, according to Israeli officials.
Sources told The Telegraph that Ambassador David Govrin was pulled out of Egypt at the end of last year over security concerns.
Their claims were confirmed by the Shin Bet, Israel's lead security agency. "Due to security concerns the return of the Foreign Ministry embassy staff to Cairo has been restricted," a spokesman said. 
The ambassador is currently working from Jerusalem and the Israeli government hopes that he will be able to return to his post soon.
It is not clear what the security concerns were but Egypt has been wracked by a series of terror attacks in the last year. 
The Israeli Foreign Ministry declined to comment. 

The case highlights the difficulties Israel faces in carrying out diplomatic work in Egypt, which along with Jordan is the only Arab country to have diplomatic ties to the Jewish state.  
Israel and Egypt established diplomatic relations in 1980 after thirty years of war but the relationship is sometimes referred to as “a cold peace”. 
While the two governments cooperate closely on security issues their citizens rarely visit each other’s countries and anti-Israeli sentiments still run high in Egypt. 
In September 2011 a crowd of rioters stormed the Israeli embassy compound in Cairo and trapped six Israeli security guards inside a barricaded safe room. 

The Israelis were rescued by Egyptian commandos after the US government demanded that the military junta ruling Egypt at the time get them out safely. 
Since then the Israeli embassy has been moved to a small building inside the ambassador’s residence in the Maadi suburb of south Cairo. 
Streets leading to the building are blocked off and the area is heavily guarded by Egyptian security forces. 
Mr Govrin was appointed ambassador to Egypt last summer after his predecessor requested to leave his post because of the arduous security restrictions, according to Haaretz.
While other foreign ambassadors are able to move relatively freely around Cairo, the Israeli envoy travels everywhere with a heavy security detail.    
Mr Govrin is a fluent Arabic speaker who wrote his doctoral thesis on Arab liberalism. In a breezy Youtube video posted in July, Mr Govrin introduces himself to the Egyptian public in Arabic and talks about his affection for their country and his hopes for Israel-Egyptian relations. 



“A close neighbour is better a distant brother,” he says, quoting a Biblical proverb. 
The Israeli embassy website shows Mr Govrin visited the Egypt Museum in Cairo in November but there is no record of his presence in Egypt after that. 
Eli Shaked, the Israeli ambassador in Egypt from 2003 to 2005, said he was guarded by Egyptian security guards and Israeli operatives whenever he left the embassy.
“There were days when we warned about possible acts against me or my staff or the embassy and there were some occasions when we were alarmed but were always able to stay in Egypt,” he told The Telegraph. 
“It was different then, nowadays the security problems are much tougher.”
The Egyptian government is waging a bloody counter insurgency operation against a jihadist group linked to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) and has suffered terror attacks across the country. 
The group, known as Isil Sinai Province, claimed credit for killing 27 people in a bombing at a Christian church in Cairo in December. Two Egyptian generals were assassinated by Islamist gunmen in the autumn and dozens of police and soldiers have been killed. 

News of Mr Govrin’s withdrawal from Egypt was first reported on Facebook by Amin el-Mahdy, an Egyptian political analyst who maintains contacts with Israeli officials.
Mr el-Mahdy said he did not believe that the ambassador was withdrawn over security fears and said instead that the move was the result of behind the scenes political tensions between Egypt and Israel.
He said he believed that Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the Egyptian president, were in a disagreement over Gaza and its border with Egypt and that the argument had led to Mr Govrin being brought home.   
“Why is Netanyahu is hiding from his people the details of his conflict with the Egyptian military junta, and with Sisi, his staunch ally?” Mr el-Mahdy wrote on Facebook. 
Israeli officials denied there was any political reason for the ambassador’s withdrawal.
Relations between Israel and Egypt are generally seen as deeper than ever before, with the countries working together on security issues at their shared border. 
“The connections and the relationship has never been better,” said Mr Shaked, the former Israeli ambassador. 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/02/14/israel-quietly-withdraws-ambassador-egypt-security-concerns/