Israel’s ambassador to Egypt still sitting at home

Almost a year has gone by since the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced, on Oct. 29, 2018, that Amira Oron would be the country’s next ambassador to Egypt. Oron is an experienced diplomat, who speaks Arabic and already served in both Cairo and Ankara. She was supposed to be the first woman to serve as Israel’s ambassador in the Egyptian capital since the signing of the 1979 peace agreement between the two countries. The problem is that one year after her appointment was confirmed by the Foreign Ministry’s Appointments Committee, Oron has been sitting at home, while the embassy in Egypt has no ambassador. Since the situation could be harmful to the bilateral relationship between the two countries, the inevitable question is: What went wrong with this important appointment, and why has the government not approved it?

With Israel and Egypt about to mark 46 years since the outbreak of the 1973 Yom Kippur War (known as the October War in Egypt), it is impossible to ignore the enormous advantages of the peace reached after that terrible war. Despite everything the region has experienced, the peace agreement between Israel and Egypt has somehow managed to survive. It may be a cold peace, but it is peace nonetheless.