Communications

When Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to Cairo last week to chair the annual U.S.-Egypt Strategic Dialogue, one of his main goals was to advance the stalled ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel. A key sticking point in those talks is the disposition of the Philadelphia Corridor, a narrow portion of the Gaza Strip that runs along the border with Egypt....

Ofir Winter, a senior researcher at the Israeli Institute for National Security Studies, maintains that Netanyahu’s statements on the Philadelphi Corridor pushed Cairo into a corner. "The accusations by Netanyahu, qualifying the border between Gaza and Egypt as porous, embarrassed Cairo because they imply Egyptian fault," Winter told Al-Monitor.

“Very strong public comments sometimes coexist with residual flexibility, almost always,” US Ambassador Jack Lew said at a Tel Aviv conference. Pressed on whether Netanyahu’s statements have become an obstacle to hostage negotiations, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby responded on Thursday that “the biggest obstacle to getting a ceasefire deal is...

“Egypt’s reaction is meant to make clear to Israel that its presence at the border crossings is illegitimate in Cairo’s eyes, and that uncoordinated decisions will have a price – damage to bilateral ties,” explained Ofir Winter, senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. Egypt has another important motivation for its refusal to accept...

Without an understanding between the two countries about how the war will unfold, relations will continue to deteriorate, said Ofir Winter, an expert on Israel-Egypt ties at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. “Israel needs Egypt as a mediator in the hostages’ exchange deal, and it will need it to stabilize the situation in Gaza in any future scenario...

The peace agreement between Egypt and Israel, signed in 1979 to end hostilities and normalise relations between them, turns 45 on 26 March. The Conversation Africa asked Ofir Winter, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, who studies Egyptian politics and the Arab-Israeli conflict, for his insights on the peace deal and the key challenging moments...

“The present crisis presents potential dangers not seen in previous incidents,” said Ofir Winter, senior researcher at Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Tel Aviv and lecturer at the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Tel Aviv University. While Egypt and Israel have had rough patches since the treaty was signed, Winter told CNN, this is the worst...

Since the October 7 attack, relations between Israel and Egypt have become tense, and the so-called “cold peace” has further cooled both on the governmental and civilian levels. Egypt officially refrained from condemning Hamas’ October 7 attack, and they adopted a critical and one-sided stance towards Israel. This was evident in anti-Israeli demonstrations in Cairo—approved by...