A Symposium on “An Analysis of Israel Election Results, and Their Impact within Israel and on the Peace Process”

The Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs (ECFA), organized a symposium, on Sunday morning, May 5^th , 2019, entitled ” An analysis of Israel election results, and their impact within Israel and on the peace process”. The symposium was held in the presence of the Palestinian Ambassador to Cairo and a number of Council members, with the participation of, Ambassador Hazem Khairat, Ambassador Muhammad Tawfik, Maj. Gen. Muhammad Ibrahim Al-Duwairi, and Ambassador Diab Al-Louh, Ambassador of the State of Palestine to Cairo.

The symposium discussed the following topics:

• Analysis of the Israeli parliamentary elections results and the chances for forming a coalition government, especially since the elections held on April 9, 2019 resulted in the victory of the far-right nationalist camp led by Benjamin Netanyahu, Likud Party Chairman, while the parties supporting the peace process, namely: Labor and Meretz – only won 10% of the seats.

• Reflections of the election results and the new coalition on the Palestinian scene, especially since the new Israeli government is just a continuation of the approach of the previous government led by Netanyahu, which strived to abort all solutions introduced for establishing any peace status or activating the two-state solution that would establish   a Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel. It had rather resorted to the use and escalation of violence, particularly as it is being supported by the US. This was evident in all US decisions made, starting with the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, then transferring US embassy to Jerusalem, cutting the UNRWA funding, and moreover, striving to pass the “Deal of the Century”.

• Diaspora Jews and their role in US-Israel relations equation, whereas the organic relationship that brings Jewish groups and US administration together was stressed upon; noting that despite differences among American-Jewish organizations, they all agreed on one idea, namely, Supporting Israel; and highlighting that since the collapse of the left-wing, which are closer to the Labor Party, AIPAC and the Jewish-Israeli organizations started leaning towards the Israeli right-wing and the Likud.

       In conclusion, the policy of the new coalition government towards the peace process and how Egypt would deal with it, was reviewed. A stress was laid on the priorities of the coalition government which includes dealing with Iran and integrating explicitly into the regional and Arab system, which will be an opportunity for the Arabs to talk about the peace process by making it conditional on achieving the coalition’s priorities, which means linking between not talking about any Israeli integration in the Arab and regional system unless the peace process has been achieved in addition to all relevant issues, whether the Golan and refugees issues, or even the Deal of the Century.

    Furthermore, a reference was made to the importance of Egypt’s role in this regard in light of its peace-based relationship with Israel; moreover, about the existence of areas of cooperation between both sides.