Former Israeli ambassador to Cairo, Yitzhak Levanon, said that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is sparing no effort to improve Israel's image in Egyptian society, reduce hostility to it, and highlight positivity in the peace relationship between the two parties, ruling that the plan to annex Palestinian lands will affect his position on Tel Aviv .
Levanon said - in an article in the Israeli newspaper Maariv - that if Sisi succeeds in this policy, the matter will help Israel in the future to advance towards the normalization of relations.
He added that the Egyptian President recalculated his path, and chose to place Egypt in the United States camp where Israel is also present, in light of "the growing Turkish hegemony that reached Libya, along with the Iranian threat and armed jihadi groups, including the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas)" .
Levanon, who was an ambassador to Cairo between 2009 and 2011, drew attention to Sisi’s statements to the American “CBS” network, in which he confirmed the existence of complete coordination with Israel in the face of terrorism, as well as amendments to the Egyptian educational curricula regarding the description of wars between Egypt and Israel In exchange for highlighting the benefits of peace.
Levanon notes in his article that Sisi’s efforts have not yet penetrated into Egyptian society, because the Egyptian professional unions are still adhering to an anti-Israel stance, as well as the media, albeit with less severity than before, at a time when bilateral relations have varied.
He expected Egypt to have a response to Israel's plan to annex large parts of the West Bank, but he said it would be a calculated response because of the political changes in the region.
He concluded his article by saying that we should encourage the Egyptian President's efforts to improve Israel's image among the Egyptian public, his success in this field will allow us in the future to progress towards normalization, our tools to reach this are silent diplomacy in which the (Israeli) Foreign Ministry is more skilled.
From next July, Israel intends to annex the Jordan Valley and all settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Palestinian estimates indicate that the annexation will reach more than 30% of the occupied West Bank.