Word: cairo
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...year ago, a blue and white flag embossed with the Star of David was hoisted above a sandstone villa in a broad-avenued residential district in Cairo. Simultaneously, the red, white and black Egyptian flag was raised over a newly opened embassy in Tel Aviv. After three decades of war, Israel and Egypt had at last embarked on a peaceful reconciliation and, as a first step, exchanged ambassadors. Since then, the attempt by the two erstwhile foes to become good neighbors has unfolded like an uncertain and at times highly awkward tango...
...however, have responded by blowing hot and cold. Explains Israel's Ambassador to Egypt, Eliahu Ben Elissar: "We were ready to dance in the streets when the Egyptian flag was raised in Israel. But the Egyptians had not spent their lives dreaming of seeing the Israeli flag in Cairo. That was the beginning of the asymmetry, and it has continued to this...
Despite inevitable frictions, both sides can point to significant achievements as a result of normalization of relations. Six round-trip airline flights a week now connect Cairo and Tel Aviv-three by El Al and three by Nefertiti Airways, a makeshift airline designed to protect EgyptAir from possible boycotts at Arab airports. Numerous accords have been signed in commerce, technical-exchange, land transport and cultural-affairs programs. Israel has sold Egypt $12 million worth of goods, ranging from bananas to iron ore. Egypt, in turn, has sold Israel $500 million in oil-a quarter of its production-and has picked...
...Elissar, 48, a close political ally of Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and a former high intelligence official, to be Israel's first Ambassador to Egypt seemed hardly reassuring at the outset. Eventually, however, Ben Elissar, with his trim pharaonic beard, became a familiar figure in Cairo. Gratified by the change, he observes: "An Israeli in Egypt is not considered today with the same curiosity I sensed a year ago, when people looked at you and seemed to ask, 'Are you on the side of the angels or Satan...
...pyramids to Jerusalem's Wailing Wall used to require a leap of the imagination for Egyptians and Israelis. Today, as a result of normalized relations between their countries, they can make the journey by car or bus across the Sinai in a few hours. Last week Cairo Bureau Chief William Drozdiak made the crossing and sent this report...