Egypt's new ambassador in Israel looks to have some difficult tasks ahead of him, reports Magda El-Ghitany Being Egypt's ambassador to Israel is far from an ordinary diplomatic mission. The dynamic tends to be even more complex when taking into account that Egypt has not had an ambassador in Tel Aviv for over four years, a period during which Israeli society itself has changed dramatically. The situation is also compounded by the fact that the entire Middle Eastern political arena, and especially the Arab- Israeli conflict, may very well be entering a new era. Egypt announced that its ambassador was going back to Tel Aviv after last month's Sharm El- Sheikh summit; Mohamed Assem was appointed Cairo's third ambassador to Israel, following Saad Mortada and Mohamed Bassiouni. Assem, 60, has been a diplomat since 1975, and first became an ambassador in 1995. Since then, he has represented Egypt in Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan, nations with which Egypt's relations are of a "sensitive nature that is extremely pivotal to Egypt's national security", an Egyptian official told Al-Ahram Weekly. With the region going through a critical phase whereby the Arab-Israeli issue could either veer towards peace or even more conflict, Egypt's ambassador in Tel Aviv is in a unique position to help all the concerned parties "deepen their concept of peace, and accordingly push the peace process forward", said political analyst Nabil Abdel-Fattah, However, Abdel-Fattah noted, "this is not an easy task, in the light of the nature of Israeli society in general, and its current status in particular." For starters, Assem will have to deal with Israeli society's complex "ethnic map, with all its multiplicity, which has changed greatly over the last four years". According to Abdel-Fattah, Egypt's ambassador will have to establish a "successful dialogue with the various Israeli parties", in order to impact the "Israeli vision towards peace". Mohamed El-Sayed Said, deputy director of Al- Ahram's Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, agreed that "extremist, rightist Israeli [trends] that have had a strong presence in the political arena since 2000", will no doubt constitute a challenge that may make it difficult for the Egyptian ambassador to help "both parties [the Palestinians and the Israelis] to attain peace in this atmosphere". Said said another challenge for Assem will involve dealing with the "defective Israeli stereotype that Arabs in general support anti-Semitic actions". Egyptian officials are confident, however, that Assem's background and experience will help him deal with the many obstacles awaiting him. His tenures in Ethiopia and Kenya, Eastern African states that are part of the Nile basin countries, "enabled him to deal with sensitive issues and last minute problems", one Egyptian official source said. "Securing stable relations with both of these states is critically important for Egypt -- to ensure its share of Nile water, and accordingly its national security." Assem, for instance, no doubt played an important role in bettering relations between Cairo and Addis Ababa following the assassination attempt on President Hosni Mubarak that took place in Ethiopia in 1995. Abdel-Fattah said the fact that Assem has served as Egypt's ambassador to Sudan since 2000 helped him deal with various groups and parties with different ideologies, many of which only came to the surface over the past four years. "Sudan is a country whose security is very much connected to Egypt's. At the same time, [Sudan] has a variety of ethnic and ideological groups that require certain diplomatic skills, in order to deal with them." This experience, Abdel-Fattah said, will definitely help Assem "deal with the different new ideologies he will meet in Israel". The exact date Assem will take over the post has yet to be decided.
