International Relations

Egypt has expressed its official irritation through its foreign ministry summoning Canada's ambassador to Egypt, over the perceived diplomatic lapse when Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird met in East Jerusalem with Israel's new coalition Justice Minister Tzipi Livni in her East Jerusalem office. East Jerusalem, famously, is not considered by most of the international community nor by the United Nations, to represent a legitimate Israeli possession, despite having captured it in from Jordan in the 1967 Middle-East war against Israel.

This lapse in international diplomatic protocol deeply offends Egypt, just as it enraged the Palestinian Authority which contends that East Jerusalem is the indisputable heritage venue for their capital in a nascent Palestinian state. Needless to say, such a move would entirely deprive Jews of access to their most sacred religious shrine, the Wailing Wall. Just as occurred during Jordanian rule of the site.

Even under Israeli rule which permits the Temple Mount where the second Temple of Solomon once stood, overbuilt by Muslims and called by them the Noble Sanctuary, to be administered by the Islamic Waqf, to maintain religious peace, approach by Jews is questionable, due to the violent reaction of Muslims who refuse to acknowledge any Judaic connection to what they claim is the third most sacred site in Islam.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry made a point of warning that Minister Baird's hugely offensive gaff could have the effect of making Canada 'complicit' with Israel's purported human rights violations within the occupied territory. Egypt's ambassador to Canada also made haste to register his country's concerns. Mr. Baird reiterated his position that what happens with East Jerusalem will be determined by peace talks.

Canada's senior Palestinian Territories diplomat was also summoned to speak with the PA who wished to render their "strong dissatisfaction" of Canada's "deplorable step".  The Egyptian Foreign Minister qualified the incident as "an implicit recognition of illegal Israeli attempts to annex East Jerusalem".

When Ambassador to Canada Wael Aboulmagd characterized the incident as unhelpful to Middle East peace, Mr. Baird responded that Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi's infamous description of Jews as descendants of apes and pigs represented the truly unhelpful incident relating to Middle East peace - or Israeli surrender to Islamic demands.

Since the ouster of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak who honoured the historic peace agreement that his predecessor Anwar Sadat signed with then-Israeli Prime Minister Menacham Begin, violence and threats emanating from Islamist jihadists from the Sinai which Israel had signed over restoring the territory to Egyptian rule, has increased.

Under the government of the Muslim Brotherhood and President Mohammed Morsi, diplomatic relations between the two countries have cooled immeasurably. Co-operation between the two seems no longer to be taken for granted. To give credit where it is due, Mr. Morsi has not abandoned the peace treaty, and there is a measure of co-operation, however reduced, with Israel regarding security.

"It is one of Egypt's basic principles not to endanger the safety and security of any country, either those sharing borders with it or others. Egypt is a state that calls for peace and preserves it", stated a spokesman for the Egyptian president. And while that sounds reassuring, the Sinai has become increasingly lawless, with al-Qaeda-connected militias moving into the area, using it as a springboard for attacks into Israel.

Perhaps that should be a matter of international indignation.