Israel confident on Egypt ties

Israel’s ties with Egypt remain strong despite a controversial documentary about the 1967 Six-Day War, an Israeli official said. Amos Gilad, chief strategist in Israel’s Defense Ministry, said Sunday that relations with Cairo are good despite Egyptian anger at “The Spirit of Shaked,” an Israeli television documentary.Israeli and Egyptian media asserted that the film contains eyewitness accounts of the massacre of Egyptian prisoners of war by Israel, though in fact the testimony is far more elliptical. The reports prompted stormy debates in the Egyptian parliament and the cancellation of a planned trip by Israeli Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, who appears in the documentary as a former army commander. But Gilad, who regularly holds security talks with his Egyptian counterparts, foresaw no lasting diplomatic damage.”Israeli-Egyptian ties are anchored in peace deals and joint interests,” he told Israel Radio. “I can personally testify that my impression is that their interest is in the relations continuing. There will of course be problems and challenges, and a joint response will be considered. There is no alternative to peace, no matter how complicated it
is.”