Celebrating 30 Years of activity of the Israel-Egypt Friendship Association
1980-2010
and 31 Years of the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty – signed on 26.3.1979

Levana Zamir, President of the Israel-Egypt Friendship Association, with Minister Silvan Shalom (right), Vice-Prime-Minister, and Barakat Ellessi, Egyptian Embassy Israel. Tel-Aviv, March 12th 2010.

The Gala Event was held at the Einav Center in Tel-Aviv by the Israel-Egypt Friendship Association, in cooperation with the Egyptian Embassy in Israel, the Menahem Begin Heritage Center and the Municipality of Tel-Aviv.

Attending this successful and joyful event were some 350 participants, representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassadors and delegates of 28 foreign countries in Israel, the Academy, and many Jews from Egypt who enjoyed gathering at this much elegant festivity.

The programme included  Israeli Folk Dancing by the National Israeli group "Shalom", Music of Abdel-Wahab by the "Trio of Nazareth" highly applauded by the audience, and a rich Egyptian Buffet groaning with delicacies: Kobeba, Pasteles, Warak 'Enab, Menena, Basboussa, Ghorayeba, and even the delicious Kahk be-Semsem. 30 years of activities in a 16-minute movie: The highlight of this event was a dynamic movie of 16 minutes, presenting the many and important events and achievements of the Israel-Egypt Friendship Association during 30 years of activities in Israel and Egypt, ebbing and flowing to the historical waves of "cold or warm peace". After this successful event, we received many emails               of appreciation. Here is one received from Andrew C.Parker, Consul General of the United States of America Embassy:

Levana Zamir, with 3 former Ambassadors of Israel to Egypt: Prof. Shimon Shamir (right), Shalom Cohen and Zvi Mazel.

Dear Mrs. Zamir,

Thank you for making it possible for us to attend your event today.  It was an honor to  

participate in an event marking such an important milestone in the history of both Israel and Egypt.

Regards,

Andrew C. Parker, Consul General - U.S. Embassy Tel-Aviv.

The guests of honor presented their speeches during the event, very shortly.

Here below some "pearls" from those speeches:

Herzl Makov, Director General of the Menahem Begin Heritage Center

The Peace Treaty between Israel and Egypt is the second most important historical event after the proclamation of the State of Israel and the Liberation of Jerusalem.

Sadat and Begin‘s achievement should be remembered and learned from.

Barakat Ellessi, representing the Egyptian Embassy in Israel

Since the signing of Peace between Israel and Egypt, our relations are developing steadily and constantly.  This is the logical result of the Sadat and Begin initiative. President Mubarak is always calling for peace in the region, which suffered so much. As we celebrate Peace today, so let us work to create the proper environment for peace.

Nathan Wallach – Tel-Aviv Municipality

The normalization process is long and difficult, with many obstacles. But both sides know that Peace between our two countries is of strategic importance. Commercial ties are forming and there is no doubt that the Israel-Egypt Friendship Association is playing an important role in fostering closer relations for a dialogue between the two countries.

Silvan Shalom, Vice Prime Minister

Egypt being the major power and the leader of the entire Arab world, it was very important that the first Peace Treaty was signed with Egypt. By so doing Egypt said to the whole Arab world that Israel is here, and Israel is here for ever.

We should learn from 1977 that direct negotiations work and avoid time-wasting.

Professor Shimon Shamir – Tel-Aviv University and former Ambassador of Israel to Egypt:

I believe that in spite of all its problems the Israeli-Egyptian peace is a remarkable success story, achieving the priority objective that the architects of peace had in mind: “no more war, no more bloodshed”.

Today, as at the time of the conclusion of the peace treaty, there is a convergence of interests between Israel and Egypt. Today, both countries want stability in the region, both are confronting extremism and terrorism, and both are threatened by the ambitions of Iran.

These shared interests are the solid foundation of our relations, serving the goals of both countries. People like Levana Zamir and her colleagues at the Israel-Egypt Friendship Association are playing an important role in developing those shared interests into a people-to-people relationship and working towards friendship between our two societies.

Levana Zamir – President of the Israel-Egypt Friendship Association

After more than 30 years of Peace with Egypt, we should be looking ahead.  As early as in February 1939, our first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion advocated a Middle-Eastern Confederation including a Jewish State [London Round-Table Conference – e.n.]. In the third millennium, when Europe, rising from the ashes of WWI and WWII, is merging into one entity, Ben-Gurion’s dream is not a delusion.

The multicultural and cosmopolitan Jews of Egypt could be a bridge to achieving this aim.