Israel’s relations with Egypt, Morocco and Saudi Arabia

According to a report by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), “almost all negative depictions of Christians and Jews” have been removed from the latest Saudi school textbooks. In addition, the new content criticises some Islamist groups such as Hezbollah, IS, Al-Qaeda, the Houthi Movement and the Muslim Brotherhood. This information appeared during reports on American efforts to normalise Saudi-Israeli relations.

Morocco has decided to delay the annual Negev regional foreign ministers’ summit to protest Israeli plans to expand settlements in the occupied West Bank. The Negev Summit was held for the first time in March 2022 and brought together diplomats from Israel, Morocco, Egypt, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and the US. The meeting, which was next to be hosted by Morocco, was to be repeated annually to build a platform for cooperation between the Arab states and Israel on issues such as climate change and environmental desertification.

Israel and Egypt maintain relations only through the office of the Egyptian President and General and Military Intelligence. This enables cooperation within mutual security threats, such as IS and Hamas, and economic initiatives – energy cooperation and tourism. The Egyptian state cooperates with Israel solely to safeguard its national interest, but anti-Israel sentiment has been prevalent among Egyptians for decades.