Publication

This policy brief discusses the political crisis which developed between Israel and Egypt in the wake of the August 2011 terror attack in the Israeli city of Eilat. The news that Egyptian soldiers had been killed in Sinai by an Israeli force led to tumultuous anti-Israel demonstrations. While the Egyptian political response was initially hostile, the atmosphere changed shortly afterwards. There are apparently two reasons for this sharp change in policy. The first is pressure on Egypt from the United States and other Western countries not to act hastily. The second is the character of the Egyptian regime in the post-Mubarak period.