If Jews are interested in establishing a Jewish community in Egypt, the government will build synagogues and other communal institutions, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi told a US delegation during a two-hour meeting last week.

The delegation was made up of the Anwar Sadat Congressional Gold Medal Commission that advocated the granting of the US Congressional Gold Medal posthumously to the slain Egyptian president who made peace with Israel. Its members traveled to Egypt to invite Sisi to the ceremony in the fall, when the medal will be given to Sadat’s wife, Jehan.

The group was headed by the founder of the commission, Ezra Friedlander, an ultra-Orthodox consultant and lobbyist from New York who spearheaded efforts to have the award granted to Sadat. This required the passage of a bill that needed to be sponsored by two-thirds of Congress and was signed by US President Donald Trump in December.

“President Sisi spoke fondly not only of Egypt’s past vibrant Jewish community, but also said that should there be a resurgence of the Jewish community in Egypt, the government will provide every religious necessity required…  that was a very warm embrace,” he said. “He [Sisi] basically said that should there be a resurgence of the Jewish community, the government will build synagogues and other related services.”

CAIRO MEETING: Ezra Frieldander (center) shakes hands with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi (right) after inviting him to a ceremony in Washington this fall where the US Congressional Gold Medal will be posthumously bestowed on slain Egyptian president Anwar Sadat.

Sisi’s comments came a couple of weeks after the United Arab Emirates officially recognized its small Jewish community, in a move seen as an effort to present itself to the West as a country that is tolerant of other religions. While there was never a historical Jewish community in the UAE – although there is now a small synagogue in Dubai – the Jewish community in Egypt extends back to antiquity. Before the establishment of Israel in 1948, an estimated 75,000 Jews lived in the country. They were expelled in the 1950s, and only a handful of Jews are believed to live in Egypt today.

The commission’s founder said that Sisi also promised to clean up the ancient Bassatine Cemetery in Cairo, a cemetery dating back to the ninth century and believed to be the second-oldest Jewish cemetery in the world. In December, Sisi also announced a multimillion-dollar project to restore Jewish heritage sites in Egypt.

Friedlander said that the goal of the commission that pushed for the medal for Sadat was to “remind the world that great statesmen do exist.”

The meeting with Sisi, he said, was meant “to underscore the great importance we members of the American Jewish community place on enhancing ties between the United States and Egypt. President Sisi is a leader in the Arab World who understands the importance of moderation and inclusion, and is probably the glue that keeps the Middle East stable.”

Friedlander said that his personal interest in Sadat stemmed from his watching the Egyptian president land in Israel in 1977.

“I remember going to my neighbors and watching that,” he said. “That iconic image was etched in my memory.” Now, Friedlander said, “I fervently believe that it is the role of American Jews to publicly ally themselves with President Sisi.”

Friedlander said that neither he nor anyone in his delegation brought up with Sisi concerns about human rights violations in Egypt.

“In that part of the world, people misuse the term ‘human rights’ – and use it as a way of overthrowing one government and replacing it with another one without any semblance of human rights,” he said, pointing to the 1979 revolution in Iran that led to the fall of the shah and the beginning of the Islamic revolution under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

“No one will convince me that those calling for human rights [in Egypt] are doing the world a favor,” he said. “I think Sisi should be embraced in the West, by the administration and every member of Congress as a strategic ally of the US.”

He quoted Sisi as saying that if he does not get US support, the Muslim Brotherhood could regain power in the country. Sisi, Friedlander said, “is clearly looking for support in the United States, and I think it is our moral duty to support him to the greatest extent possible.”

Among others in the delegation that met Sisi were Shafik Gabr, an Egyptian industrialist; Isaac Dabah, the CEO of Delta Galil Industries which operates four plants in Egypt; and Tzili Charney, the widow of Leon Charney, who was an adviser to some of the negotiators during the Camp David talks that led to the Israeli-Egypt peace treaty.

Source: https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Sisi-If-Jews-return-to-Egypt-well-build-synagogues-581664

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in New York . (photo credit: AVI OHAYON – GPO)Military cooperation between Egypt and Israel has reached an unprecedented level

in the Sinai Peninsula, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said in an interview with CBS News which will be broadcast Sunday.

Asked if security cooperation with Israel was the closest ever between two countries which were once enemies, he answered, “That is correct… We have a wide range of cooperation with the Israelis.”

Israel shares a 240-km.-long border with the restive Sinai Peninsula, and Cairo and Jerusalem have been reportedly closely cooperating in the fight against an estimated 1,000 ISIS terrorists in the region since Sisi rose to power.

Northern Sinai, a mountainous desert between the Suez Canal and Israel, has been a refuge for Islamist terrorists, with the peninsula’s main jihadist group, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, carrying out several attacks – some deadly – against IDF troops patrolling the border.

Following Sisi’s rise to power, the group – which pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and the Islamic State in 2014 – began a wave of deadly attacks against Egyptian security forces in the Sinai.

Sisi began waging military operations against the jihadists, and while the terrorist group has lost much of its strength, it remains active and continues to carry out deadly attacks.

In February 2017, following a massacre of 305 worshipers at al-Rawda mosque in the northern Sinai city of Bir el-Abd, a senior Israeli defense official stated that the “relationship between Israel and Egypt is ongoing. Israel has always been ready to lend a hand and provide assistance to any country in the war against terrorism, in this case and in the future as well.”

According to foreign reports, the militaries of the two countries meet regularly to exchange intelligence in the fight against ISIS, and Cairo has given the green light to Jerusalem to strike the terrorists by air.

In February, The New York Times reported that for more than two years Israel had been carrying out a full-blown covert aerial campaign against ISIS terrorists in the Sinai, conducting some 100 airstrikes by unmarked drones, helicopters and jets, with Sisi’s approval.

The report also stated that it was “unclear if any Israeli troops or special forces have set inside Egyptian borders,” as it would increase the risk of exposure for the two sides which have remained, until now, mum on the cooperation.

In Israel, the military censor has restricted reports of the cooperation. Following the interview with CBS’s Scott Pelley, the Egyptian ambassador contacted the network and requested that the interview – which also touched on the jailing of Sisi’s opponents and the massacre of 800 civilians when he was defense minister – not be aired.

CBS has insisted that the interview will nonetheless be broadcast on Sunday at 7 p.m. EST/PST.

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