Maariv: Egypt is heading towards confrontation with Israel

In a striking development that reflects the state of concern in the Israeli security and media establishment, the Israeli Maariv newspaper claimed that Egypt may be on its way to a direct confrontation with Israel, noting that the timing and size of preparations on the Egyptian side are difficult to ignore.

The Israeli report, was based on analysis by Israeli army reserve lieutenant colonel Dr. Moshe Elad, a researcher specializing in Middle East affairs and terrorism.

He claims that there are indications on the ground and politics that indicate a possible shift in the Egyptian position from a state of stalemate to a state of confrontation.

The report didn’t provide precise details about the nature of Egypt’s alleged preparations, but linked these warnings to the volatile regional context, where Israel and the United States are waging a full-scale war against Iran.

It seems that decision-making circles in Israel fear that the conflict will spread to other fronts, especially with the escalating public anger in the Arab street over the Israeli war.

Observers believe that this type of media analysis may have several objectives:

• Testing Egyptian and international feedback.
• Preparing Israeli public opinion for any possible military developments on the Egyptian front.
• Pressuring Cairo diplomatically and in the media to push it to announce its position more clearly.

Egyptian-Israeli relations, which have been regulated by the Camp David peace treaty since 1979, have gone through many periods of ebb and flow, and have always been described as a cold peace.

But the current regional escalation, and the war on Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran, are putting this treaty under enormous pressure, especially in light of growing popular and partisan demands in Egypt to reconsider relations with Israel.

There has been no official Egyptian comment on these Israeli allegations so far, leaving the door open for speculation and questions about the future of the relationship between the region’s two largest countries in the midst of the storm of war.