Netanyahu-Sisi Meeting Presumed to Focus on Gaza Truce

Previous meetings between Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi have been out of sight, but Wednesday’s sit-down on the sidelines of the opening session of the UN General Assembly was well-publicized even if the information released remained limited. Although local media are reporting that Egyptian efforts to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip topped the agenda, there is no shortage of things to talk about when the two leaders get together. Israel and Egypt share the center-ring as targets of Islamist terrorists and the two nations are important pieces of the region’s new dynamics, with predominantly Sunni nations tentatively opening their doors to Israel in anticipation of an eventual show-down with Iran for which they want to have the Israeli military prowess firmly on their side. Israel and Egypt are also joined by a $15 billion gas deal for which Israeli and Egyptian companies announced buy-ins on the pipeline that will facilitate the flow of natural gas.