Egypt and Israel

President Obama welcomed the 81-year-old Egyptian president for his first White House visit in five years, continuing a concerted effort to improve bilateral relations that had been damaged by the Iraq war.

It has been 30 years since the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Accord when Israel relinquished the Sinai for the promise of peace. Thirty years later neither side is very happy but Egypt is in a strong position to initiate progress.

The Talmud–Book of Law mentions both the thirties and the eighties as being decades of strength; Israel and their leader Binyamin Netanyahu are just over fifty. Fifty in Torah is considered forever.

The Cabala explains that strength comes from the ability to contract and hold back; this attribute to constrain and confine is indicated from the translation of Egypt into Hebrew, Mitzriam from the word Matzer/Confine. The Jewish People were confined in Egypt for 210 years until Moshe/Moses brought the people out of the sea as if it were the the water breaking and the womb opening giving birth to the Jewish People– that was 3500 years ago.

Since then there has been a long and generally peaceful relationship between these two ancient powers. Thirty years ago Israel gave back the land conquered during the war and Egypt held back the rage for more war. Neither has been a solution.