Al-Ahram Weekly

On Monday, 18 February 1980, "a simple celebration" -- in Al-Ahram's words -- was held to mark the "the beginning of operation" of the Israeli Embassy in Cairo. On 26 February Eliahu Ben-Elissar, Israel's first ambassador to Egypt, formally presented his credentials to President Anwar El-Sadat. A similar ceremony was held in Tel Aviv where Saad Murtada, Egypt's first ambassador to Israel, presented his own credentials to Israeli President Yitzhak Navon. The everyday diplomatic formalities belied the momentous nature of these events. With the raising of the Israeli flag in Cairo the Arab world was torn apart and Egypt was at war with itself. Twenty years later Israel has embassies in two other Arab states, Jordan and Mauritania, and representation offices in four more. Nevertheless, a just Arab-Israeli peace seems as elusive as ever, while the bulk of the two past decades of Egyptian-Israeli relations have been described as "cold" by both Egyptians and Israelis. Al-Ahram Weekly examines what the next 20 years might hold

Bomb shadows
Menachem Klein, a research fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Israeli Studies, has written extensively on Israel's relations with the Arab world. His most recent book, Doves over Jerusalem, is the first detailed account of the understandings reached in 1995 between Israel's Justice Minister Doves and PLO executive member Mahmoud Abbass on a final settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He speaks to Graham Usher on Israeli-Egyptian relations 20 years on, and speculates on their future in a post-peace Middle East

What the future holds
The next two decades of Egypt-Israel relations are unlikely to be much better than the past two, if at all. Dina Ezzat examines the reasons

Signs of strain
Khaled Dawoud negotiates the tight security around the Israeli Embassy in Cairo

Just a façade
An Israeli flag has fluttered in Cairo for 20 years. But what does it mean? Amira Howeidy canvasses opinions from across the political spectrum