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Anthony Blinken is in Cairo, first leg of a Middle East tour

A discussion with the Egyptian intermediary before I get into the hard part. The head of US diplomacy Antony Blinken arrived in Cairo on Sunday, the first leg of his whirlwind tour of the Middle East amid an outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian violence. Before traveling to Jerusalem and Ramallah on Monday and Tuesday, he will meet Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi and his Foreign Minister Sameh Choukri, Cairo, which historically plays a mediating role with both Palestinians and Israelis.

This shift, which has been planned for a long time, comes at a time when the security situation has suddenly deteriorated in a matter of days. On Friday and Saturday, seven people were killed and two wounded in attacks in East Jerusalem, the Palestinian part of the Holy City that is occupied and annexed by Israel, including one near a synagogue. Also on Friday, the Israeli army bombarded the Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire from this enclave, which it keeps under blockade.

An Israeli raid on Thursday as a trigger

And this after the deadliest Israeli raid in years, with nine Palestinians killed on Thursday in Jenin, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank. Separately, Israeli security guards killed a Palestinian man near a settlement in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said on Sunday, with the Israeli army claiming he was armed.

Faced with this resurgence of violence, Anthony Blinken will urge Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to “take urgent measures for a de-escalation”, assured Friday a spokesman for the State Department, Vedant Patel, after Washington condemned “shocking” attacks in East Jerusalem. But the foreign minister’s discretion seems limited beyond repeated calls for calm as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict appears to be at an impasse.

Netanyahu received in the White House?

During his trip, Anthony Blinken will insist on the “importance of preserving the historical status quo” on the esplanade of the mosques in occupied East Jerusalem, the third holiest site in Islam and the holiest site in Judaism, where Palestinians and Israeli troops clash. “I think the best they can get is that things stabilize to avoid a repeat of May 2021”, assures the last war between Israel and the Palestinian armed groups in Gaza, Aaron David Miller, former negotiator-American and expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

Anthony Blinken’s visit to Israel reflects Washington’s desire to quickly reconnect with Benjamin Netanyahu, head of the most right-wing government in Israel’s history and whose relationship with President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration has been notoriously strained. This visit comes after the visit of the National Security Advisor to the White House, Jake Sullivan, who had assured the Israeli Prime Minister of the support of the United States. “I’ve never seen so many visits at such a high level under any administration,” Aaron David Miller said. “It’s unprecedented,” he adds, referring to a possible arrival of Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in February.

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