Fear grows in Israel over backlash from Egypt

The idea of Iranian warships in the Suez Canal, calls for the 'conquest' of Al Aqsa mosque and suspended natural gas shipments add to anxiety over the nations' relationship.

By Edmund Sanders and Batsheva Sobelman, Los Angeles Times

February 22, 2011

Reporting from Jerusalem —

Israel's so-called cold peace with Egypt is looking colder by the day.

Early Tuesday, Egypt reportedly permitted two Iranian warships to enter the Suez Canal for the first time since the Iranian Revolution in 1979.

During a mass prayer service Friday in Cairo's Tahrir Square, anti-Israel cleric Yusuf Qaradawi— who returned to Egypt after years in exile — called for the "conquest" of Jerusalem's Al Aqsa mosque, Islam's third-holiest site, which was captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East War and sits atop a Jewish holy site.

As well, natural gas shipments to Israel, Jordan and Syriaremain suspended after unknown assailants this month tried to bomb the pipeline route in the Sinai peninsula. An organizer of the protests that toppled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said last week that his group opposed resumption of exports to the "Zionist entity."

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