For there is no security without peace and no peace without security. This is what Israel aspires to achieve. Yet Israel has not been given the opportunity to achieve the sense of security that comes from being integrated into the region. Seventeen years after having signed a peace treaty with Egypt, Israel still does not enjoy normal relations with a country that it has come to know, admire, and sometimes even like. It is rare to hear an Israeli say that he considers Egypt an enemy or even an adversary.
Security has national, emotional, and social components as well as military ones.
Having been Israel's ambassador to Egypt sixteen years ago, I know that in the beginning Israelis didn't trust the Egyptians. They learned to do so over time, and today they do. In diplomacy, haste and urgency do not always yield good results. The Oslo process began three years ago, and the agreements require that the whole process be concluded three years from now. The first item that must be dealt with in the final status negotiations is Jerusalem.