Israel won the battle of honour, too

ISLAM AL-SHEHABI lost twice on Friday in Rio. His first defeat was when Israeli judoka Ori Sasson succeeded in pinning him to the mat in their first-round match. The second time was when he refused, in front of a booing audience, to shake his Israeli opponent’s hand, in a sport which is supposed to be based, first of all, on respect.

But to be fair to the Egyptian athlete, he was in a lose-lose situation well before he faced Mr Sasson, who went on to win a bronze medal.

Ties between Israel and Egypt at the highest levels have probably never been as close as they are today.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Abdelfatah el-Sisi regularly speak on the phone, Egypt’s foreign minister visited Jerusalem only last month and, on the ground, the countries’ militaries cooperate closely against Daesh and Hamas. Despite this burgeoning strategic relationship, little of this warmth has trickled down to the Egyptian public, and wide layers of society, particularly the intelligentsia and the trade unions, are resolutely opposed to any “normalisation” with the Zionist entity.

The question of whether Mr Al-She- haby would even compete against an Israeli remained unclear right up until he appeared in the arena on Friday.

Athletes from other Arab nations, including last week’s example of a female judoka from Saudi Arabia who withdrew before she could face a competitor from the Jewish state, routinely duck out of scheduled matches with Israelis, even if it means losing out on their opportunity for Olympic glory.

When Mr Al-Shehaby spurned Mr Sasson’s outstretched hand, delight erupted across the Arab world’s social media. Many, particularly Palestinians and their supporters, lauded him. Surprisingly though, a large proportion of Egyptians felt Mr Al-Shehaby had disgraced his country. Of course, Twitter and Facebook are very unreliable gauges of public opinion, but perhaps there was a sign that attitudes towards Israel are changing, not just at the government level. Mr Al-Shehabi was sent packing to Cairo. He may have to face now an investigation over suspected links to the proscribed Muslim Brotherhood, but he is no longer the story. Neither is Mr Sasson, the first Olympic medallist from Jerusalem.

The political message from this episode in Rio is that after nearly four decades of “cold peace”, it is still up to the Egyptian leadership to show Israelis that they are willing to accept them in the Middle East. That’s too much of a burden to place on the shoulders of one athlete.

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