The Impact of Neo-Liberal Economic Policies on Egyptian Foreign Policy Towards Israel

The Arab Spring in Egypt which started at the end of 2011 and led to the fall of the regime of Hosni Mubarak heralded new changes in this country`s domestic and foreign politics. By coming to power of Mohammad Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood who supported the cause of the Palestinian people and was therefore in drastic opposition to the Israeli occupation of Palestine, it was expected that the Egyptian-Israeli relations would be deteriorated if not interrupted. This expectation, however, was not fulfilled. Thus a major question comes to mind as why the relationship, particularly the security arrangements, with Israel of post-Mubarak Egypt under the new Muslim Brotherhood government was not deteriorated or even interrupted? This article seeks to answer this question using a political economy theoretical approach especially the Neo-Gramscian theory. Our main argument is that the Egyptian integration into the global neo-liberal economic order, particularly its dependence on the financial support from International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the United State Treasury, were the main factors shaping the continuity of the Egyptian policy towards Israel.