Mystery and speculation surround Netanyahu's U-turn on attending peace summit in Egypt

Israeli leader's presence at Sharm El Sheikh would have been awkward for many participating world leaders

US President Donald Trump in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, for the Gaza peace summit. Reuters

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's U-turn on participating in the international peace summit in Egypt has sparked intense speculation about what was behind his change of heart.

The Egyptian presidency made a surprise announcement that US President Donald Trump had called Egypt's President Abdel Fattah El Sisi while meeting Mr Netanyahu in Jerusalem.

The statement said it was agreed that Mr Netanyahu would attend the summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh to "enshrine" the ceasefire and hostage release agreement signed by Hamas and Israel last week, the first phase of Mr Trump's 20-point Gaza peace plan.

A short time later, the presidency issued a second statement, saying Mr Netanyahu would not attend the summit because of Simchat Torah, a major Jewish holiday.

But this reason for Mr Netanyahu's U-turn was less than convincing to some, who speculated that the Israeli leader wanted to distance himself from an international gathering that could bind his government to a declaration pledging full implementation of Mr Trump's plan, whose later stages provide for Israel's withdrawal from Gaza and a formal end to the two-year war.

Others suspected Mr Netanyahu's participation in the summit may have been a spur-of-the-moment idea by Mr Trump.

Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Egypt's President Abdel Fattah El Sisi at a summit on Gaza in Sharm El Sheikh. AFP

"It would have been a shock had he gone to Sharm El Sheikh," said Michael Hanna, director of the US programme at the International Crisis Group. "I don't think Egypt was keen on him going. It sounds very much like a Trump idea that he acted on without thinking it through.

"His decision not to go must have come as a relief to everyone. His presence would have made everything very, very awkward."

Another theory making the rounds is that many other leaders attending the summit expressed dismay to their host over the prospect of Mr Netanyahu's presence, with Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatening to turn his plane back if the Israeli leader was to attend.

In reality – the theories and speculation notwithstanding – Mr Netanyahu's participation in the summit would have been problematic, particularly for Egypt and Mr El Sisi.

The Israeli Prime Minister was indicted last year by the International Criminal Court for suspected war crimes in Gaza. Moreover, he is viewed by much of the world as directly responsible for genocide in Gaza and deliberately starving many of Gaza's 2.3 million residents.

Extremist members of Mr Netanyahu's government, the most right-wing in Israel's history, publicly advocate the annexation of Gaza and the occupied West Bank, as well as the forced eviction of Palestinian residents.

Egyptian F-16 fighter-jets escort Air Force One with US President Donald Trump on board in Egyptian air space before his arrival in Sharm El Sheikh. AFP

Mr Netanyahu's participation would have also constituted the first public contact between him and Mr El Sisi, who has recently stepped up his criticism of Israel, accusing it of genocide and weaponising food.

Sources said Mr El Sisi has refused to take calls from Mr Netanyahu since the Gaza war began, as relations soured over the conflict raging just across Egypt's eastern border.

Egypt and Israel are bound by a US-sponsored peace treaty signed in 1979 and co-operated closely on security and counter-terrorism issues before the Gaza war. The treaty ended an enmity that began in the 1940s, with the two neighbours fighting four fully fledged wars.

Egypt's state media has demonised Mr Netanyahu since the start of the Gaza war. Anti-Israeli sentiment is widespread in Egypt, a country of 107 million whose successive governments have unfailingly championed the Palestinian cause.