First a humble apology. The outstanding U.S. Ambassador to Egypt is Margaret Scobey who arrived in Cairo in April 2008.

Gamal Abdel Nasser overthrew King Farouk I in 1952 and became President of Egypt. Nasser’s domestic policies have been called by some oppressive, yet he was generally popular. All opposition was stomped out and opponents of the Regime frequently were imprisoned without trial. His foreign policy led to the 1973 War. Anwar El Sadat was elected Egypt’s President in 1971. He changed policies inherited from President Gamal Abdel Nasser. Who can forget Sadat’s dramatic visit to Jerusalem in November 1977? This led to President Jimmy Carter inviting President Sadat and Prime Minister Begin to join him in trilateral negotiations at Camp David. The Camp David Accords were signed by Egypt and Israel in September 1978 and led to a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt in 1979.

Unfortunately, Islamic extremists assassinated President Sadat in 1981. Egypt dislikes these extremists as much as we do. Many people forget that Egypt was one of the few Arab countries in the first Gulf War who actually had troops on the ground. Over 35,000 Egyptian troops were deployed against Iraq in Kuwait. More recently Egypt authored a peace plan, part of which called for the Arab countries to recognize Israel as an independent state. The US provides security and economic and military assistance to Egypt and also to Israel. Egypt has a lot to offer in helping to establish a stable Mideast.

The Speaker of the Assembly, Dr. Ahmed Fathi Sorour, (elected 19 times in a row) said that part of the problem between the countries is that much time and attention is focused on several minor problems. He said that he was not making light of these problems but felt that time and attention ought to be concentrated on trying to build a stable, free Mideast and to move the peace process forward between Israel and the PLO. It is clear that solving the problem of Palestine will be in the best interest of both the United States and Egypt. The consensus of the delegation is we are all hopeful that a new day has come in our relations with Egypt. There is much that has gone on in the past that can serve as a basis to build a stronger relationship. It is important that the new Obama Administration move quickly to let the Egyptian government know what its plans are. There were suggestions made that the United States should appoint Former Senator George Mitchell (D-ME), or someone like him, as special representative of the President to begin working on the peace process. This is a very good idea.

Finally, it is hard to describe the enthusiasm and the positive feelings towards the United States that exist as a result of Obama’s election. Most of us who have been involved in the political world for some time are not use to such enthusiasm for our Country or our President. The enthusiasm was genuine at all levels of society. We can remember walking down one of the alley ways in a bazaar when some vendors recognized we were Americans and started shouting “Obama” and the cry went down the pathway. At every opportunity, we told the Egyptians that the Statute of Liberty had a bigger smile than normal on her face. We have proven that our country is the land of opportunity and anyone, regardless of race, creed or color, can be President of the United States. We told Egyptian officials over and over that miracles could not be accomplished overnight, that we have economic problems to solve before we could do much else, and asked them to please be patient. We suggested to the Speaker that he lead a delegation back to the United States soon after Obama’s inaugural to brief members of the Administration and Congress on the feelings of those in Egypt. We respectfully suggested that very few people knew what Egypt had done and was doing, and that the more they understood about Egypt’s willingness to try to find a solution that both the PLO and Israel could agree to, the easier it would be to find agreement on other issues between our two nations. It will be in our best interest not to ignore or dictate policy to the most powerful country in the Arab world but to work with them as equal partners.

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Lou Frey represented Central Florida in the U. S. Congress from 1969 to 1979. In his last election, he received nearly 80% of the vote. He was elected one of five Republican leaders in the House of Representatives during the 93rd and 94th Congress. He served on...