The new government in Egypt has spoken of taking a much tougher line on Israel than the former President Hosni Mubarak, but has done very little about it. The intention has been to formulate a "cold peace" with Israel, which would keep the peace treaty in place, but stop any normalisation in recognition of popular disgust at the unrepentantly Zionist policies of Benjamin Netanyahu's government.

Therefore, it is good to see Egypt's government-owned oil companies ending their gas supply to Israel, which had been priced in Israel's favour and below market value, giving Israel a fantastic deal and Egypt a major loss of earnings. Israel's finance ministry calls the move "a dangerous precedent that casts clouds over the peace agreements," and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman hoped the termination would not have a larger impact on the peace accord.

Lieberman missed the point. Such freezing of relations will continue as long as Israel follows its anti-Palestinian policies and refuses to treat Palestinians or Arabs as independent entities on an equal footing with Israel. Israel cannot rely now on Arab dictators to continue giving it great deals, as more representative governments take control of policy.