BENJAMIN BEN Eliezer, a Labor Party member of the Knesset parliament, says he and prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu offered former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak political asylum in the Israeli Red Sea resort of Eilat several months ago.
“I met Mubarak in Sharm el-Sheikh and I told him that it was a short distance and that it might be a good chance to heal himself,” Mr Ben-Eliezer told army radio. “I am convinced that the Israel government would have accepted him but he declined the offer because he was a patriot.”
Mr Ben Eliezer described Mr Mubarak as one of the leaders able to maintain stability in the Middle East. “He was entirely committed to the peace process. The Middle East after Mubarak will be completely different,” he said.
Mr Ben Eliezer, a veteran politician who has held a number of ministerial positions in various Israeli governments, was considered to be the Israeli politician with the closest links to the former Egyptian president, building up a close personal friendship over the years. The two met on dozens of occasions and Mr Ben Eliezer would often accompany Israeli prime ministers on trips to Egypt.
Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu prevented ministers from commenting in public on the crisis in Egypt when protests erupted earlier this year. He expressed concern at the time that a regime change could endanger the three-decades-old peace treaty between the two countries and threaten regional stability.
Mr Mubarak frequently acted as a peace mediator between Israel and the Palestinians. Following his downfall there have been repeated attacks by militants in the Egyptian Sinai, disrupting the flow of Egyptian gas to Israel.