Last week, the Israeli embassy in Egypt was formally reopened in a public ceremony—four years after a mob attack forced its closing during the height of the Arab Spring. Relations between Israel and Egypt have since improved, and security cooperation is robust, but, asks Zvi Mazel, will trade follow?

Since Abdel Fattah el-Sisi took the helm, there has been a significant lessening of tension between Cairo and Jerusalem. The new president has refrained from attacking Israel publicly, . . . though he reiterates his support for a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital. The Egyptian media are still overwhelmingly hostile, but in more subdued tones, even though there are still outbursts of hatred, mainly from Islamist circles.

What is going to happen now? Will Sisi take the momentous decision to promote much- needed economic cooperation for the benefit of both countries, fulfilling at long last the great expectations of the [1979] peace treaty? So far, the Egyptian president has been proceeding with slow and careful steps to minimize opposition from home and from Arab countries.

At the moment he is focused on the forthcoming parliamentary elections and has no wish to be embroiled in what is still a hot topic in his country. However, when—or if—his position is fully secure and Islamist terrorism under control, he is too pragmatic a man to reject mutually beneficial cooperation. This is perhaps the true meaning of Wednesday’s small, but significant, event.

Established in 2012 and maintaining branches in Europe, North America, and Iran, the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Network claims its goal is merely to show “solidarity” for imprisoned Palestinians. The organization’s leader, however, has admitted to being a representative of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a notorious terrorist group whose most recent accomplishments include murdering a seventeen-year-old girl. As Arsen Ostrovsky and Patricia Teitelbaum point out, Samidoun is just one example of how the European Union allows Iran-backed terrorists to operate in its midst:

The PFLP is a proxy of the Iranian regime, which provides the terror group with money, training, and weapons. Samidoun . . . has a branch in Tehran. It has even held events there, under the pretext of “cultural activity,” to elicit support for operations in Europe. Its leader, Khaled Barakat, is a regular on Iran’s state [channel] PressTV, calling for violence and lauding Iran’s involvement in the region. It is utterly incomprehensible, therefore, that the EU has not yet designated Samidoun a terror group.

According to the Council of the European Union, groups and/or individuals can be added to the EU terror list on the basis of “proposals submitted by member states based on a decision by a competent authority of a member state or a third country.” In this regard, there is already a standing designation by Israel of Samidoun as a terror group and a decision of a German court finding Barakat to be a senior PFLP operative.

Given the irrefutable axis-of-terror between Samidoun, PFLP, and the Iranian regime, the EU has a duty to put Samidoun and senior Samidoun leaders on the EU terror list. It should do this not as some favor to Israel, but because otherwise it continues to turn a blind eye to a group that presents a clear and present security threat to the European Union and EU citizens.