The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, arrived in Cairo yesterday on the first leg of a Middle East tour aimed at pushing the European role in the region's faltering peace process.
Mr Blair, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, had talks with President Hosni Mubarak last evening. He is expected to continue his regional tour in Saudi Arabia today, before heading for Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories next week.
The Israeli love-hate relationship with the British will be underlined tomorrow, when Mr Blair arrives for a visit that is part diplomacy and part tribute to Israel's 50 years of statehood.
He will be only the third British prime minister, and the first from the Labour Party, to visit Israel since it was founded in May 1948 with the departure of the last troops enforcing the British mandate over Palestine.
Baroness Thatcher visited the Jewish state in 1986 and Mr John Major in 1995.
Visitors from the British Foreign Office, with its perceived proArab stance, have tended to fare less well, however, than prime ministers.
The Foreign Secretary, Mr Robin Cook, was cold-shouldered by Israel last month after visiting the planned new Jewish settlement of Har Homa on occupied land in Jerusalem to show disapproval of settlement expansion.
The British flags already fluttering yesterday along the route Mr Blair will take to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion airport signalled very different atmospherics for this visit.
The Ha'aretz newspaper said the Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, was preparing a "charm offensive" to "get the European Union off Israel's back".
Mr Blair is coming to the Middle East armed with new proposals to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks after more than a year of deadlock and acrimony.
Mr Blair's first stop in Jerusalem tomorrow afternoon will be to pay homage to the victims of the Holocaust at the Yad Vashem memorial, a pilgrimage Israel berated Mr Cook for passing up.
Mr Blair has also decided against an overnight stay in Gaza, where he will meet Mr Yasser Arafat, to avoid offending Israel after news reports that the option was being considered to symbolise support for Palestinian statehood.
Israelis praise the 1917 declaration of Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour backing the establishment of a national home for Jews, as well as policies during the mandate that enabled the embryo of a state to develop. Yet many still voice anger at British obstruction of Jewish immigration.