A surprising exchange of messages between Israeli prime minister Moshe Sharett and Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser has recently come to light, following the uploading of hundreds of documents to the web by the Israel State Archives.

In December 1954, Sharett received a missive from Egypt’s new ruler, Gamal Abdel Nasser, who was looking for a peaceful solution to the conflict between the two states. Sharett’s response was no less surprising.

Ynet, 9/4/2013

21.12.1954

I have received report of your message transmitted through a special emissary now in Paris.

I have noted with deep satisfaction that it is your desire to bring about a peaceful solution of the problem outstanding between Egypt and Israel. I welcome particularly your readiness to consider measures for improving the present situation and reducing the prevailing tensions. We for our part are ready to cooperate in efforts directed towards this end.

Many of us admire your brave idealism and tenacity of purpose and wish you the fullest success in obtaining the emancipation of the Land of the Nile from the last vestiges of foreign domination and the initiation for the masses of the Egyptian people of an era of social regeneration and economic welfare.

We feel sure that your aims are peace and progress and that you fully realise the interdependence of the two.

It is for this reason that we are keenly looking forward to more tangible evidence that you and your friends are preparing the ground for an eventual settlement with Israel by educating your public opinion to appreciate the vital importance of peace with in the Middle East.

There are two matters in particular the handling of which may well have a decisive effect on the development of relations between our countries.< ...