Israeli Ambassador to Egypt Yaakov Amitai has quietly left Cairo, and flown back to Tel Aviv to spend Shabbat at home with the family. But he may not return until after January 25 –the first anniversary of the Tahrir Square Revolution. In Egypt, the day is being celebrated as a National Holiday.

Amitai had already decided to take this weekend off when he entered office in December, having taken over from former Ambassador Yitzchak Levanon.

Depending upon how things go in Egypt, Amitai may return to his post in Cairo by January 29, according to a report in The Egyptian Gazette, at his Ma’adi home.

A number of political parties and movements in Egypt have apparently called for nationwide protests on January 25 to demand a quicker transfer of power from the country’s ruling Supreme Military Council to civilian authorities.

The military council has said it will transfer its authority to the new president when one is chosen by the population in the upcoming June elections.

In any event, the Israeli Embassy in Cairo is still closed.

The place was trashed by rioters who stormed the building last September claiming they were “angry” over the accidental killing of six Egyptian border police officers by Israeli security personnel during a gunfight with terrorists who carried out a cross-border attack from the Sinai Peninsula. Israel has not yet found new quarters for the embassy in the Egyptian capital.