Some Thoughts On Egypt

For those of you with good Hebrew, I highly recommend finding a way to Israel’s Channel 2 or IBA for coverage of what is happening in Egypt.  In addition to being a good source for discussion of how this affects Israel (in short, no one knows), they’ve also had very good coverage of events inside Egypt.  Bottom line for Israelis is the fear of the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood and how that could affect the cold peace with Egypt and pretty much everything regarding Gaza. This is pretty much the consensus among all commentators, though pessimism isn’t ruling the day.

The official Israeli response has been what it should be.  Netanyahu’s succinct statement about the hope for stability and peace was appropriately terse.  He’s also managed to achieve the difficult task of keeping his ministers quiet.  Can you imagine Lieberman opening up his big mouth now?

Another worrisome development is yesterday’s escape of Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas prisoners.  Until now, the role of radical Islamic groups in the upheaval has been somewhat subdued, according to most reports.  Let’s hope it stays that way.

No sane person could possibly hope for this to spin well for radical Islam.  If things calm down, and some responsible adult who is not named Mubarak takes charge, there will probably be elections.  I am genuinely happy for the Egyptians.  I know their lives are pretty bad.  I hope they have elections because free people should have elections.  However, I hope they do not make the tragic mistake of using this moment to pass power into the hands of the religiously fanatical Muslim Brotherhood.

The last thing the world needs right now is another radical Islamic regime.