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.
My roommate and his g-friend were in Egypt last summer. They said poor doesn't even describe the conditions there.
ReplyDeleteKriss
Your concern about the fundamentalism of the Muslim Brotherhood is a valid worry, Jeffrey. However, Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood has an English-language website, where they quote celebs like Omar Sharif, and have articles on how to defeat Al-Qaeda. They have an article on how they support a liberal secularist, Mohamed ElBarade, to replace Mubarak.
ReplyDeleteIt's like looking at the website of the BBC, or one of the
Christian Democratic parties in Europe. The Brotherhood has evolved a lot in the 30 years since Sadat's assassination, I guess. They were very radical at one time, but this website seems very mainstream, much more so than anything I have seen from the fundies at SHAS.
Go look for yourself and decide:
http://www.ikhwanweb.com/