Israeli analysts fear Islamic takeover in Egypt

AFP via Google News ^ | January 30, 2011 | Steve Weizman

[americanophile]

JERUSALEM — Israel's leaders anxiously watched events in Egypt on Sunday as analysts warned that if a new leadership was dominated by Islamists it could threaten 30 years of peace between the two neighbours.

As the wave of unprecedented protests continued to engulf Egypt, Israeli officials have been nervously eyeing developments and assessing the likely impact on ties.

"We are attentively following what is going on in Egypt and in our region," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday after holding late-night talks with US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"Peace between Israel and Egypt has existed for more than three decades and our aim is to ensure that these relations continue to exist," he said.

Israel's two top-selling dailies ran the same banner headline on their front pages on Sunday, proclaiming "A New Middle East" and raising the spectre of Islamic fundamentalists filling the political vacuum left by the expected end of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's autocratic rule.

"In this kind of chaotic situation, the advantage of groups like the Muslim Brotherhood is that they are the most organised and also the most resolute," said Benjamin Miller, a Haifa University expert on Middle East conflicts and security.

Even though Muslim Brotherhood activists had not so far been prominent in the demonstrations, the group had the advantage of having a widespread political infrastructure already in place, he said.

Israel, which is already facing hostile Islamic groups in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, is deeply concerned at the prospect of Islamic gains in Egypt, with which it shares its longest border.

But aware of the hypersensitivity of Israel's relations with the Arab world, Netanyahu ordered his cabinet ministers to make no public statements on the issue, a move which Miller said was wise.

[M. Espinola]

Israeli analysts are correct in their fear of a jihadist takeover of Egypt.

The problem is the Obama crowd is encouraging this Islamic seizure, but what else should we expect considering when the public attempting to bring down the Tehran dictatorship Obama was mute!