The aftermath of the Egyptian revolution continues to offer Israel more comfort than many expected – but also, over the weekend, a warning.
The latest good news is a poll. Despite fears that the demise of President Hosni Mubarak would also spell the end of Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel, nearly two-thirds of Egyptians in a International Peace Institute survey said they preferred keeping the pact – provided the treaty is linked to eventual creation of a Palestinian state. In fact, 46 percent felt “much more likely” to support a party that promised to keep the status quo. Amr Moussa, the former foreign minister who the survey confirmed is by far the frontrunner for president, has said he’s on the same page.
One other bit of good news for wary Israelis: Only 12 percent of Egyptians said they planned to vote for the Muslim Brotherhood, the bastion of political Islam that has inspired a wide array of Islamist movements and militants, including Hamas. Despite fears the famously organized Brotherhood would dominate a post-revolutionary Egypt, the poll found twice as much support for the moderate Wafd party.
The fact remains that for ordinary Egyptians, the major pre-occupations remain the economy, democratic reforms and ending corruption, the survey confirmed. But that doesn’t mean Israel is not on people’s minds, especially when it’s at war with Palestinians. Over the weekend, some 20 Palestinians were killed in air and artillery attacks on the Gaza Strip. Israeli officials called the strikes a justified response to Hamas’ missile attack on a school bus that critically wounded a 16-year-old boy, and more than 100 mortar, missile and rocket launches over the weekend. Many residents of southern Israel spent the weekend scrambled to reinforced rooms as sirens announced incoming rounds.
But Egyptians are more disposed to sympathy with the 1.5 million Palestinians inside Gaza, trapped as they are both by Hamas and the Israel Defense Forces. In Cairo on Saturday, some 2,000 people gathered outside the Israeli embassy – an aerie located for security reasons many stories up in a Giza district high rise. The chants offered one more reason for Israeli officials to halt the slide toward a full-on conflict in Gaza: “Where is the Egyptian army?” the crowd shouted. “We want war against Israel.”