Egyptian presidential candidate Hazem Abu Ismail attends a rally calling for a rapid transition from military to civilian rule in Egypt following the February ouster of president Hosni Mubarak in Cairo's Tahrir Square on 28 October 2011. (Photo: AFP - Mahmud Hams)
The outcome of the first round of the Egyptian elections has been depicted as a nightmare-come-true for Israel, which had not been anticipating the overwhelming scale of the Islamist victory at the polls.
Amid the general sense of consternation, Israeli political and media reactions ranged from sounding the alarm about the ‘Islamic revolution’ underway in Egypt, to voicing hopes that the Camp David peace agreement will not fall victim to it.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak described the poll results as “very, very disturbing,” but appeared to withhold Israel’s final judgement on Egypt’s ascendant Islamists. “It is premature to predict how the changes we are witnessing will turn out. It may be that they are positive in the historic context but present a problem in the immediate context,” he said.
Barak said he hoped that under any government or constitution, Egypt “will appreciate that there is no alternative to preserving international agreements, including the peace agreement with us.” He went on to demand that the Egyptian authorities do more to “deal seriously with the situation in Sinai,” although he acknowledged that “they are making an effort.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sufficed with reiterating Israel’s hope “that any government that will be formed in Egypt will recognize the importance of the existence of the peace treaty,” which he described as the “basis for security and economic stability in the region.” The Israeli president, Shimon Peres, was more forthcoming. He opined that “extremist clerics are attempting to block the approach of the Arab Spring and foil the hopes of the young people, and as usual they are using hatred of Israel as a pretext for their failures.”
Environment minister Gilad Erdan sought to calm the public’s nerves about Egypt, urging Israelis to refrain from beating war-drums and criticising statements made by some officials in recent weeks. “We must do everything possible to preserve the peace agreement and develop relations with any elected government in Egypt,” he said. But intelligence minister Dan Meridor warned that although it was in Egypt and Israel’s shared interest to preserve the peace treaty, “we must be prepared for the worst-case scenarios.”
Off the record, a senior security official told Yediot Aharonot that developments in Egypt were proving “more serious than we anticipated.” adding: “what was a danger, has become a threat.” The paper quoted a high-ranking foreign ministry official as saying that the elections in Tunisia and Morocco, followed by Egypt, were being seen as evidence that religious radicals are set to dominate the entire Middle East. “The Islamists have effectively stolen the revolution which the secular youth began in January. That is exactly what happened in Iran in 1979,” he said. The official accused both Saudi Arabia and Iran of funding the Islamist movement in Egypt.
However, the official stressed that an Islamist victory in the Egyptian elections was unlikely to lead to a severing of relations with Israel. He noted that foreign policy is the prerogative of the president rather than the government in Egypt. And he expected the country’s next president would most likely be former foreign minister and Arab League chief Amr Moussa, who he described as “no lover of Zion, but is committed to relations with the West.”
In the Israeli press, banner headlines dramatized the ‘Radical Islamist Landslide’ (Maariv), with Israel Today proclaiming: ‘The Islamic Revolution in Egypt Begins,’ and Yediot Aharonot lamenting ‘Egypt’s Calamity.’
A number of Israeli commentators were sharply critical of the US’ handling of events in Egypt and blamed it for the turn of developments there. “There is no mistake the US did not make in the Middle East, “fumed senior commentator Alex Fishman in Yediot Aharonot. “The Obama administration learned nothing from the sell-out of its ally Mubarak. It is now selling out, for a very cheap price, the ruling military group.” He explained: “The Obama administration approached this inevitable clash between liberal and Islamist forces with the same mantras about democratic transition. Instead of providing help to the liberal forces, it was busy giving lessons on democracy and human rights to General Tantawi and his subordinates.”
This article is an edited translation from the Arabic Edition.
Uprooted Palestinian
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