Don't fall for illusions

Don't fall for illusions


Isi Leibler


We mustn't fall into a trap of illusions. Despite Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi's tough response to last week's terror attack in Sinai, the mass dismissals in the top echelon of the Egyptian military prove that Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood is committed to revoking Egypt's peace treaty with Israel. Their motives aren't limited to a nationalistic xenophobia, but rather represent an uncompromising, fanatic Islamist ideology.

The Muslim Brotherhood isn't just aiming to impose Shariah law in Egypt, it is seeking Islamic global domination and ruling out coexistence with other faiths. In the past the Brotherhood colluded with the Nazis, established Hamas and vowed to eliminate the "Zionist entity." Recently, the chairman of the movement reiterated his call for "imposing Muslim rule on the Palestinian streets." The movement's leaders are urging violent anti-Semitism. Imams call Jews the descendants of monkeys and pigs, and say they should die as enemies of the Prophet Muhammad. The organization also has a long history of terror activity.

But the Muslim Brotherhood leaders understand politics. They know that they must feed the people if they want to hold on to power. They must avoid upsetting the U.S. and prevent the shaky economy from collapsing. Meanwhile, the U.S. president has his head in the sand if he thinks that the Muslim Brotherhood will rule responsibly. Similar remarks were made about Hamas rule in Gaza shortly after it "democratically" rose to power there.

We may scoff at any regime that is not a democracy, but history teaches us that fanatic Islamist regimes can be even more oppressive and violent than military autocracies. In a situation like this, American pressure on the military could undermine Western interests and impose an even more oppressive regime in Egypt.

Morsi will not be the one to moderate Egyptian extremism. He has declared that the Quran will serve as Egypt's constitution and that "this people will enjoy prosperity and resurrection only under Muslim Shariah." He refused to take phone calls from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, denied sending a written message to President Shimon Peres, declared that the Camp David Accords had to be re-examined, and vowed that if Israeli leaders (whom he referred to as vampires and killers) violated their commitment to the Palestinians, Egypt would revoke its peace treaty with Israel. The slogans "Morsi will liberate Gaza" and "Jerusalem will become the capital of a united Arab nation" could be heard at his election conventions.

When he was sworn in as president, Morsi promised to "make every effort" to liberate the "blind sheik," Egyptian national Omar Abdel-Rahman, currently serving a life sentence in the U.S. for his role in the conspiracy to blow up the World Trade Center and other New York landmarks in 1993. Now, U.S. President Barack Obama plans to host Morsi's visit to Washington. Morsi will, in all likelihood, push Obama to free the global terror figure. It will be interesting to see whether Obama lives up to his word and demands that Morsi honor Egypt's peace agreement with Israel.

Israel is on the front lines. It seems that despite the talk of Hamas' involvement in the Aug. 5 attack in which 16 Egyptians were killed, Hamas is convinced that the incident will soon be forgotten and that Egypt will fully support it in the event of a confrontation with Israel, possibly even joining in as an active partner. Therefore, we must prepare for an increase in terror.

The upside of this sad situation is the power of the Israeli army, which serves as a deterrent to prevent further deterioration.


http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=2408