With the Media Focus Gone, Egypt’s Transformation Continues

The media has mostly moved on from its round-the-clock coverage of the demonstrations in Egypt. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t new developments.

Representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood have begun to advance their political vision over the past weeks. The New York Post’s Amir Taheri reports on comments made by Kamal al-Halbawi, a Brotherhood leader visiting Iran, who

announced that he wanted for Egypt what Iran has today: “a true Islamic state.” “Egypt and the world of Islam as a whole need leaders like President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,” he said in a speech. Egypt, he said, should join “a new world order with Iran and Venezuela plus Hezbollah and Hamas to chase away the Americans. . . . “Every night when I go to bed, I pray to wake up the next day to see Israel is wiped off the map,” the Brotherhood leader said.

Sheik Yusuf Qaradawi, widely considered the most influential Brotherhood-oriented cleric, spoke on Feb. 18 before a crowd estimated at a million in Tahrir square, the main scene of demonstrations. Qaradawi has praised Hitler for his genocide against the Jews and expressed his hopes for another one this time to be carried out by Muslims.

Meanwhile Ynet, the Jerusalem Post and others report that the appointment of new Egyptian Foreign Minister, Nabil Elaraby, a former judge in the International Court of Justice, was opposed by Israel because Elraby’s “call to sue the Jewish state for genocide.” In March, 2005, Anne Bayefsky, an observer of the United Nations Human Rights Council, gave testimony to Congress that during a UN discussion on terrorism, in reference to Palestinian terrorism against Israel, Elaraby stated,

“Throughout the annals of history, occupation has always been met with armed resistance. Violence breeds violence.” He “wholeheartedly subscribe[d] to the view” that there is “a right of resistance.”

This statement implies Elaraby legitimizes terrorist attacks against Israel.

Meanwhile, Egyptian cooperation with Israel seems to be an early casualty of the changed Egypt. The Jewish Telegraph Agency reports that

An Egyptian company will not resume delivering natural gas to Israel as expected, one month after its pipeline was sabotaged. The East Mediterranean Gas consortium, which supplies 45 percent of the gas needed to produce Israel’s electricity, has missed four promised deadlines to reinstate the gas supply since the pipeline was damaged in a terrorist explosion Feb. 5.

Haaretz sees a new stability setting in, but notices that demonstrations continue and that

The new prime minister [Essam Sharaf] was never a great fan of the peace agreement with Israel. He opposed normalization between the countries so long as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict prevails.