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Israel Cannot Count on Egypt To Deal with Hamas

As Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi is preoccupied with the political crisis in Egypt, Israel should take the initiative in jump-starting talks with the Palestinians, writes Shlomi Eldar.
A riot police officer walks under a banner depicting Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi holding the Israeli and American flags in each hand, reading: 'My family (Israel) and my clan (U.S.)' at the presidential palace in Cairo January 25, 2013. Hundreds of youths fought Egyptian police in Cairo on Friday on the second anniversary of the revolt that toppled Hosni Mubarak and brought the election of an Islamist president who protesters accuse of riding roughshod over the new democracy. Opponents of Mursi and his
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“And it is coming to pass that in these days there is no king in Egypt.” There is no strong leader and no guiding hand either. There isn’t a single person with the same power that former President Hosni Mubarak had in his heyday.

The revolution in Egypt created chaos. The waves of protests and anger that led to the downfall Mubarak are now threatening to overwhelm the Morsi government that replaced Mubarak. It may well be that what is happening today is a necessary step in the Land of the Nile’s political evolution after decades of totalitarian rule. Now, however, the Middle East is left without any outstanding leader who can actually take the lead and set policy. Syria is in flames. Jordan’s King Abdullah has his eyes raised beseechingly to heaven, praying that the “Arab Spring” will pass without inciting his country to violence. We have already mentioned how, in Egypt, Morsi is having a hard enough time restoring order. In Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is entering his final months in office and will not compete in the next elections.

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