Mohammed Morsi (or Morsy), the Muslim Brotherhood/Freedom and Justice Party candidate, has won the Egyptian presidential election. The MB would also be the largest party in Parliament, if the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and its puppet Constitutional Court had not recently dissolved it. Also, the SCAF has decided to allow the president only limited powers.
Now, I'm pretty sure that if this situation ends with the MB in actual power, they are not going to set up an Iranian- or Saudi-Arabian-style theocracy, or stone adulterers, or make women quit their jobs and wear burqas in public. That would be Al-Nour, with which the MB has hostile relations, and has stated the MB would not even consider forming a coalition government with Al-Nour.
But what about Egyptian relations with Israel?
The SCAF apparently values the enormous financial aid the U.S. gives Egypt every year ($1.5 billion in 2010; $3.1 billion to Israel that year), which is essentially a bribe for Egypt to continue recognizing Israel and keeping peace with it. They don't want to do anything that would make that aid dry up, they're practical (and greedy and corrupt).
But the MB are ideologues. The late leader of the MB in Egypt, Mohammed Mahdi Akef, was quoted as saying, "We believe that Zionism, the United States, and England are gangs that kill children and women and men and destroy houses and fields. .... Zionism is a gang, not a country. So we will resist them until they don't have a country." Is that actually going to be the policy of the MB now? Are even they crazy enough to de-recognize Israel, let alone risk yet another war with it?
Now, I'm pretty sure that if this situation ends with the MB in actual power, they are not going to set up an Iranian- or Saudi-Arabian-style theocracy, or stone adulterers, or make women quit their jobs and wear burqas in public. That would be Al-Nour, with which the MB has hostile relations, and has stated the MB would not even consider forming a coalition government with Al-Nour.
But what about Egyptian relations with Israel?
The SCAF apparently values the enormous financial aid the U.S. gives Egypt every year ($1.5 billion in 2010; $3.1 billion to Israel that year), which is essentially a bribe for Egypt to continue recognizing Israel and keeping peace with it. They don't want to do anything that would make that aid dry up, they're practical (and greedy and corrupt).
But the MB are ideologues. The late leader of the MB in Egypt, Mohammed Mahdi Akef, was quoted as saying, "We believe that Zionism, the United States, and England are gangs that kill children and women and men and destroy houses and fields. .... Zionism is a gang, not a country. So we will resist them until they don't have a country." Is that actually going to be the policy of the MB now? Are even they crazy enough to de-recognize Israel, let alone risk yet another war with it?
