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- iHaveNet.com: Middle East
by Joel Brinkley
The chameleon is finally showing his true colors.
Since taking office in June, Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's not-so-new president, has been equivocating, trying to balance Egypt's longstanding diplomatic and financial relationship with the West with his true self: a Muslim Brotherhood fundamentalist who is contemptuous of the West, hates Israel and wants to turn Egypt into a fully Islamic state.
"He speaks of moderation for the West," Perihan Abou-Zeid, a 28-year-old Egyptian officer for a media-production company in Cairo, told me. "But then when Salafists blow up churches, there are no arrest warrants." And Egypt experts agree: You can't be a Muslim Brotherhood officer without holding as your goal the imposition of Shariah law nationwide.
When
He sent his prime minister to Gaza City. There, Prime Minister Hisham Qandil theatrically broke into tears at the sight of a boy injured in Israel's retaliatory bombing and said, "What I am witnessing in Gaza is a disaster, and I can't keep quiet. The Israeli aggression must stop."
Morsi also withdrew Egypt's ambassador from Tel Aviv, lectured Israel's ambassador to Cairo and publicly castigated Israel for what he called "wanton aggression on the Gaza Strip."
All of that is so typical for Muslim fundamentalists. Neither Morsi nor any other Egyptian official offered even glancing acknowledgment of the rocket volleys
This time,
"Shooting into the most important city is like shooting rockets into New York," said Tzipi Hotovely, an Israeli Knesset member.
Morsi's hypocrisy here is of the sort that has been on full display ever since
Mubarak considered
"From our ideological point of view, it is not allowed to recognize that Israel controls one square meter of historic Palestine," Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior
Obdurate, unredeemable, the leaders of
For one thing, he's on record disparaging Egypt's peace treaty with Israel. Almost two years ago, before he had any idea he'd be running for office, Morsi was a senior Muslim Brotherhood officer. He offered his view that a new parliament needed to review the treaty with Israel.
The treaty, he added, "talked about a just and comprehensive peace, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. Where is that peace, and where is that state?" (That stated concern is fair, but until recently the Palestinians shared at least equal blame.)
Right now, some other Muslim Brotherhood leaders are openly calling for cancellation of the treaty with Israel.
Meantime, in Cairo and Alexandria last weekend, thousands of young Egyptians held riotous demonstrations, waving Palestinian flags and in some cases shouting "Death to Israel! Death to America! To Gaza we're going, millions of martyrs!"
Unlike during the Mubarak days, Egyptian police stood by and watched while, in Cairo the same day, Morsi issued another statement.
Egypt, he declared, "will not leave Gaza on its own," while warning "the aggressor to stop the bloodshed or face the wrath" of the new Egypt.
© Tribune Media Services, Inc.
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Gaza Clash Reveals Morsi's True Colors | News of the Middle East