January 2011 | Bible Prophecy Blog

Monday, January 31, 2011

Egypt: What’s Happening, and Where Could it Be Headed?

By Stan Goodenough
Jerusalem Watchman

How quickly the world can be turned upside down. The political map of the Middle East is being revised almost more rapidly than analysts can describe what is taking place.

Most news watchers will have followed the events since the fire that Mohammed Bouazizzi ignited with his body on December 17; the desperate act that lead to the violent overthrow of Tunisia’s dictatorial regime in what became known as the Jasmine Revolution – set new fires across our region.

One month after the Tunisian’s self-immolation, four Egyptians copied him. The initial result of their attempted suicides was the same: Hundreds of thousands of Egypt’s 80 million-strong population poured into the streets, protesting and rioting in their effort to terminate with immediate effect the 30-year-long rule of autocratic President Hosni Mubarak.

At the time of writing, Egypt is poised for further convulsion in a seventh day of riots and protests, organizers hope will culminate in a “million man march.” Mubarak is said to now be clinging to what could be his last moments in power and could have to face off against Mohammed ElBaradei - the Nobel Prize for Peace Laureate, recognized for his work as Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency. ElBaradei stood in a crowded Cairo square Sunday evening, demanding the immediate and unconditional departure of the president and all those associated with him.

A couple of weeks ago Israelis were anxiously following developments to the north, where the Iranian-founded Hizb’allah has maneuvered to upgrade its control over Lebanon. With that situation still in flux, Israeli eyes have nervously swung around to watch the mushrooming potential for an equally threatening development on their southern doorstep.

When the protests erupted on January 25, Israeli analysts were almost dismissive, positive that Mubarak would quickly crush the dissidents. How wrong could they be?

In fact, Israel’s new chief of Military Intelligence has been hauled over the coals in the local press for his failure to foresee what has happened. In his debut appearance before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on the very day protests began in Egypt, Major-General Aviv Kochavi’s assessment was that Mubarak’s regime was not under threat.

Six days later, in both Jerusalem and Washington, everything was being revised. Statements and assessments from recent months, and policies and approaches that have been in place for years – the whole lot’s under review.

Here in Israel consternation is acute. Eager to not antagonize Mubarak, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered his government to keep quiet on the crisis, and has called on the international community to curb criticism of the Egyptian leader. Jerusalem has observed with unease how the tune out of Washington DC has changed, from initially defending Mubarak as “no dictator” who should be secured in power to now officially talking about the need for transition to a new leadership.

Why so concerned?

For more than 30 years, a peace agreement has been in place between Israel and Egypt. Israelis have called it a “cold peace,” at least from the Egyptian side, where Mubarak himself has helped keep alive the deeply rooted hostility towards the Jewish state.

Despite this, the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty has worked to maintain a state of quiet along their common border even as tensions have ebbed and flowed between Israel and nations to the north, and east – Lebanon, Syria, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, and Jordan, until the peace agreement with that state in 1994.

For Israel, which has had to fight a war at least once every decade and is constantly anticipating the next one, not having to spend its strung out military resources in the south has been a big deal.

More than this, the Egyptians have been richly rewarded for signing that peace treaty: The United States has poured billions of dollars worth of military equipment and know-how into the country, transforming the Egyptian army into the mightiest Arab force in existence today.

The fear is that if Mubarak is taken down, the peace treaty will be swept away. The long-suppressed but well entrenched Muslim Brotherhood may ascend to some level of power – possibly as part of a new coalition government. And everything will change.

According to Fox News Monday evening, a source “at the highest level of government in Israel” said “they are terrified that Egypt will become another Iran on the southern border.” Israel could suddenly find itself facing an Arab version of its Persian foe – a powerfully armed (by America!) and well-trained Islamist state eager to ally with – even once again lead – Syria and Lebanon into war against the Jewish state. And all backed by Turkey, Iraq and an, about-to-go-nuclear, Iran.

The transformation is happening as we speak. Israel’s news media has already reported that a regime change in Cairo may force the IDF to boost its forces in the south.

And the latest news: Israel has agreed to allow Egyptian troops to enter the Sinai for the first time since 1979. By helping the Egyptian leader secure himself against the popular uprising it appears Israel has decided to take a stand on Mubarak’s side.

No one seems to know how things are going to turn out. Some experts say Mubarak will manage to hold on until his term expires at the end of this year and then hand over the reins to the man he swore in as Vice President – former spy chief Omar Suleiman.

Others, knowing how volatile the Arab world can be, are bracing for the worst-case scenario described above.

It could suddenly become the new reality facing Israel and the West.

Related Links

Israel worried about Islamic takeover in Egypt - AP

Egypt: From Police State to Military Rule - FOX News

Psalm 83 or Ezekiel 38 - Which is the Next Middle East News Headline? - BPB (Bill Salus)

Egyptian protesters: 'The people won't get tired' - USA Today

IDF Blocks Infiltrators at Egyptian Border Crossings - Arutz Sheva

Muslim Brotherhood Poised for Power in Egypt - Human Events (Robert Spencer)

Islamist Future Looms in the Mideast

By Bob Maginnis
BobMaginnis.com

The Mideast presents a chaotic quagmire of unforgiving choices for Obama. The turmoil in Egypt, Yemen, Lebanon, and Tunisia is piled atop wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the civil war with Islamists in Pakistan. Add to these woes the concerns over Islamist Iran’s emerging atomic threat, the re-emergent neo-Ottoman Turkey, the mischievous Syria, the ever-present Israeli-Palestinian standoff, and the global Islamic terror campaign.

This collection of Mideast challenges threatens our national security interests and totally befuddles President Obama. That shouldn’t surprise anyone after Obama began his administration by naively promising to talk Tehran out of its nukes and to resolve the age-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Now he must face reality and pragmatically protect our key security interests. These include minimizing the threat posed by Islamic terrorists, protecting Mideast oil, preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction, and protecting democratic ally Israel, which stands in the Islamic Arab world’s crosshairs.

Obama has already begun wrestling the latest batch of Mideast crises using a bait-and-switch approach. He praised “the courage and dignity” of Tunisians who toppled their repressive president, and last Friday he called on Egypt’s president to stand down from violence against protesters bent on toppling that government. Then Obama threatened to reconsider our $1.5 billion in annual aid to Egypt.

These new challenges may force Obama to make an ugly Hobson’s choice — endorse secular totalitarian-like regimes that support America’s security interests. The non-choice is the emergence of new Islamist regimes such as the one in Iran, a radical Islamic version of totalitarianism that opposes American security interests.

Obama has limited time to influence the latest crises before the affected countries fall into the clutches of radical Islamists.

Egypt is the latest country to fall into chaos and be threatened by an Islamist overtake. Since the republic’s founding in 1952, the country's army has been the guarantor of stability and will likely support President Hosni Mubarak, 82, and save the regime, especially now that Omar Suleiman, the country’s head of intelligence, is to become vice president and heir-apparent to the presidency. That appointment pleases the military, which strongly opposed Mubarak’s intent to make his son, a man without military experience, the next president.

But Egypt may still fall to Islamists. The man that wants to replace Mubarak is the former United Nations nuclear inspector Muhammad el-Baradei, who shielded the Iranian nuclear weapons programs for years and says as president he would recognize Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group in Gaza, and end all sanctions.

Last week the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), Egypt’s only organized opposition to Mubarak, connected with Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabi, suppliers of the 9/11 terrorists, joined the street protests, and is now calling for elections that would politically enable the group. MB members in Egypt’s parliament favor an Islamist state, ruled by Sharia law and at war with Israel and the U.S.

It is important to note that Egypt already has a significant Islamist proclivity that suggests widespread receptiveness to a future fundamentalist regime that the MB could leverage. Also, an Islamist strand exists among the military’s ranks that could prove influential if the revolution gets the upper hand.

The latest Pew poll finds considerable favor for Islamists among Egyptians (30% Hezbollah, 49% Hamas, and 20% al Qaeda). Egyptians, according to Pew, overwhelmingly (95%) welcome Islamic influence over their country’s politics, including 82% support for severe laws such as stoning for those who commit adultery, while 77% support whippings and hands cut off for robbery and 84% favor the death penalty for any Muslim who changes his religion.

Tunisia could fall to Islamists if it delays forming a new government. On Jan. 14, Tunisians ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali after 23 years as the region’s most repressive leader. The Jasmine Revolution, which led to Ben Ali’s ouster, began in December after a college-educated street vendor burned himself to death in protest over Tunisia’s repression and poverty — and massive demonstrations ensued.

The interim government purged almost all of Ben Ali’s cabinet ministers and eradicated his ruling party. But no coherent opposition force has emerged to drive events because outlawed parties such as the once powerful Islamist groups are still barred from participating.

But protests continue in the center of Tunis demanding the interim government be broken up. Meanwhile, there are reports that Rachid Ghannouchi, the founder of the Tunisian Islamist party, is returning to the country to reenter the fray.

The ongoing chaos has created a vacuum that will inevitably be filled either by the military, emerging leaders such as Ghannouchi, or a known figure via a hurried election. Tunisia’s constitution calls for elections by March 15, but the interim government wants a six-month delay for the parties to engage the electorate, which will play into the Islamists’ hands.

Yemen is a prime candidate for an Islamist takeover because it is the Arab world’s most impoverished nation, and it has become a haven for al Qaeda militants. It was the site of the Islamist attack on the USS Cole in October 2000 in which 17 sailors were killed.

Last week tens of thousands of Yemenis joined demonstrations calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh, 64, in power for 23 years, to step down. Their complaints include lack of jobs, outrage over abusive security forces, corrupt leaders, and a repressive political system. Saleh’s government is corrupt and exercises little control, and its main source of income — oil — will run dry in a decade.

Yemen is already host to many conflicts and radicals. There is a rebellion in the north with Iran-sponsored Shia radicals, and a Marxist succession movement in the south. Part of the country is also controlled by an al Qaeda affiliate in the southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula.

But Yemen is strategically important to the U.S. as an ally because al Qaeda has made it a base of operations. That organization and its leader, Anwar al-Awlaki, use the country to train, equip, and launch terrorists such as Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab, who is accused of trying to detonate a bomb in his underwear during a Detroit-bound flight on Christmas Day 2009.

Lebanon’s new prime minister was installed by Hezbollah, Iran’s proxy terror group, which suggests that country is on the path to becoming an Islamist state. Najib Miqati, a billionaire and former prime minister, calls himself a consensus candidate in a badly divided country. His selection demonstrates a shift of power in the region away from the U.S. and its Arab allies and closer to Iran and Syria.

Antoine Zahra, a Lebanese lawmaker, said, “They [Hezbollah] will turn it into an isolated country, ostracized by the Arab world and the international community.”

Israeli Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom described the Hezbollah appointment as effectively “an Iranian government on Israel’s northern border.” Israel and Hezbollah fought a war in 2006.

Hezbollah, which the U.S. State Department identifies as a terrorist group, was forged with Iranian support in 1982 and is blamed for two attacks on the American embassy and the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beruit that killed 240.

Obama should do everything possible to help distressed Mideast countries avoid becoming radical Islamist states. That may require him to accept governments that are less than liberal democracies, which would earn him criticism, but such governments would more likely than not support our security interests.

Related Links

Egypt and the Failure of the Obama Doctrine - Heritage.org

Lebanon not troubled by Hezbollah-backed leadership - OneNewsNow (Chad Groening)

'Something big' transferred to Gaza Strip - WND (Aaron Klein)

Obama Loses the Middle East - Right Side News

Unrest in North Africa and Middle East may spread to Syria - CNN

Yemen: Orderly Uprising Set for Feb. 3 - Jawa Report

The Palestine Papers

By Jim Fletcher
Prophecy Matters

It was reported recently that high-level papers related to diplomatic efforts on the part of the Palestinians were leaked to Al-Jazeera, the Arab news network.

I don’t believe that.

The 1,600 documents offer what many are saying are eye-opening concessions that the Palestinians are willing to make to obtain “peace.”

For example, the Palestinian Authority (really just a cleaned-up version of the old, sinister PLO) has never publicly backed-off demands for the so-called “Right of Return” (the effort to allow all Palestinians back into the West Bank); all of east Jerusalem as a capitol, and a strict return of Israel to the 1967 borders.

(An aside: the fascinating thing is, the Arabs hope for a return to the 1948 lines, using the added territory to launch a final assault against a severely shrunken Israel.)

In a FAQ section on the Al-Jazeera website, the agency admits that the papers themselves — the PDF versions — say they were created in 2011; here is how Al-Jazeera answers that:

“In order to protect the integrity of the Palestine Papers, Al Jazeera created fresh PDF copies of each document. They are exact duplicates of the originals, except where personal contact information was redacted.”

Right.

The papers themselves are comprised of meeting minutes, emails, reports, talking points and prep for meetings, draft agreements, maps, charts and graphs. Among the “stunning revelations” is that hard-line PA negotiator Saeb Erekat has “offered” (!) Israel “The biggest Yerushalayim in Jewish history.”

Is this a stand-up routine? The biggest Jerusalem in Jewish history has been in place for the past 43 years. Arab narcissism is so massive, they believe they can fool people into believing statements like that of Erekat’s.

My point in all this is that I don’t believe the papers were leaked outside the network of the two negotiating sides, but that the Palestinians themselves leaked them as trial balloons for the international community, both to appear magnanimous and to signal a serious effort at an historic settlement with Israel.

Among the other “concessions” by the Palestinians is the recognition that there will be only a symbolic right of return, with perhaps 5,000 Palestinians allowed to return.

The issue is, the Arab style of negotiating is to publicly make ludicrous demands, but privately acknowledge they’ll have to take something less. But in the case of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the PA actually hopes the international community will think they are reasonable, thus obtaining even more than would reasonably be expected.

Al-Jazeera is an Arab news network. They are biased just like CNN or FOX is biased.

The Palestine Papers and their purported “leak” are but another tactic of the Arabs to maximize concessions out of Israel. Whenever the dreadful and stupid Oslo framework is exposed as an exercise in futility — and world leaders and diplomats well understand that the Palestinians are impossible to deal with — there is another move by the left to assure us that a two-state solution is the only path to peace.

Once the world has had time to digest this incredible leak, more pressure will be exerted on Israel to allow the creation of a Palestinian state.

Because the Palestinians’ “real demands” were leaked and after all, how reasonable they really are!

Related Links

Palestinian Adversaries Unite, for Now, Over Egypt - New York Times

The Palestine Papers – Nothing New Under the Sun - BPB (David Brog)

Why ‘Palestine Papers’ are the death of the peace process - Jerusalem Post

Merkel meets Netanyahu in Israel - CBC News

Potential US presidential candidate Huckabee: Israelis can build in West Bank, east Jerusalem - Los Angeles Times

The Global Islamist Revolt Is Here

By Joseph Farah
WorldNetDaily

In case you didn't notice, and few have, there is a global Islamist revolution under way.

The world's press doesn't see it.

The talking heads on cable TV don't see it.

Washington doesn't see it.

It's a case of not noticing the forest for the trees.

With revolts going on in Egypt, Tunisia, Pakistan, Yemen, Lebanon and Jordan, most of them clearly orchestrated from Iran, it's easy to believe these are unrelated, disconnected uprisings.

But if you have been observing the Muslim world like I have been for 35 years, what's happening right now is as big a development – maybe bigger – than what happened in 1979 when backers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, with a push from Jimmy Carter, overthrew Iran's Shah Mohamed Reza Pahlavi in one of the most tragic and unfortunate international developments of the late 20th century. We, in the West, have been paying the price for it ever since.

This is the work of the Muslim Brotherhood, with the aid and encouragement of Tehran. And the ripple effect of what we're seeing is hard to overstate.

As the leader of Jordan's powerful Muslim Brotherhood, Hammam Saeed, warned over the weekend, the unrest in Egypt will spread across the Mideast and Arabs will topple leaders allied with the United States.

I've done my part to alert the public to the insidious work of the Muslim Brotherhood, including right here in the U.S. But, again, most Americans don't get it. They've been hoodwinked by the media and government school system into believing there is no active conspiracy for a worldwide caliphate, and certainly no threat to the U.S. from what the brotherhood refers to as the Muslim Mafia.

An amazing book by the same name, "Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America," was published more than a year ago by WND Books with the intention of exposing the secret international cabal working on behalf of Saudi-style Shariah law right here in America. Again, the book, a work of daring and courage and enterprise got a collective yawn from the politically correct establishment news media.

Now, as Rev. Jeremiah Wright would say, the chickens are coming home to roost.

Imagine if Egypt falls.

Hosni Mubarak is nothing but a dictator, it's true. But he is a dictator who is holding the line on Islamic radicalism. If his regime goes, it will be replaced by something similar to what we see in Iran today – a government run by zealous mullahs hell-bent on bringing about a worldwide Islamic revolution.

Egypt is the largest and arguably most important Arab country in the Middle East. For decades now it has been at relative peace with its neighbor, Israel. How long will that last if Mubarak is replaced with a Muslim Brotherhood leader? Keep in mind it was the Muslim Brotherhood that assassinated Mubarak's predecessor, Anwar Sadat, for making peace with Israel.

Meanwhile, the U.S. is still in the midst of a quagmire in Afghanistan, while still engaged in Iraq. It can ill afford an explosion of violence and revolution and instability through the Middle East and the Islamic world.

But that appears to be just what is coming.

The U.S. is also mired in deep recession. Try to imagine how that economic dislocation will be exacerbated by a disruption of the flow of Middle East oil, as happened in the 1970s.

Remember, the U.S. and Israel are the primary targets. Europe has already capitulated to Islam. Israel and the U.S. stand virtually alone, and the U.S. is in denial of the threat.

What you see happening around the Islamic world today is big. It's dangerous. It's explosive.

If you think America, which has arrogantly and ignorantly refused to develop its own energy sources, is somehow immune, you are in for a rude awakening.

Related Links

Mubarak shuffles cabinet but protesters say "Go!" - Reuters

Worldwide Islamist revolution explodes - WND (Aaron Klein)

Egyptian troops hunt Hamas gunmen fighting to control N. Sinai. Two captured - DEBKAfile

Egypt crisis: country braced for 'march of a million' - Telegraph.co.uk

Egypt's next leader a 'stooge of Iran?' - Israel Today (Ryan Jones)

End-Times Indigestion

By Terry James
Rapture Ready

A diagnosis of current, troubling realities in the Middle Eastern region of the world leads to a disturbing prognosis. Indigestion is possibly the culprit that threatens to bring on the terminal condition that prophecy calls Armageddon. Okay, so maybe it’s a bit of a stretch to liken what’s going on in the most volatile part of the world to a human gastrointestinal condition. But it certainly seems that it is gas that is shaping up to be at least one incendiary ingredient that might ignite history’s final holocaust.

While the Mideast broils with vitriol against Israel, the one nation on earth specifically pointed out by Zechariah the prophet as being at the center of end-times hatred, a situation taking place in the belly of that geographical beast bears watching. Natural gas is emerging as a burning issue in that highly volatile region. Key prophetic players are at the center of the ongoing developments.

The European Union (EU) is at the heart of matters involving the recent discovery of natural gas in Iraq’s Kurdish region. The EU has been striving to lessen dependence on Russia for supplying natural gas. Discoveries in Iraq open the possibility that the Europeans might be successful in accomplishing that independence. However, quickly rearranging relationships among nations surrounding the region of new gas discovery provoke some interesting thought, prophetically speaking.

The Nabucco consortium, a European group of oil and gas companies, hopes to construct a pipeline to southern Europe through Turkey. Nabucco is much more than just a commercial enterprise. It is an attempt to shift the balance of power in European energy politics, according to expert observers.

If the 3,300-kilometer Nabucco is built, it will be the first major natural gas pipeline into central and eastern Europe that isn’t controlled by Moscow.

This is important because the EU fears Russian control of such a large chunk of its gas supply. Several EU member states have also suffered severe winter gas supply disruptions in recent years as Russia fought with its neighbor Ukraine over transit rights.

So Nabucco has strong political backing from the European Commission, and is treated with disdain by the Kremlin. (James Herron, "Iraqi Gas Discovery Boosts EU Hopes of Gas Independence," Wall Street Journal, 1/26/11)

Europe’s plans are far from being a done deal. The pipeline must go through both Iran (to an extent) and Turkey, as stated before. The Russians are almost certainly going to have a major objection to losing their monopoly on gas-supply operations in the region. And that country’s influence is considerable. Russia has over the past several years made ever-tightening alliances with the two major nations with which the EU must deal in order to bring natural gas from the Kurdish gas fields. At the same time, those nations, Turkey and Iran, are continuing to solidify relations with each other. The three – Russia, Iran, and Turkey — have formed a triad of sorts. It is a most fascinating arrangement in these strange days of quickly moving geopolitical realignments.

Russia and Turkey have just signed in Istanbul a strategic cooperation protocol for enhancing their bilateral relations. This was arranged by the Turkish-Russian Joint Strategic Planning Group, which is charged with carrying out preparatory work for the high-level Cooperation Council meeting in Moscow this March. Although the group didn’t divulge any details of the strategic protocol, it is logical to presume that considerations regarding the proposed EU pipeline figure in the planning.

One source reports:

Russian-Turkish ties have predominantly expanded on an economic basis, especially with energy deals. Projects in the energy sector such as Samsun-Ceyhan, South Stream and Nabucco will also be on the agenda of the preparatory talks.

Turkey receives 70 percent of its energy resources, including gas and oil, from Russia. Turkey will also put into operation its first nuclear power plant with the cooperation of Russia. ("Russia, Turkey Sign Strategic Cooperation Protocol," People's Daily Online, 1/21/11)

Russia no doubt intends to continue to exert hegemony over Middle East energy sources and supplies at all cost. Turkey, under its recently installed, antagonistic-to-Israel, Islamist regime, is firmly ensconced within the Russian-Iranian (Persian) camp. The EU will likely have to look elsewhere for its energy independence from the Russian Bear.

There is such a source to the south of Russia, Iran, and Turkey. Can you guess who that is?

In 2009, a partnership that included Texas Based Noble Energy Inc. and Israeli oil companies discovered Tamar, an offshore gas field containing eight trillion cubic feet of natural gas. It was the largest gas find in the world in 2009 and the largest ever for Israel at the time.

Last December, the company announced the discovery of the Leviathan field, which contains a whopping 16 trillion cubic feet of natural gas — enough to supply all of Israel's gas needs for 100 years — and promises to turn the once resource-starved country into a net energy exporter. (Charles Levinson, "Israel to Launch State Fund Within a Year," Wall Street Journal, 1/26/11)

There is talk of the EU contracting with Israel to provide the much-needed natural gas supply. It will be fascinating to watch developments, in consideration of the Gog-Magog prophecy of Ezekiel chapters 38-39.

Related Links

Minister seeks to expedite Tamar gas flow - Globes

Is the Qatar-Iraq-Turkey-Europe Natural Gas Pipeline Project feasible? - Sunday's Zaman

Ezekiel 38 & 39 (Part 1) - BPB (Thomas Ice)

Nabucco delayed? - UPI

Israel Gas Explorers Outperform as Egypt Unrest May Create Void - Bloomberg

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Israel Watches with Concern as Egypt Teeters on the Brink

By Ryan Jones
Israel Today

While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered his government to refrain from commenting publicly on the situation in Egypt, Israelis watched with concern as the regime of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak appeared ready to collapse, and wondered what that will mean for the Jewish state.

Over the weekend, a large number of Egyptian troops that went into Cairo to quell the uprising actually ended up joining the protestors, even allowing them to ride on their tanks. The pictures in local Middle East newspapers gave the impression that Mubarak’s downfall was a foregone conclusion.

Mubarak has already appointed his first ever vice president, Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, in an effort to calm the waters and demonstrate that he is not trying to create a dynasty.

Suleiman is well respected in Egypt, even by the opposition, and has kept himself largely clean of the corruption that has characterized Mubarak’s government. But Suleiman is also old at 74, and he has dealt roughly with Islamic extremists in the past, meaning that even if he did take over, it likely wouldn’t mean an end to the unrest.

The other possibility that everyone is talking about is that the Muslim Brotherhood, the forerunner of the Palestinian Hamas, will take over. Experts have noted that the Brotherhood is the only large organized opposition force in Egypt, so if the Mubarak regime falls completely, the likelihood of a Brotherhood takeover is high.

If that scenario plays out, there are many that fear Egypt will go the route of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. The only thing that is currently missing is a charismatic Islamic figurehead. Iranian leaders on Saturday said they were pleased with how things are going in Egypt, and said they felt the revolution there had been inspired by their own.

An Egypt controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood would suddenly become the greatest regional threat to Israel, and precipitate a major restructuring of the IDF operational policies and a beefing up of Israeli forces in the south of the country.

If it gains control of Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood would be in command of the Arab world’s largest and most powerful military, built on a foundation of advanced American weaponry.

It would mean Israel would have to seriously consider facing a major war on two fronts, something it has not had to do since the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

Related Links