The Israelis are worried about Hamas in Gaza, Hizbullah in the Lebanon. How long before Jordan collapses?
The election of Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi as Egypt’s new president has sparked deep worries in Israel as reported by Germany’s top news agency DPA .
Israel is surrounded by Islamists who are ready to push it back into the sea.
Morsi became Egypt’s new president on Sunday after winning 51.2% of votes in last week’s election against 48.2% for his rival former premier Ahmed Shafiq.
Islamist Becomes Egypt President
The victory has sent thousands into the streets across Egypt in celebration of the new president.
Similar celebrations were staged in Israel-besieged Gaza Strip, where Gazans cheered and fired volleys of celebratory gunfire in the streets of the coastal enclave.
Morsi’s election, however, was greeted with caution in Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel “respects” the election results, calling the 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt a “joint interest” and the cornerstone of regional stability.
“Israel hopes to continue cooperation with the Egyptian government on the basis of the peace treaty,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
But government officials speaking on condition of anonymity to local media were less reticent.
One official lamented that warning that the “Arab Spring” would become an “Islamic Winter” had materialized.
Israel and Egypt signed a US-sponsored peace treaty in 1979, under which Israel withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula, which was occupied in the 1967 war.
In his first televised address on Sunday, Morsi repeated his respect for international treaties – a gesture to Israel, which has fretted about its 1979 peace deal, and to Egypt’s army, whose big US subsidy depends on it.
Special thanks to Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA) and Onislam.net