Israeli factor in the context of the Egyptian revolution 2011
The Egyptian revolution has become a part of the so-called "Arab awakening" which began in 2011 and as a domino effect that resulted in unrest in other Arab countries of the region. The final outcome of this awakening remains to be seen. The situation in Egypt is not yet stabilized: success of the Islamists that won the parliamentary and then presidential elections were followed by a military coup and partial restoration of military-bureaucratic regime. Egyptian events remain in sight of politicians, journalists and analysts; because after three years after January 2011events we can only guess what will be the new Egypt like. This article will focus on how the Egypt uprising reflected the attitude of the Egyptians toward Israel, and will discuss the main factors that led to the formation of just such an attitude. This article shows how gradually happens a radicalization of а street protest after the overthrow of H. Mubarak: dissatisfaction and demonstrations was transformed into aggressive actions of the crowd (or some acts of destruction). At the same time there was a process of increasing power of political Islamism, whose supporters have demonstrated a growing ideological rigidity and ideological inflexibility. Political changes that have occurred (and are still in process of happening ) in Egypt that led to the election of a new parliament, election of president M. Mursi, who headed the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood movement, the overthrow of the new president and the continuation of the revolution in Egypt has not yet led to significant changes in foreign policy. Obviously, since there are still political turmoil and mess continuing in the country, it is too early to talk about any stability, and the question of international relations is not coming to the fore. It seems that regardless of what regime is established in Egypt official relations with Israel will not change significantly, since negative attitude toward Israel and anti-Israeli rhetoric is a constant in Egyptian realities since the establishment of the Jewish state. It is very important to distinguish between formal relations and national sentiments that are so clearly evident in the winter of 2011. There are no doubts that the Egyptian revolution in 2011 has increased the influence of public opinion on political life of the country. Unless there is a qualitative change in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, level of public perception of the peace between Egypt and Israel will remain "cold", and will cool down more and more, as we can see in the dynamics of public opinion surveys for 2011 and 2012. Obviously, even the most fair solution of the Palestinian question (from the Arab point of view) will not force the Egyptians to love Israel and Israelis, but any progress in this regard could be the beginning of overcoming the huge gap of hatred and mistrust between the two countries.
Keywords
Египет, Израиль, Арабская весна, израильско-египетские отношения, арабо-израильский конфликт, Egypt, Israel, Arab spring, Israeli-Egyptian relation, Arab-Israeli conflictAuthors
Name | Organization | |
Ostrovski Lilia V. | Moscow State University | lilia.vitenberg@gmail.com |
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