The attempts by several Arab nations over the past few months to shake off their dictatorships quickly gained a hopeful nickname: It was called the “Arab Spring.” To be sure, there have been some big shakeups. Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi is no longer in power, and neither is Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
We do not miss either of them.
But it was never a certainty that humane, democratic leadership would rise to power in Egypt, and recent events justify the concerns of many that Egypt has traded one troubling regime for another.
In August, Egyptian militants slipped into Israel and committed deadly terrorist attacks. Israeli troops pursued the militants back to Egypt, and five Egyptian border guards died in the crossfire. That raised tensions between the two nations, which have had an uneasy truce since 1979.
Recently, that tension boiled over into violence. Egyptian protesters surrounded the Israeli embassy in Cairo, tore down its security wall and set the 21-story building ablaze. Ultimately, Egyptian commandos had to rescue Israelis from the building — after the United States heavily pressured Egypt to do so — and the Israeli ambassador had to flee the country.