Finally 'Islamists' you can talk to... 'discreetly' at first!

THE election results in Egypt are an Islamist “hurricane”, “deluge” or “tsunami”, according to Israeli newspaper headlines. The defence minister, Ehud Barak, called them “very worrisome”... Before the Camp David peace accords were signed 33 years ago, Israel’s front with Egypt was its most menacing—and it could become so again. The Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestinian branch, Hamas, which, to Israel’s chagrin, still rules the Gaza Strip between Israel and Egypt, hopes that better relations with a new Islamist-oriented Egyptian government will bolster it.

Farther south, Egypt’s Sinai peninsula is becoming a lawless no-man’s-land, with Bedouin and Islamist militants at large...  Even if Egypt’s Islamists refrain from scrapping the peace treaty, Israel fears they will seek to amend the clauses that provide for Sinai’s demilitarisation....

(BUT...)Calming pragmatic statements by Muslim Brotherhood leaders in Cairo hint at an accommodation. Muhammad Salem Awa, a leading Brother, condemned the attack on Israel’s embassy. The Brothers’ election manifesto says that Egypt’s international agreements must be upheld, presumably including those with Israel. The Brothers’ desire for good relations with the West and for tourism to revive will make a confrontation less likely.

In a sign of things to come, Rachid Ghannouchi, head of Nahda, the Tunisian Islamists who are close to the Brotherhood, recently met Israelis discreetly in Washington. He said that Tunisia’s constitution would not ban further contact. “The new political Islam is more realistic,” says Israel’s outgoing ambassador to Egypt, Yitzhak Levanon, who wants to engage.

For decades Israel’s security people ran policy with Egypt. But as generals lose power across the region, Israel’s politicians, including religious ones, may try their hand. “Men of religion understand each other better,” says the religious-affairs minister, Yaakov Margov of Shas, one of two Orthodox parties in Israel’s ruling coalition. “I am ready to meet the Brotherhood any time, any place,” he says. His party leader, Eli Yishai, once even offered to meet Hamas, until others in Israel’s then government reined him in."