What the egypt protests mean for mideast peace

Reverberations from Egypt's pro-democracy uprising are being felt across the Middle East — and perhaps nowhere more acutely than in Israel. The expected departure of Egyptian President

Hosni Mubarak would deprive Israel of one of its most stable allies in the region, and a new government might not uphold the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty. Or worse, as Israeli Prime

Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned, Egypt could turn into a new Iran. Will these fears prompt Israel to return to the negotiating table with its even-closer neighbors in Gaza and the West

Bank? ISRAEL HAS TO STEP IT UP: If Egypt's uprising has taught us anything, it's that Israel is on its own, says Smadar Perry in _The Jerusalem Post_. The next Egyptian leader

won't be as helpful regarding the Palestinians, and the Obama team's tepid "anti-Mubarak agenda" proves it doesn't understand "the code of tradition in our part

of the world." Israel has to drop its "delusional" avoidance of making peace with our Palestinian neighbors. "No one will do the job for us." "Return to

negotiations now" SUBSCRIBE TO THE WEEK Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives. SUBSCRIBE & SAVE SIGN UP FOR THE

WEEK'S FREE NEWSLETTERS From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. From our morning news briefing to a

weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. THE PEACE PROCESS IS ON ICE: The "understandably twitchy" Netanyahu government won't

embrace the peace process now, says "Clausewitz" in _The Economist_. "The turmoil in Egypt is only entrenching" Israelis in their current positions, and Netanyahu

believes there's no point in cutting a deal with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, since he may not be able to make it stick. Besides, with Iran's nukes and Hezbollah's

"bloodless coup" in Lebanon, Israel has bigger worries. "Feeling understandably twitchy" ISRAEL HAS A SHOT AT A BIGGER PEACE: Israel isn't the only nervous Mideast

government, says Aluf Benn in _Foreign Affairs_. And if Israelies can overcome Netanyahu's "siege mentality," Egypt's woes could provide an opportunity not just to forge

new, mutually beneficial peace deals with Abbas and the equally nervous leader of Syria, but also to "take part in the rebuilding of the Middle Eastern community" by

"proposing a serious blueprint" for region-wide peace. "Overcoming fear and anxiety in Tel Aviv"