Slow-motion train wreck.
(Daily Beast) — With two months remaining until early parliamentary elections, a new Newsweek/Daily Beast poll shows clearly and unambiguously that the political climate in Egypt is moving in a new direction that is inimical to American and allied interests — notwithstanding the billions of dollars in aid that the United States continues to provide.
The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest Islamist group, is poised to win the largest share of the vote in parliamentary elections; the man who appears to have a clear shot at the presidency, Amr Moussa, has made his name criticizing Israel; and a large majority of respondents favor amending or revoking the cornerstone of regional stability, the Camp David Accords.
This poll encompassed 1,008 randomly selected Egyptian adults from 19 Egyptian governorates between June 24–July 4, 2011 — it was conducted by Douglas E. Schoen LLC and Thawrastats on behalf of Newsweek/The Daily Beast, and has a margin of sampling error of +/-3.5 percent.
The antipathy to their neighbor the north was palpable. Only 3 percent of those surveyed had a positive impression of Israel, only 2 percent said Israel cares about Egypt’s interests and a mere 1 percent said Israel had responded to the recent revolution in a positive way. This has repercussions on the linchpin of regional stability, the Camp David Accords: 70 percent want to amend or cancel them, while only 17 percent want to keep them as is.