Epstein Secrets

rompted the government to list the Muslim Brotherhood as a "terrorist organization" (considered a strange move by some given that the more hardline, Sinai-based Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis claimed responsibility for the attack). The "terrorist" listing and crackdown is reminiscent of the Nasser era in the 196

e Egypt, which will have witnessed three constitutional referendums since Mubarak's overthrow, this is the first such process since the overthrow of Ben Ali. The national assembly will vote on the document article by article. To be adopted, the draft must be approved by at least two thirds of the 217 ele

— against terrorists because they fear terrorists, a mutual concern that has only become more acute with the alarming rise of extremist attacks in Sinai. "It's not as if aid gets cut off and Egypt says, `We're going to war with Israel,' " said Nathan Brown, a Middle East scholar at George Washingto

ab Spring still an appropriate moniker for describing the series of uprisings that started with the overthrow of Tunisian president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali and then spread eastward to engulf Libya, Egypt, Syria and Yemen? Or given how the region has evolved over the past couple of EFTA_R1_00441474 EF

nder of the defeat of jihadi ideology in an Arab world being transformed by people power. Another variable has been the response: French support for Ben Ali was embarrassing; the US was praising Mubarak days before he departed. Muammar Gaddafi had no friends - and the Arab League was crucial in providing

le, and has this led him to want to deal firmly with them from the outset? Egypt received a message to the effect that Al-Qaeda was in control of the Sinai and that Israel therefore felt itself free to act as it wishes. Alternatively, could Netanyahu's thinking be headed in another direction, such that

gether. To be sure, Egypt's Mubarak and Tunisia's Ben Ali neither ran police states on the terrifying scale

licy shifts and the chaos in Egypt. The new Egyptian border policy has made little difference, but Egypt's revolution and its reduced policing in the Sinai have had a profound effect. For the past year, Israel has allowed most everything into Gaza but cement, steel and other construction material - other