Mubarak’s Domino

Today’s glamor issues of foreign policy—Central America, Soviet chemical and toxin warfare, European and U.S. ban-the-bomb movements—are not what currently intrigue Washington connoisseurs of diplomacy and geo-strategy. They are focusing on the twists and turns of Hosni Mubarak and Menachem Begin. Specifically, will Mubarak’s refusal to visit Jerusalem set off a domino reaction, triggering a hostile response by Begin and leading to an Islamic crescent in flames?

Since taking command of the Egyptian government last October after the traumatic assassination of Anwar Sadat, Hosni Mubarak has barely missed a beat. His leadership has been surefooted, skillful, realistic, and tough. His first order of business is the reintegration of Egypt into the Arab world —after Sadat’s separation from it— and, indeed, capturing the leadership of that world, which he rightly judges to be up for grabs. Iraq is too spent by war to claim it. Saudi Arabia lacks the fire in the belly. Syria wants it but doesn’t have the political stability to pursue and manage it.

JM

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John McLaughlin

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Today’s glamor issues of foreign policy—Central America, Soviet chemical and toxin warfare, European and U.S. ban-the-bomb movements—are not what currently intrigue Washington connoisseurs of diplomacy and geo-strategy. They are focusing on the twists and turns of Hosni Mubarak and Menachem Begin. Specifically, will Mubarak’s refusal to visit Jerusalem set off a domino reaction, triggering a hostile response by Begin and leading to an Islamic crescent in flames?

Since taking command of the Egyptian government last October after the traumatic assassination of Anwar Sadat, Hosni Mubarak has barely missed a beat. His leadership has been surefooted, skillful, realistic, and tough. His first order of business is the reintegration of Egypt into the Arab world —after Sadat’s separation from it— and, indeed, capturing the leadership of that world, which he rightly judges to be up for grabs. Iraq is too spent by war to claim it. Saudi Arabia lacks the fire in the belly. Syria wants it but doesn’t have the political stability to pursue and manage it.