The United States and its friends have long known that to take Egypt out of the Middle East equation is to make the Arab contribution almost insignificant. For more than thirty years, a compliant Egyptian Government has allowed US and Israeli foreign policy to go virtually unchallenged. The foreign diplomats, with their teams of armaments experts, who came so quickly to pay their respects to the new government in February of this year shows how important Egypt is in their overall strategy. It is true that in recent years, a newly emerging Turkey has been able to make its voice heard, but the Arab voice, up until now, has not been a strong one. On the very first day of those demonstrations of popular feeling on the streets of Cairo back in January, the writing on the wall became very clear for all to see. If the existing regime were to fall, the feeling of the vast number of Egyptians would in the future not favour Israel. Despite their deep love for their Palestinian brothers and sisters, the Egyptian people had felt humiliation for decades as their Arab neighbours continually asked why Egypt was doing nothing to help Palestine. Their shame became almost unbearable during the Israeli attack on Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009, when the Egyptian Government sealed off the border with Gaza and allowed the Israeli war machine to wreak havoc and destruction on its citizens. Quite why President Sadat made peace and signed a treaty with Israel still baffles even his greatest admirers. Sadat was an extraordinary man. The crossing of the Suez Canal in October 1973 will surely go down as one of the greatest strategies in military history. In regaining the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt felt once more pride in herself and in her Armed Forces. It is that same pride we are seeing throughout Egypt today. It can be argued that Sadat didn't have much choice when it came to the ensuing ceasefire between Egypt and Israel. Those backing Israel had made it perfectly clear how far things would be allowed to go. But a treaty of peace? In signing that treaty President Sadat gave legitimacy to the seizure and usurpation of Palestinian land in 1948. It normalised what the fledgling United Nations had done in giving away the land of Palestine to others. Little wonder that her Arab neighbours immediately sought to ostracise Egypt from within their fold. President Sadat was to pay with his life for his bold action. History will give us the longer view. Perhaps Sadat truly believed that it was in the best interests of Egypt to be an ally of the United States. What he didn't realise was that Israel would always be the best friend of the United States in the region – and no-one else would ever come close. History cannot show us whether or not President Sadat was acting in good faith, believing that his Israeli counterparts were really being honest when they talked of a just and lasting peace that would include the fate of the Palestinian people. Or will history one day show that President Sadat was taken in by people with honeyed words, saying one thing but planning to do another? Modern history has certainly shown this to be the case in anything that the State of Israel has done, saying one thing and doing something else, talking of peace but planning for war, agreeing to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority whilst building more and more settlements on Occupied Palestinian land at the same time. Whilst professional spokesmen are employed to come onto our television screens, speaking on behalf of the Israeli Prime Minister and telling us that children were not deliberately targeted by Israeli gunfire or that peaceful protesters really had a large cache of weapons on their boat and were planning deeds of wickedness, the world doesn't really believe them, although the world does very little to act. For too long, the world's media have been fed a diet of misinformation about this Israel surrounded by hostile nations and acting in self-defence to protect itself from terrorists on every side. Up until now they have even been able to claim that Israel is the only real democracy in the region. Well, times are changing. The voices on the Arab street have not been taken in by any of this. It is true that many Egyptians have got very rich on the back of this peace with Israel. Some of them now await the judgement of the courts on their fraudulent and corrupt business dealings. There were even members of the Government whose avowed policy was “to let the people of Gaza go hungry, but not starve”.But January 25 has changed all of this. From the very start, the Egyptian people have made their will perfectly clear. For decades, governmental ministers may have claimed one thing, but they did not speak for the people they were supposed to serve. If anything has come out of January 25 it is that the people's voice must be listened to. The marches which now set off regularly towards the Israeli Embassy in Giza may not be large in number, but they represent something greater than the numbers involved. The crowds outside the Israeli Embassy in Cairo at the moment are not simply there because Egyptians were killed on the border by Israeli security forces. They are there because the people wish the Embassy not to be present in Cairo at all. It is never good to act in haste and to regret later what has been done, even though some of Egypt's foreign neighbours are urging immediate action. They have always done that. They have always backed Egypt, right down to the last dead Egyptian soldier. The present course of allowing the treaty with Israel to stand until a new government can be elected by the people seems a wise course. Diplomats and military strategists will need to consider very carefully in the coming months what the future holds and what is really in the best interests of the people of Egypt. And it may be that economic advantage or administrative convenience or a desire to please her foreign friends will not be among the overriding considerations. But it also seems clear to anyone with any sense that this treaty with Israel is an unpopular treaty. It isn't unpopular because the terms favour one side over another. It isn't unpopular because it allows one side to do this or that. It is unpopular because it exists at all. By God's will, Egypt will become stronger and stronger in the coming months and years. The sacrifices of January 25 will truly bear fruit when Egypt's democratically elected Government can take its place at the tables of world diplomacy and speak, for the first time in many years, in the name of the Egyptian people. On that day, in thinking about the treaty, Egypt will not only need to think, as her people have always thought, of the Palestinian people. She will need to think of who her real friends are. She will need also to think of the role she is to play in the region and in the world. Enough of foreign powers paying their money and giving their instructions. The time has come for Egypt to steer its own course. And in listening to the voice of the people, as long as an Israeli flag flies over Cairo, the people of Egypt will detest the treaty and all that it stands for. The author of eight books about Islam, British Muslim writer, Idris Tawfiq, divides his time between Egypt and the UK as a speaker, writer and broadcaster. You can visit his website at www.idristawfiq.com
