The first Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood delegation ever has been allowed to visit the Gaza Strip and meet Palestinian Hamas leaders. An unparalleled wave of anti-Israeli venom in Cairo coincided with the delegation's arrival Sunday, June 12: a "Mossad officer" was accused of plotting to sabotage the Egyptian revolution and "inciting sectarian violence" against Copts; Israel was charged with contaminating farm products for Egyptian consumption and former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon implicated in ex-President Hosni Mubarak's "corrupt" gas transaction.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is championing the Sunni Muslims of Jisr a-Shughour against the tanks and helicopters of his erstwhile allies Bashar Assad, Iran and Hizballah, to promote his ambition as a leading Muslim power. Sunni Muslims outside are avidly watching the Muslim Brotherhood's first challenge in any Arab uprising to an Arab army in battle, hoping for large-scale Syrian army defections in defiance of the ongoing massive purge of the rebellious town.

Two unforeseen events Friday, June 3 rekindled Syrian protests with full force - just as Syrian President Bashar Assad was preparing to celebrate the suppression of the uprising against his regime with active Iranian and Hizballah help: The leaders of the Syrian opposition-in-exile meeting in Antalya under Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's aegis struck a deal with the Muslim Brotherhood which brought 100,000 Brotherhood loyalists back on the streets in Hama and evoked a fresh bloodbath.

Instead of democracy, Egypt is sinking into violence, widespread disorder, sectarian clashes and crime as the military rulers stand aside and wait for a new ruler to take over.

Notwithstanding the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood's promise not to seek the presidency, Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, 60, member of the MB's Shura Council, has announced he would run for president in Egypt's coming election albeit as an "independent," although no one doubts whom he represents.
April 29, DEBKA-Net-Weekly 490 revealed that Fotouh was MB's presidential candidate, the first publication to do so. Recently discovered by the American media, he is depicted as a progressive, moderate Muslim figure. 

Israel celebrates the 63rd anniversary of its independence in good cheer. Neither by word nor hint have its leaders referred to the next challenge facing the country:  Barack Obama, president of Israel's best friend and ally, has picked the Muslim Brotherhood as his chosen partner for promoting American interests in the Arab world. His courtship of this organization, which he regards as moderate, was the rationale, say debkafile's sources, behind his bold decision to get rid of Osama bin Laden.

For President Barack Obama, removing the al Qaeda leader was part of his master plan for replacing the long-ruling Arab autocrats by new regimes with a place for the Muslim Brotherhood in government as counterweights to Muslim extremists. That is the incumbent's top goal compared with Bush who targeted Zarqawi in Iraq ...

While declaring that they don't aim for power, the Muslim Brotherhood has put up a candidate for the Egyptian presidency. Despite his radical and stormy past, he is being portrayed as a progressive. The generals have countered by approaching Field Marshall Mohamed Tantawi to run against the MB candidate.

The uprising against the Assad regime in Syria finally knocked over the Turkish-Iranian-Syrian-Hizballah axis. Erdogan's vision of Turkey as the all-purpose super-mediator vanished into the blue yonder. He is now trying to climb back on the horse through the Muslim Brotherhood chapters of Egypt and Syria.

Iran, Hamas and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood have set up two staging centers ion Khartoum and El Arish, Sinai for grabbing power in Cairo. The Palestinian fundamentalist Hamas has undergone a transformation in the last two years. Today, Tehran has made Hamas an important vehicle for carrying Iranian influence ...

The murder of a mother, father and three of their children, aged, 11, three and a baby of a month, whose throats were slashed in their sleep at Itamar south of Nablus Friday night, March 11 was the first operation of a master plan drawn up at a secret radical Muslim Brotherhood summit in Khartoum last week attended by the Palestinian Hamas. Dismantled West Bank checkpoints and a low level of IDF vigilance made it easy for the perpetrators to commit their atrocity and escape.

Iran is moving in on the Arab revolt now in its third month. Its agents are whipping together the most radical domestic Muslim elements, Sunni and Shiite alike, as a vehicle for importing its own influence into the heart of the turbulent capitals. With funding from Tehran, Egypt's Muslim ...

In their first week in power, Egypt's new military rulers took two steps that had nothing to do with democratic reform. They allowed Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the radical Sunni preacher exiled by Hosni Mubarak ,to return home and lead a victory assembly in Tahrir Square Friday night, Feb. 17 with a call to march on Al Aqsa in Jerusalem. From Qatar, al-Qaradawi repeatedly justified suicide bombings against Israelis. The second was permission for two Iranian war ships to transit the Suez Canal.

The 25 generals who assumed power in Egypt last Friday have informed Washington that the transition to democratic elections and government would take at least a year or two. They also challenged the Obama administrations' plan to bring the Muslim Brotherhood into government as a prescription for civil war.

Egyptian reinforcements reached northern Sinai Monday, Jan. 31 to hunt down Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip battling Egyptian forces for control of the territory. debkafile's sources report that the gunmen of Hamas's armed wing, Ezz e-Din al Qassam, opened a second, Palestinian, front against the Mubarak regime on orders from Hamas' parent organization, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, confirmed by its bosses in Damascus. The Muslim Brotherhood is therefore more aggressively involved in the uprising than it would seem.

The Mubarak regime was badly shaken Thursday night, Jan. 27, when Egypt's most powerful opposition movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, ordered its teeming membership to join the protest movement raging in Cairo and other cities since Tuesday after Friday (Jan. 28) prayers.  With many millions about to join the demonstrations, the president has little choice but to order the army in - without being entirely certain that it will obey orders to crack down on disorder.

Egyptian authorities wait anxiously to see if the millions of Muslims attending the mosques Friday join the anti-government demonstrations rocking the cities since Tuesday or stay on the fence. Field Marshall Tantawi returned home empty-handed from Washington where he asked for American backing for Mubarak's friendly regime.