* The Wall Street Journal
* MIDDLE EAST NEWS
* MAY 6, 2011
Egypt Front-Runner Seeks Israel Reset
Amr Moussa, Top in Polls for President, Wants to Reassert Cairo's Dominance
By MATT BRADLEY
CAIROThe leading candidate in Egypt's presidential race said that if he was
elected he would break with former President Hosni Mubarak's reliably amenable
policies toward Israel.
Amr Moussa, the 74-year-old outgoing head of the Arab League, said the former
regime's attempts to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict had "led nowhere"
and that Egypt now needs policies that "reflect the consensus of the people."
Mr. Moussa, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, also described a
political landscape in which the Muslim Brotherhood, outlawed under Mr.
Mubarak, is dominant. It is inevitable, he said, that parliamentary elections
in September will usher in a legislature led by a bloc of Islamists, with the
Brotherhood at the forefront.
Mr. Moussa, who comes from a secular political background and says he will run
as an independent, leads all candidates in opinion polling ahead of what
Egyptians hope will be the first free and fair presidential elections in their
country's history by the end of November.
But if Mr. Moussa, who was Mr. Mubarak's foreign minister from 1991 to 2001, is
elected, he is likely to accelerate shifts in Egypt's foreign policy that have
already vexed the U.S. and Israel.
'We want to be a friend of Israel, but it has to have two parties, it is not on
Egypt to be a friend. Israel has to be a friend, too.'
- Amr Moussa, leading candidate in Egypt's presidential race
Since massive demonstrations overthrew Mr. Mubarak's regime in February, the
new military-led government has negotiated a power-sharing deal between the
Palestinian Authority and the militant Islamist party Hamas, pledged to work
toward normalizing estranged relations with Iran, and announced plans to
permanently open Egypt's border with the blockaded Gaza Strip, against protests
from neighboring Israel.
Mr. Moussa and Egyptian diplomats have described Egypt's new approach to
regional politics as a diplomatic reopening rather than a realignment.
Under Mr. Mubarak, Egypt was arguably Washington's closest political partner in
the Arab world. While following the American line in its policies toward
Israel, the Palestinians and Iran brought benefits, it also cost Egypt its once
muscular diplomatic influence in a region that is now witnessing its most
profound political change in more than a generation.
Mr. Moussa, who has headed the Arab League since 2001and will step down on May
15said he wants Egypt to reclaim its rightful place as the Arab world's most
powerful nation.
That includes asserting Cairo's place in relation to Israel. "Mubarak had a
certain policy, it was his own policy and I don't think we have to follow
this," he said. "We want to be a friend of Israel, but it has to have two
parties, it is not on Egypt to be a friend. Israel has to be a friend, too."
Restoring Egypt's status, he says, demands a more populist perspective on
foreign policy. "We live in the 21st century and we have to be part and parcel
with those who influence the current circumstances in the region or in the
world," he said in his Arab League office, less than a block from Cairo's
Tahrir Square, the focal point of protests that felled Mr. Mubarak. "We were
outside this circle. We have to get back to it as partners in leading the
world."
Mr. Moussa owes the bulk of his popularity to his trenchant criticism of Israel
and the U.S. while he was foreign minister. In recent years, for example, he
has said Israel's unacknowledged nuclear program poses a bigger threat than
Iran's program.
U.S. and allied governments are, in private, voicing concerns about Egypt's
increasingly confrontational line toward Israel under the current military
rule. Officials from these countries said they acknowledge that rhetorical
attacks by Mr. Moussa and other presidential candidates could increase as Cairo
moves toward elections.
Still, U.S. and European officials said they don't see the Egypt-Israel peace
agreement in danger in the near term. They say Cairo won't place in jeopardy
billions of dollars in aid.
Israeli officials, however, warned that by weakening its relationship with
Israel, Egypt may end up forfeiting its place as a trusted mediator in
Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Mr. Moussa was resolute in his support for Egypt's market economy, its
free-floating currency, and its relative openness to international trade. He
said his currency policy was among several issues he planned to "workshop" with
experts.
The previous government pushed through several economic reforms in the past 10
years that expanded the economy but enriched a few wealthy Egyptians, while
low-level wages failed to rise with inflation.
In a jab at the pro-market reformers who led the Mubarak cabinet, Mr. Moussa
said the Egyptian people must begin to feel the impact of economic reforms
immediately.
"We have 40% poor. You cannot just deal with them as if later on it's going to
trickle down in 10 years time," he said.
In a recent poll by the Pew Research Center, 89% of Egyptians said they had a
positive impression of Mr. Moussafar ahead of competitors such as Ayman Nour,
of whom 70% approved. Mohammed ElBaradei, the Nobel Peace laureate, rated 57%
approval.
Mohammed Salmawy, a newspaper editor, political analyst and personal friend of
Mr. Moussa, says that amid Egypt's upheaval, "Moussa has an edge because he
gives people a certain sense of security."
Yet the former foreign minister, who had a series of high-profile positions
under Mr. Mubarak still faces the perception among democracy advocates that he
is a regime crony.
"Amr Moussa is Mubarak II for me," said Hossam Bahgat, a human-rights activist
in Cairo. "A better-educated, more articulate Mubarak, who will implement the
same politics as Mubarak."
Mr. Moussa's popularity skyrocketed in the 1990s, culminating in 2001 with the
release of the unlikely pop hit "I Hate Israel (I love Amr Moussa)" by singer
Shaaban Abdel Rahim. When Mr. Mubarak nominated Mr. Moussa as Egypt's candidate
to head the Arab League, many Egyptians suspected the president was trying to
sideline a potential competitor.
Mr. Moussa says the reasons for his dismissal were less a question of petty
jealousies than a disagreement over Egypt's policy toward Israel.
"There was a conflict between us, no question," Mr. Moussa said. "A
disagreement
over certain policies, including, but not only, the Israeli
policies, which I found leading nowhere. And they led nowhere. We are in year
11 since I left. And where are we?"
Charles Levinson Joshua Mitnick and Jay Solomon contributed to this article.
Copyright 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
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