The article marks June 24, 2012, the day Mohammed Morsi’s victory in Egypt’s presidential election was announced, as a turning point that exposed how quickly the Middle East can change. It argues that Israel’s security cannot rest on hope or assumptions, but on readiness and strength.
Morsi became the first president in Egypt’s history from the Muslim Brotherhood, then the country’s largest Arab state. For many in the West, the Arab Spring seemed to confirm that elections, social media and democratic processes would naturally produce liberal, open and tolerant societies. The article says reality quickly disproved that belief, because an organized Islamist movement used democratic tools to advance an agenda far from the values of freedom and pluralism.
The Muslim Brotherhood, it says, had spent decades building community institutions, social networks, education systems and a broad political base beneath the surface. Within months, Israel faced a new reality in which its key peace partner was ruled by an Islamist movement with ideological roots similar to Hamas. A year later, Morsi was removed by the Egyptian military under Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, but the article stresses that his rise showed such a scenario was entirely possible in a state of more than 80 million people.
The piece extends the lesson beyond Egypt, warning that the liberal West often assumes progress is automatic and that elections, internet access and globalization will soften societies. It says that was also the basis for some Israeli and Western thinking about Iran and Palestinian society, where many believed time, integration and a younger generation would solve the problem. The author concludes that the region remains volatile, radical forces do not disappear on their own, and Israel must protect its stability as a fragile asset, not a permanent condition.
