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In early August 2011, on the same day that Hosni Mubarak - once president of Egypt, now convicted for conspiring to kill protesters during the demonstrations that led to his ouster - was lying on a hospital bed in a Cairo court cage, Israeli Labor Member of Knesset Benjamin Ben-Eliezer revealed an amazing secret. He told the media that he and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had offered Mubarak political asylum. The offer came shortly after Feb. 10, 201 1, the day when Mubarak transferred his authorities and left Cairo to go to his Sharm al-Sheikh palace. Sharm al-Sheikh is not far from Eilat, the city where Israel offered him asylum.i
Had Mubarak accepted this offer, Israel would clearly have put itself in the position of being the Arab people's enemy, perhaps not far behind Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, and Muammar Gaddafi of Libya. Mubarak's rejection rescued Israel from a very unpleasant situation, yet the proposal shows that Israel prefers the old order. Whereas many people around the world see mostly hope for this region, Israel sees risks. The Arab Spring is Israel's winter. No one has expressed this idea more eloquently than the skillful orator (in American English) Netanyahu.
The Arab Spring as a Threat
In his speech to the joint session of the U.S. Congress on May 24, 2011, Netanyahu described the Middle East as "unstable", "a region of shifting alliances" in which "an epic battle is now unfolding... between tyranny and freedom." He spoke about the Arab Spring positively, as if he stood shoulder to shoulder in solidarity with the Egyptian demonstrators. "Now this historic moment holds the promise of a new dawn of freedom and opportunity. Millions of young people are determined to change their future. We all look at them. They muster courage. They risk their lives. They demand dignity. They desire liberty.""
But here comes the twist that exposes where Israel really stands vis-à-vis the Arab Spring. What seems so bright and promising can be a mirage, argued Netanyahu. "These extraordinary scenes in Tunis and Cairo evoke those of Berlin and Prague in 1989. Yet as we share their hopes, we must also remember that those hopes could be snuffed out as they were in Tehran in 1979. The...