i read your piece on cnn.com talking about the evolution of foreign policy over the last few days, how it sort of started out how it seemed stable according to secretary of state hillary clinton to now really the president calling for this orderly transition. well, you know, this is what happens when someone like hose any mubarak is your guy. he s obviously been our guy because of the peace treaty with isra israel, because of gaza, iran, fwauz because of the whole situation in the middle east. so it was very difficult for them. they were suffering some kind of separation anxiety, if you will, right? it was really difficult for them to start distancing themselves from someone they ve had a relationship with in this country for 30 years. and so that s why you saw hillary clinton come out and first of all say it was stable, joe biden say, yes, egypt needs reform, but then saying he s not mubarak s not a dictator. then you saw this process evolve until the other night the
brutal but obviously a survivor type of leader. but it helps to understand the man to see where we re at today. we ve got a piece about that. reporter: to understand hosni mubarak, you have to start here with his predecessor, anwar sadat, who in 1979 signed the camp david peace treaty with isra israel. that hand shake on the white house lawn enraged muslim radicals who believe sadat had sold out arab interests across the region. in protest, many even centrist arab governments broke diplomatic relations with egypt. 2 1/2 years later while president sadat was reviewing a military parade with then-vice president hosni mubarak sitting next to him, muslim radicals in the army had their revenge. sa dat was assassinated, mubarak was wounded but was sworn in as president, october 1981. hosni mubarak has been the egyptian president ever since. when he came to power, egypt was
trying to stem the flow of what israel says are arms to are arm groups in the gaza strip, like hamas, islamic jihad, et cetera. what analysts are looking at here today, what the israeli government is looking at, is what s going to happen not necessarily today, tomorrow, but who in the coming days is going to who is going to step in here? who if there is a political vacuum created whoshgs is going to step in is it going to be islamist groups, the army? of course the concern here is about a growing islamist influence in some of these mass protests we re seeing in the region. of course, today there are protests in neighboring jordan, not nearly as sizeable as what we ve seen in egypt, but still another area of concern that israel is watching closely. and of course all of the events in lebanon and its northern border. this is a troubled time for the region and israel s watching
more emphasis on that side of the equation. but keep in mind at the same time we were working on trying to get peace between egypt and israel, between the palestinians and the egyptians. the egyptians were a key factor in all of that. so it s not a one-sided story. i agree that we had to put more emphasis on the growth of the democratic intuitions. ambassador, now is it sort of not too late, but now has a situation so complicated come from 30 years of this authoritarian regime where really opposition parties have pretty much p been suffocated? well, there was peace between egypt and israel 30 years ago. well, that s a good thing. but inside of egypt, what happens now? has the wide spectrum, the diverse spectrum of a pluralistic political system been made impossible to implement right now without some sort of military control? look, you can the military is the key to this, and i agree with those who say it s not
interesting? the u.s. has backed egypt for decades, the reason being of course the camp david peace accord, that started it all off. egypt gets approximately the same amount of aid that israel gets every year, some $3 billion. 1.3 billion of which is in military assistance. that s right. and egypt has contracts, they produce tanks, they do other thing, they make money, working together with the united states. and they give the united states advice. it was hosni mubarak, and hosni mubarak has never failed to remind u.s. presidents, he said, don t go into iraq. he has lent advice, been a valued ally of the united states. let s go to jamie rubin in new york with more on, of course, the former u.s. assistant secretary of state, but the state department briefing was canceled. why do you think that is? well, before we answer that directly, it s also worth pointing out that hosni mubarak didn t think saddam hussein would invade kuwait and advised