at the core of america s difficulties with countries in the region, its difficulties with terrorist organizations, arguably the anger of a particular organizations like al qaeda against the united states, was generated by american support for egyptian. the number two in al qaeda is a brother originator against the united states because of our support for egypt and saudi arain bee yeah. the second reason we care, and this is much more long standing, is that egypt has been our closest ally in the middle east for a long time. they are the only country in jordan that has a peace treaty with israel and they have in many ways been seen to be the center of the arab world and
well, demonstrators throughout the day were throwing molotov cocktails at police trucks and buildings and many are still in the street, they are defying a government-imposed curfew. they are demanding hosni mubarak step down. mubarak, 82 years of age. he first came to power in 1981, afr the assassination of anwar sada sad sadat. he s received support from the u.s. because of continued peace with israel. but at home he ruled with an iron fist. many prefer the stability of mubarak versus the potential instability with the alternative. many have been jailed in egypt. there has been and very little change has come through muse bark. only internal change. there s no overall leader, of
the obama administration does not want to take right now. hala, you can bet if it s important to the united states, it s about twice that important to the united states biggest ally in the region, israel. that s where we find our kevin flour, our jerusalem bureau chief. kevin, the perspective of concern there tonight? reporter: well, jim, probably the concern is great, but israeli officials are not sharing that concern right now. the israeli prime minister s office, the foreign ministry, all quiet right now, reserving comment, only saying that we are watching events closely, and you can imagine that they are watching events extremely closely. israel shares a large southern border with egypt. it is its closest ally in the region. it has peace deals with only two countries in the region, jordan and egypt. egypt has been a crucial ally, albeit a cold relationship for the past 30 years, a crucial
ally just the same, giving israel a that relationship with hosni mubarak is one that s goifen israel and the past eight prime ministers who has served here during hosni mubarak s term as president has given a sense of stability to israel s what it considers fragile position here in the middle east. kevin, it is a fragile position. egypt has played a very strong role, if you will, in calming things down on that border. isra israel s talk about this is a cold peace and all of that, but have they, too, counselled the egyptian government about the need for change, a change in the style of leadership, opening it up to an opposition? or do they even talk about that? reporter: well, various prime ministers and the current prime minister, benjamin netten yahoo,
democratic reform is never on the agenda or never shared with the press of being on the agenda when those leaders talk, when the israeli prime minister and egyptian president speak. it is usually about the palestinian/israeli paeeace dea about iran, it s about the border, security issues. that s what this relationship has been about first and foremost. and you mentioned this is hala, kevin the southern border there that egypt shares with israel, but right there is gaza as well, and the role egyptian security forces have played in securing and even closing up that crossing point as far as israel is concerned has been important to them. reporter: absolutely. the egyptian government, you know, has been an ally, sometimes a reluctant ally, but an all lie just the same in