The latest developments in Egypt represent the culmination of a process that began in the 1970s the return of Islam as a political player. There are several reasons behind this process, and one is the failure of all the other ideologies, like socialism and pan-Arabism, to alleviate the Arab world's pressing problems and extricate it from the crisis in which it has been for years. More specifically, it was a failure of almost every Arab regime (excluding the oil-based economies) to fulfill the most basic needs of their young generation for housing, education and jobs. This failure became even more apparent when the educational revolution produced a generation of university graduates faced with the hopelessness of the inability to find work even with a university degree. Another reason behind this process is the threat that many Muslims feel directed at their Muslim identity in this age of globalization and encroachment of Western ideals. They feel that their identity is becoming lost, and turning back to Islam is seen as a cure-all. The Islamic movements combined an attractive ideology with a catchy slogan "Islam is the answer" used a familiar set of symbols (like the battle between Pharaoh and Moses, when everyone knows what it really symbolizes) and provided welfare and assistance where the governments failed to do so. The Islamic movements fall into two categories: the mainstream, comprising the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Hamas in Gaza and Jordan, and the more radical stream, which manifests itself in organizations like al-Qaida and Iraqi terror cells and the like. In the wake of the Arab Spring, the various Islamic movements are now at a historic crossroads: On the one hand, they are achieving unprecedented gains they govern countries like Egypt and Tunisia and control Gaza and can potentially realize their vision of imposing Muslim law. But on the other hand, they are facing immense, nearly insurmountable social and economic problems that they are not likely to be able to resolve. There is nothing in Islamic ideology that provides solutions to these social and economic ails, and the Islamic movements have no choice but to compromise their Muslim ideals, for the near future at least, due to their financial dependence on the U.S. and the global community. The Muslim Brotherhood, for example, cannot revoke Egypt's peace treaty with Israel, even though it has opposed it since the day it was signed. These Islamic movements are facing several real threats: the failure to address national issues and deliver on their promises, an ideological crisis or a significant, long-term, internal shift. Such a shift would not necessarily be a bad thing, as far as Israel is concerned. Professor Meir Litvak teaches at the Tel Aviv University Middle Eastern and African History Department.
