I know, I know Israel is to blame for all the problems in the Middle East, and solving the standoff between the Israelis and the Palestinians is the linchpin. (Never mind that Jordan, Lebanon, Syria etc. are all carved-up, fabricated post-colonial hybrids as well, with Jordan specifically racking up a damnable record re: the Palestinians.)

But anyways: I’ve always thought Egypt was a linchpin to Middle East peace too. As goes Cairo etc…
For example, since the Egyptian-Israeli peace accord in 1978 (nearly 30 years ago), there’s only been one war between Israel and its Arab neighbors. (And that involved Israel jumping into Lebanon’s pre-existing civil war.) Whereas, prior to the Egyptian-Israeli peace accord—between the creation of Israel in 1948 and the ‘78 accord (an equivelant 30 years)—there were 4 major wars—all of them involving most of the states in the immediate region.

All this is to say, today’s front page article in the NYT about Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood puts the spotlight on the tricky, real key to Middle East peace—dousing radical politics with democracy. Al Qaeda, for example, was formed out of a Muslim Brotherhood splinter group led by bin Laden’s current #2, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

What if Zawahiri had been in Parliament?

Anyway, maybe we’ll find out.