A unity government in Egypt?

Two days on from Friday's comments on the events in Egypt and Friday's "Financial Times" comes in on the flight from Munich to Beijing. "Protesters defy Egypt crackdown" is the headline and the protesters and today the real news tells me that with military jets flying above Cairo, protesters are still defying the government. However, the real real news has to be that the Muslim brotherhood has moved to form a unity government and has been asking Mohammed El-Baradei to form that government.

With Mr El-Baradei's general humming and hawing during the last few crucial hours we might only cast doubt on any contention that he will have any influence in the longer term and with the United States own humming and hawing and past cooperation with the Mubarak regime we might also wonder at how credible Washington's influence in the future can be. The real real news is, of course, that the Muslim Brotherhood have joined the fray and it is already difficult to imagine any political scenario in Egypt, which might not include them, in the medium and longer term. El-Baradei might be making his pitch to head any new unity government. However, there is already evidence to suggest that sooner or later the United States will have lost a very valuable ally and Israel will be completely isolated in the region.Of course, while the best scenario would see the oxymoronic "Jewish Democracy" surrounded by real democracies, there is unfortunately enough evidence to suggest that this might not be the case.