The Arab League has backed the Suleiman presidency, which given the reality on the ground is a non-starter. According to Tony Badran, "It seems increasingly like the Syrians simply avoided criticism in Cairo by appearing to back the Arab consensus while at the same time winking to their Lebanese allies to create old-new hurdles. It afforded Syria, in their view, a measure of deniability."

In Egypt, the Jews' departure went hand in hand with the ouster of foreigners who had settled years earlier and turned Cairo into a capital of all-night cafes and open-air cinemas, where it was possible to hear people conversing in four or five languages -- French, English, Italian, Greek, Arabic -- in the same breath. According to Khairi Abaza, as many as a million Europeans once called Egypt home, every bit as much as Paris or London or Athens.

CLIME Senior Fellow Khairi Abaza comments on Egypt's role in the current Middle East crisis: "The Egyptian-American strategic dialogue - resumed during the visit of Egypt's Foreign Affairs minister - focused on the situation in Lebanon. Generaly speaking, Egypt is an ally of the United States and there is an understanding on foreign policy matters between the two countries; unlike matters related to internal Egyptian politics where the two countries hold different views."