Israel backs Egyptian military of course

Israel is working behind the scenes to encourage its allies to continue backing the Egyptian military regime, the New York Times reported on Monday.

The Jewish state is apparently deeply concerned that the E.U. and especially the U.S. will cut off military and financial aid to Egypt due to the recent brutal crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, which has already claimed hundreds of lives.

The alternative, Israeli officials are quietly telling their international counterparts, will be far worse.

"At this point, it’s army or anarchy," the Times quotes one official saying. "You may not like what you see, but what’s the alternative?" The official said that Israel is "trying to talk to key actors, key countries," and telling them, "First, save what you can, and then deal with democracy and freedom and so on."

Israel has thus far made no public comments on the events in Egypt, beyond boilerplate support for the official government, but its concerns are not surprising. At this point, a Muslim Brotherhood takeover would likely be a revolutionary one, installing a radical Islamist regime in a strategically important country on Israel's southern border.