Ransacking the Israeli embassy with the mobs looking on is good fun; moving anti-missile defenses and tanks into Sinai, contrary to the peace agreement with Israel, is a good promenade, but throwing the gloves down and mixing it up with the Israelis would be an insane and catastrophic error. A rematch now would not only be a mano-a-mano fought by Egypt with sullen and reluctant forces, defeat would mean the complete disappearance of that country as a contestant for Arab leadership.

We now see every week the crumbling of foreign policy of the United States. The War on Terror was not without mistakes, but the War on Drugs has been a disaster in every respect. Only 20 years ago, the U.S. bestrode the world, the only super power, strong by any measurement. Today it is quavering, waffling, semi-bankrupt, lurching from one mistaken and often hypocritical policy to the next.