Has Egypt switched sides? For over five decades, successive Egyptian governments have received enormous amounts of U.S. foreign aid and military assistance – essentially rewards for making peace with Israel and for remaining generally aligned with American regional policy and interests.

We had a taste of what could happen to this arrangement when Barack Obama encouraged the toppling of longtime ally, President Hosni Mubarak, and the Muslim Brotherhood came to power. Fortunately, the Brothers’ regime was overthrown before it fully imposed Sharia law and threw in with Israel’s enemies. 

Now, Egypt’s government is violating the peace treaty with Israel by massing forces in the Sinai. It’s recently conducted air and naval exercises respectively with China and Russia and improved relations with Iran. And it has released top Muslim Brothers from jail. 

These manifest the strategic equivalent of tectonic shifts. Brace for impact. 

This is Frank Gaffney.