Egypt's presidential front-runners have pledged to revise the country's 1979 peace treaty with Israel, using a pre-election television debate to denounce the Jewish state as an "aggressor" and "enemy".
(Telegraph) Amr Moussa, a liberal nationalist, and Abdul Monheim Aboul Fotouh, a moderate Islamist, both sought to burnish their credentials as critics of Israel during the American-style debate, a historically unparalleled event that riveted Egyptians.
Both men attempted to present the other as weak on Israel, with Mr Aboul Fotouh openly challenging his rival to declare whether or not he regarded the Jewish state as an "enemy" – a demand that elicited a cautious response.
"It is a country that advocates an aggressive stance but I do not want to choose these emotive expressions," Mr Moussa replied. "The responsibility of the president is to be removed from this and make the right decision for the country."
Mr Aboul Fotouh was more forthright, baldly declaring: "Israel is an enemy."
But both men found that they actually shared more common ground than on many other issues that divide them, pledging with equal vehemence that they would seek to renegotiate aspects of the peace treaty, which is seen as vital to stability in the Middle East, seen as unfair.
Such rhetoric, which has been a regular feature on the Egyptian political scene since last year's overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, has inevitably caused alarm in Israel. But on Friday government officials in Jerusalem were phlegmatic about the debate, saying they saw it in the context of electoral populism.
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