TightWind is written by Kyle Baxter. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

The Economist reports that Hamas is disappointed with Egypt’s new Muslim Brotherhood president, Muhammad Morsi:

So the new Egyptian authorities are putting national interests ahead of Islamist ones, noted a chirpy Israeli official. “Mubarak with a beard,” snapped an angry Hamas man, referring to the Egyptian president ousted last year who co-operated with Israel to keep Hamas and his own Muslim Brothers down. Some of Egypt’s Muslim Brothers are unhappy about Mr Morsi’s cold-shouldering of Hamas.

Egypt has better sealed the Sinai-Gaza tunnels under Morsi than it did under Mubarak. I wonder, then, whether Morsi’s rather timid response to the Egyptian U.S. embassy protests was largely due to the Brotherhood’s own support for them, general anger toward the U.S., and Morsi’s more moderate position on Israel and the Palestinians. If he is already under internal pressure, staying relatively quiet on the protests, and allowing the public to focus their anger, makes a lot more sense.

That doesn’t justify it, of course; a favorite tactic for Arab regimes has been to stir up anger against the West and blame all troubles on it to shift attention away from their own failings. Morsi seems to be using that tactic well, but he’s also been quite amenable toward Israel, which is something to be happy about. Peace between Israel and Egypt is a bedrock for stability in the region, and threatening it would be very dangerous indeed.