Sometimes, when a person is elected to high office, "strange things" happen.
When Lester (Axe Handle) Maddox was elected governor of Georgia the liberal world was shocked. How could a dyed-in-the-wool segregationist who most perceived as a hater of blacks (no, I don't capitalize "whites" either) turned Georgia's racist prison system into a model of equality for all races and generally improved the system for all.
Axe Handle turned out to be one of Georgia most progressive governors.
Now we have Mohamed Morsi - a leader of the Islamic Brotherhood - as president of Egypt.
After decades of suppression by Egypt's previous strongman rulers - from Farouk to Mubarak - Morsi takes over in the country's first free election in years.
While he threatens to "reexamine" the treaty with Israel, so far he has shown every inclination to support the peace by putting down terrorists regardless of their origin.
Admittedly, some terrorists from Aza made the fatal mistake of attacking an Egyptian police outpost and killing a number of officers. The Egyptian army - long the power-behind-the-throne - reacted in kind and apparently with Morsi's consent.
When terrorists were roaming the Sinai threatening the border with Israel, Morsi sent Egyptian troops to eliminate the problem.
There are "rumors" that there is quiet Israeli-Egyptian cooperation; if Israelis who venture into Egypt's Sinai "happen upon" suspected terrorists the terrorists are delivered to an Egyptian police or military outpost.
Likewise, Morsi has increased Egyptian military presence in the "demilitarized" Sinai, generally with Israel's awareness.
The terrorists of Aza assumed - wrongly it appears - that because Morsi is a member of the Islamic Brotherhood and because the Islamic Brotherhood has close ties with Aza's Hamas, that the terrorists would have freedom of movement between Aza and Egypt's Sinai, and from there to attack Israel. They also assumed Morsi and Egypt would allow less-or-more open transport of weapons in to Aza for use against Israeli civilians.
Instead, they learned at Morsi is shutting down - destroying - the tunnels the terrorists use to smuggle weapons into Aza.
I am reminded of the old express: Don't listen to what he says, watch what he does.
Morsi isn't waving a flag for Egypt-Israel peace - if he did he probably would be deposed by the radicals - but he is showing a willingness to at least reduce the threat of terrorism against Israel from Egyptian controlled territories.
Given that there is agitation in Jordan against a weak monarch and that Syria's despot if about to run to a foreign sanctuary with his tail between his legs, having a quiet - or at least quieter - border with Egypt should be welcomed.
Perhaps Morsi will bring a true Islamic "spring," one that will begin a change, however slow, in Arab attitudes toward Israel.
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