What Egyptians Think of Hamas

Quoting The New York Times:

Few criticize Mr. Mubarak himself, and there are widespread feelings here that the radical group Hamas provoked the current crisis [in Gaza]. [...]

Government officials including Mr. Mubarak and Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit have blamed Hamas for abandoning the cease-fire with Israel and seeming to seek Israeli retaliation. [...]

But such complications are not easy for most Egyptians to grasp, especially when they see the constant repetition of images of Israeli bombs and dead Palestinians on Al Jazeera. [...]

Those demanding that Egypt open the Gaza border do not understand the dangers, said Samir Abdel Haadi.  "If we opened it, we’d be the Iraq of the Palestinians," he said. "There will be terrorism in the Sinai, and that’s our country."

Ms. Malky, the editor at Daily News Egypt, said that the government is making it clear it wants Hamas to fail.  "They’re afraid of the internal situation," she said.  "They don’t want a successful Islamic or Muslim Brotherhood experiment on their own border."