Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak is insisting that Israel does not consider Egypt’s government a “shocking dictatorship”, after Defense Ministry official Amos Gilad made the statement to students in Herzliya on Friday.
Gilad called the Egyptian Spring and recent elections a “tremendous historic change in Egypt”, and insisted that Israel’s relationship with Egypt has deteriorated since president Muhammed Morsi was voted in. “Out of desire for democracy has grown a shocking dictatorship,” the Associated Press quotes Gilad as saying. “Where are all the young people who demonstrated in Tahrir square? They have disappeared.”