Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced understanding for pro-democracy protests in Egypt for the first time on Tuesday, but reiterated Israel's fear they could put a radical Islamist regime in power.
Netanyahu "encourages the advancement of free and democratic values in the Middle East," a statement said, adding that as in a 1979 Islamist revolt in Iran, toppling pro-Western President Hosni Mubarak may also prove "a blow to peace and democracy."
The statement was issued as Israeli experts increasingly saw Mubarak's regime, a longtime ally of Israel, as threatened by the weeklong wave of protests sweeping Egypt, and the anti-Israel Muslim Brotherhood as a possible ruling alternative.
