Egypt can't afford a war - or much else

First the Arab states should allocate a hundred billion dollars to us, and only then will we be able to start talking about going to war against Israel. These were the terms set by Egypt's Prime Minister Atef Ebeid, when he was asked last week about the possibility of Egypt declaring war on Israel.

Ebeid shrewdly grasps the way his political colleagues feel; in particular, he understands the point of view of his boss, President Hosni Mubarak. War, Mubarak has noted, happens to cost a lot of money. So, first of all, the people have to be asked about it, since it is the country's young men who would be sent to the battlefield, and citizens of the state would suffer from a drastic decline in the level of public services. The Arab states haven't even been able to come up with a billion dollars to help the Palestinians; so a hundred billion is out of the question.

This thinking pretty much summarizes the Egyptian position on war.