CAIRO — At the time of writing this article, Egypt remains at the heart of tense negotiations for a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel. The Israeli airstrikes on Gaza have thus far left more than 100 dead Palestinians, more severely injured, buildings and infrastructure with real damage, while Hamas’ rockets have caused five fatalities and a number of injuries on the Israeli side. The latest batch of news claims a cease-fire will take place tonight, and that “80%” of the details have been ironed out. Then again, nothing is certain in our times.

This is certainly not the first time that Egypt has found itself involved or caught in the middle between Israel and the Palestinians, and the Egyptian state certainly knows its way to a considerable extent around the Israeli-Palestinian maze. But the circumstances today are quite different from two years ago. Egypt today is a quite different Egypt from two years ago.

Most obviously, Egypt is now headed by an Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi, hailing from the very same Muslim Brotherhood that has traditionally held a strong stance against the accommodating Mubarak-era policy toward Israel and the peace treaty, and an uncompromising position toward the Palestinian cause. And unlike the Mubarak regime which preferred the nationalist Fatah and PLO, Egypt’s Brotherhood has long enjoyed long warm relationships with Hamas, both of which share an Islamist ideological connection. Supporters of the Brotherhood and many of its ranks have spoken regularly of the “liberation of Palestine,” and the Islamist camp in general sees the Palestinian cause as inseparable from the Egyptian one. Islamists are also generally predicted to maintain a majority in the coming parliamentary elections

The regional dynamics that Egypt finds itself in have also both changed and are changing. Islamist movements are on the ascendancy across the Arab world, have already gained power in countries like Tunisia or are at least causing traditional regimes quite a difficult time in countries like Jordan.