welcome back. i'm fredericka whit fooed. >> i'm john voss. i want to talk about why egypt is such a strategic country in the middle east. and one of the things which we need to be aware of is the relevance that egypt has in as far as egypt goes. it was the first arab country that formally recognized israel. president mubarak has a very good relationship with benjamin netanyahu, the current prime minister of israel. if he goes, the muslim brotherhood group, the main opposition group says we'll put the peace treaty thing with israel to a referendum with the people and let them decide whether or not that peace treaty should continue. that's obviously a big concern for israel and for the united states. the other thing too is that egypt has also no love for hamas, which is in control of the gaza strip. that's a big plus for the