making no mention of either the canceled elections or the arrests of Mubarak’s opponents. Later, after Rice was already on her way back to Washington, Mubarak boasted that the secretary “didn’t bring up difficult issues or ask to change anything or to intervene in political reform…. She was convinced by the way that political reform and the implementation of democracy are being done in Egypt.” In fact, Rice had come to Cairo for only one purpose: to persuade Mubarak to join Europe, the United States, and Israel in cutting off all aid to Hamas as a means of forcing it out of power
