Citing a source in Lebanon, German news agency Deutsche Presse Agentur reported this week that Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak will travel to Munich Friday for 10 days of medical treatment. While Egypt denies the report, there is no doubt Mubarak is not the picture of health. The Egyptian president is believed to be in the advanced stages of cancer, and his health is reported to have deteriorated significantly in recent weeks.

Mubarak is a “walking corpse,” one senior Arab diplomat remarked recently. “Everybody around him is trying to give the impression that he’s a spring chicken,” another stated, but the truth is “he is heavily drugged, particularly before he appears with visitors or in public.” Naturally, rumors of Mubarak’s imminent death have raised questions about his replacement and the future of Egypt. These are important questions.

Both politically and prophetically, the installment of Mubarak’s successor will mark a sea change in Egypt and the entire Middle East!

Although he hasn’t announced it officially, it is widely known that Mubarak has groomed his son Gamal to replace him as president. Despite Mubarak’s wishes, however, a smooth transition of power is unlikely. Gamal has strong ties with Egypt’s business community, but his relationship with the military—the instrument by which his father has maintained his 30-year vice-like grip on Egypt—is much more tenuous.

Mubarak has made many enemies over the years and is widely resented, both among the elite and at the grassroots level. Mubarak’s death, and the political chaos that will inevitably follow it, is just the opportunity his opponents are waiting for. Lacking support from the military, Gamal will find it difficult to continue his father’s practice of persecuting and policing dissenters and political opponents.

The party best positioned to gain from Mubarak’s death is the Muslim Brotherhood. Banned from government in 1954, the MB is an organization of staunch Islamic conservatives with strong ties to Iran and a desire to install Islamic law as the foundation of Egyptian government. Before parliamentary elections in 2005, in which it gained 20 percent of the seats in parliament, the Brotherhood’s campaign motto was “Islam is the solution.”

Since February, the Brotherhood’s image and popularity has received an added boost, helping the MB to peak politically just as Mubarak appears to be on his way out. This boost is the result of an embrace with Egypt-born Mohamed ElBaradei, the internationally recognized Nobel laureate and former director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency. In February, after 12 years of living and working in sophisticated Europe, ElBaradei returned to spend some time in Egypt. While traveling through the rundown cities and villages of his homeland, ElBaradei says he was “shaken by the backwardness of my country, deeply moved by the people’s palpable desire for change, overpowered by the sympathy and enthusiasm I was met with.” When the Mubarak regime noticed his popularity and launched a smear campaign against him, ElBaradei realized he had no other choice than to become “politically active.”

Over the last six months, ElBaradei and his “National Movement for Reform”—which has at least 15,000 supporters and has fanned out and begun spreading the word in villages and cities across the country—have grown increasingly popular. In June, ElBaradei led roughly 4,000 people in a protest against the strong-arm tactics of the Mubarak regime. He has also developed a robust presence on the Internet, where he is out of the reach of Mubarak’s censors. Already ElBaradei has nearly 30,000 permanent users on his website and more than a quarter of a million followers for each of his Facebook pages.

“This is an historical moment for Egypt,” he says. “Things are starting to move in my country.”

It is especially noteworthy that in an effort to expand his fan base, ElBaradei has extended his hand to Islamists within the Muslim Brotherhood. “I have spoken with representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood,” ElBaradei confirmed in a recent interview with Der Spiegel. “We discussed the struggle against Mubarak,” he admitted. On its English-language website this week, the MB announced that it has received tremendous support for its petition supporting Elbaradei’s change platform in Egypt. Beyond adding moral and political legitimacy to the MB, ElBaradei’s willingness to embrace the anti-Israel, pro-Iran Islamic party reveals a lot about his moral and political leanings.

It’s difficult to forecast how successful Elbaradei will be in his bid to become Egypt’s next president. But one thing is certain: The embrace of the Muslim Brotherhood by the internationally recognized figure has helped position the Islamic party to make significant political gains in the event of Mubarak’s death, which now appears imminent.

The death of Mubarak and the installation of an Islamic government in Cairo would have monumental implications for the Middle East. First and foremost, it would be a huge victory for regional hegemon Iran. Tehran would not only gain an ally, it would gain a foothold on the southern border of its sworn enemy. It is impossible to overstate how much Israel’s safety, and the entire security equation of the Middle East, has hinged on Egypt’s willingness to uphold its 1979 peace treaty with Israel.

Indeed, for three decades, leaders of the Jewish state have rested comfortably knowing that although they were surrounded by an arc of Islamic hatred, Israel’s border with Egypt was secure. “The only thing that could threaten the survival of Israel, apart from a nuclear barrage, would be a shift in position of neighboring states,” wrote Stratfor ceo George Friedman (emphasis mine). And the “single most important neighbor Israel has is Egypt“ (June 19, 2007). If Egypt abandons its security relationship with the Jewish state and aligns itself with Iran—which is certain if Islamic lawmakers in the MB gain power—Israel will experience its worst nightmare.

Israel’s entire strategic equation will be gutted, leaving the underbelly of the tiny state vulnerable to infiltration and assault from radical Islamists, who will undoubtedly be sponsored by Iran!

For nearly 20 years, the Trumpet has forecast that Mubarak’s “moderate” government in Cairo will be replaced by hardcore Islamists who will quickly align Egypt with the anti-Israel, radical Islamic administration in Tehran. Our editor in chief first said this in the November/December 1990 Trumpet, after the assassination of Egypt’s speaker of parliament: “Egypt’s President Mubarak could [also] be assassinated …. This could radically change Egyptian politics ….”

By July 1993, Mr. Flurry’s prophecy for Egypt had grown even clearer. “Islamic extremism is gaining power at a frightening pace in Egypt,” he wrote. Commenting on the prophecy in Daniel 11 that speaks of a radical Islamic “king of the south,” a conglomerate led by Iran, Mr. Flurry continued: “This verse [Daniel 11:42] indicates Egypt will be allied with the king of the south. … I believe this prophecy in Daniel 11:42 indicates you are about to see a radical change in Egyptian politics!”

Why is this “radical change in Egyptian politics” important? Because it will intensify and speed up the fulfillment of the biblically prophesied events to occur in the Middle East, and in Jerusalem specifically, immediately before Jesus Christ’s return. To learn more about these prophecies as they pertain to Egypt and the Middle East, read our reprint article “Egypt in Prophecy” and request our free booklet The King of the South.