"I was in a taxi, and I was talking with someone about the Lebanese issue," said Abdel Raouf el-Reedy, chairman of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs and a former ambassador to the US.
"The taxi driver then started complaining about the increase in prices and so on. There is a resentment against the government. People see black externally -- and internally," he said.
As each day passes, the calls have grown louder for Egypt to at least withdraw its ambassador from Israel, and to expel Israel's ambassador from Cairo.
The government has tried to press the notion that Egypt's national interests are tied to its relations with other countries and organizations, like the WTO.
But the longer the government refrains from satisfying the widespread desire to lash out, the more the war in Lebanon seems to magnify failures at home.
"Everything making people angry is coming out," said Gasser Abdel Razek, a lawyer and board mem-ber of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights. "I don't think the regime is comfortable any more."
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