On Tuesday, the U.S. embassy in Cairo sent out a link to the Stewart clip, inciting a response from the Egyptian government:

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The U.S. embassy responded on Wednesday by disabling its Twitter feed temporarily and then deleting the offending tweet, sparking what the AP calls "an unusual diplomatic incident."

From the AP:

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Clearly aware of first term missed opportunities in the relationship with America's closest Mideast ally, Obama chose to crown his two day trip to Israel and the Palestinian Authority with a passionate, forceful speech addressed to a group of more than 2,000 Israelis.

Whereas for the Obama administration the trip, and the speech, may represent a gamble on a second term commitment to the thorny problem of an Israeli-Palestinian peace, for Israelis it was a chance to see, up close and personal, a man who had remained for them a cipher.

Immediately following the address, Jeffrey Goldberg, a national correspondent for The Atlantic, blogged, "I spoke to several members of the audience, who confirmed my impression that Israelis just wanted to know that he liked them. It's hard to understand this from the US, but the idea really did take hold here that Obama genuinely hated Israel. So this whole trip is a bit of a revelation for ordinary Israelis."

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Yet Kerry also served notice that the Obama administration will keep close watch on how Morsi, who came to power in June as Egypt's first freely elected president, honors his commitment and that additional U.S. assistance would depend on it.

"The path to that future has clearly been difficult and much work remains," Kerry said in a statement after wrapping up two days of meetings in Egypt, a deeply divided country in the wake of the revolution that ousted longtime President Hosni Mubarak.

Egypt is trying to meet conditions to close on a $4.8 billion loan package from the International Monetary Fund. An agreement would unlock more of the $1 billion in U.S. assistance promised by President Barack Obama last year and set to begin flowing with Kerry's announcement.

"The United States can and wants to do more," Kerry said. "Reaching an agreement with the IMF will require further effort on the part of the Egyptian government and broad support for reform by all Egyptians. When Egypt takes the difficult steps to strengthen its economy and build political unity and justice, we will work with our Congress at home on additional support."

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As the Guardian's Patrick Kingsley noted from Egypt:

The video shows Hamada Saber, reportedly a 50-year-old unemployed laborer, lying on the ground outside the presidential palace in north-east Cairo, with his trousers around his ankles, being beaten with batons and fists before being dragged into a police van.

The scene is reminiscent of the "woman in the blue bra" – a protester stripped and beaten by soldiers during protests against military rule in December 2011, whose plight became a lightning rod for opposition dissent.

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Over the past eight days of civil unrest in Egypt against Mohammed Morsi's new regime, reports of police brutality, including the use of live bullets and vast amounts of tear gas, have amassed. This video, gaining some traction on Twitter, is reminiscent of the violence perpetuated by the deposed Mubarak's police against protesters during the Arab Spring.

Warning the footage is graphic, violent and disturbing:

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Protests were held in cities around the country on Friday after a call for rallies by opponents of President Mohammed Morsi. But some cracks appeared in the ranks of the opposition as some sharply criticized its political leaders for holding their first meeting with the rival Muslim Brotherhood a day earlier.

Around 60 people have been killed in protests, rioting and clashes that engulfed the country the past week in country's worst crisis since the 2011 fall of autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Around 6,000 protesters massed outside Morsi's presidential palace in an upscale district of the capital, banging on the gates and throwing stones and shoes into the grounds in a show of contempt. At least one firebomb was thrown through the gates as crowds chanted, "Leave, leave," addressing Morsi.

Security forces inside the palace responded by firing water cannons at the crowd, then volleys of tear gas. A tree inside the palace grounds caught fire. Riot police moved in outside the gates, sending the protesters scattering for cover, but then they surged back.

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What better proof that there is no one black bloc group or organization than the emergence in recent days of black blocs in Egypt's protest-filled streets? As the AP reported, "youths with faces hidden under black masks have appeared among stone-throwing protesters in clashes with police around Egypt the past five days in the wave of political violence that has shaken the country. During protests in Cairo on Monday, masked youths celebrated around a police armored vehicle in flames in the middle of Tahrir Square, waving their hands in V-for-victory signs."

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This latest round of mayhem in Egypt — in which nearly 50 people have been killed since Friday in ongoing clashes around the country — marks the two-year anniversary of the start of Egypt's uprising. Activists here said they are seeking to resurrect a rebellion they feel was thwarted first by military rule and now by the power-hungry Muslim Brotherhood that commands the presidency.

But this is a grittier, more crude version of the revolt that kicked off two years ago.

Today the demonstrators, hardened by a series of broken promises and violent crackdowns, have dropped almost entirely the pretense of a peaceful revolution. Gone is the innocent hope of the young revolutionaries who seized and held Tahrir Square in the name of a future democratic Egypt, defying authorities by transforming central Cairo’s massive plaza into a utopian mini-state for 18 days.

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Mohammed Morsi sought to present the Islamist-drafter charter as the turning of a historic page for Egypt, but his speech did little to ease the suspicions of those who fear he and his Muslim Brotherhood are entrenching their power. He offered no concrete gestures to an opposition that has so far rejected his dialogue and vowed to fight the constitution.

Instead, with a triumphalist tone, he presented the constitution, which was approved by nearly 64 percent of voters in a referendum that ended last weekend, as creating a democracy with balanced powers between branches of government and political freedoms.

"We don't want to return to an era of one opinion and fake, manufactured majorities. The maturity and consciousness (of voters) heralds that Egypt has set on a path of democracy with no return," Morsi said. "Regardless of the results, for the sake of building the nation, efforts must unite. There is no alternative to a dialogue that is now a necessity."

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Egypt's opposition coalition have called for more protests, following tense altercations last week when Muslim Brotherhood supporters clashed violently with opposition protesters at the heavily guarded gates of presidential palace in Cairo. In a move disturbingly reminiscent of Mubarak's authoritarian leadership, the government Sunday granted the army the right to arrest citizens to safeguard the disputed referendum.

Some ambiguity remains over whether opposition groups will rally behind a boycott of the referendum or a push for "no" votes. Scholars and commentators point out too that it may not be the draft constitution itself at the heart of Egypt's current crisis, but rather the process through which the referendum has been foisted on the people.

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The announcement, made by the head of Egypt's election committee, Ismail Hamdi, came a day after Morsi appealed for dialogue even as he accused tens of thousands of protesters marching on his palace of being infiltrated by thugs. He has so far made no concrete concessions to defuse the crisis that has plunged the country into new turmoil, and the two sides appeared to be at a deadlock.

Egypt's political crisis has been building up since Morsi issued a decree on Nov. 22 that gave him absolute powers and immunity from judicial oversight.

The crisis intensified when Morsi called for a Dec. 15 national referendum on the draft constitution produced by the Islamist-led constituent assembly after rushing it in a marathon session. Liberals had quit the assembly, which was already facing legal appeals to disband it. The draft came with loopholes and was infused with articles that liberals fear would pave the way for Islamizing Egypt.

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The intensity of the overnight violence, with Morsi's Islamist backers and largely secular protesters lobbing firebombs and rocks at each other, signaled a possible turning point in the 2-week-old crisis over the president's assumption of near-absolute powers and the hurried adoption of a draft constitution.

Opposition activists defiantly called for another protest outside the palace later Thursday, raising the specter of more bloodshed as neither side showed willingness to back down.

But the army's Republican Guard, an elite unit assigned to protect the president and his palaces, gave protesters on both sides until 3 p.m. (1300 GMT, 8 a.m. EDT) to clear the vicinity, according to an official statement. The statement also announced a ban on protests outside any of the nation's presidential palaces.

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Mohamed ElBaradei, a leading opposition advocate of reform and democracy, said Morsi's rule was "no different" from that of former President Hosni Mubarak, whose authoritarian regime was toppled in an uprising nearly two years ago.

"In fact, it is perhaps even worse," the Nobel Peace Laureate told a news conference after he accused the president's supporters of a "vicious and deliberate" attack on peaceful demonstrators.

The opposition is demanding Morsi rescind decrees giving him near unrestricted powers and shelve a disputed draft constitution that the president's Islamist allies passed hurriedly last week.

The dueling demonstrations and violence are part of a political crisis that has left the country divided into two camps: Islamists versus an opposition made up of youth groups, liberal parties and large sectors of the public. Both sides have dug in their heels, signaling a protracted standoff.

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The violence erupted when protesters pushed aside a barricade topped with barbed wire several hundred yards from the palace walls. Police fired tear gas, and then retreated. There were no immediate reports on casualties.

Tuesday's march comes amid rising anger over a hurriedly adopted draft constitution by President Mohammed Morsi's allies and decrees giving him sweeping powers. Morsi called for a referendum on the draft constitution on Dec. 15.

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Since neither choice appeals to a majority of Egyptians, they have instead turned out in large numbers to protest.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi says he needs the new, sweeping powers to protect Egypt from an activist judiciary dominated by holdovers from the era of toppled dictator Hosni Mubarak.

Morsi said he would give up these new powers as soon as a new constitution is drafted. So after protests erupted, the Islamist-dominated constituent assembly resolved to diffuse the situation by ramming through an already controversial draft constitution.

“It’s not even an ultimatum, really. You get a constitution that’s quite crappy, and you’re stuck with a president whose decisions you cannot challenge,” said Ziad Akl, a senior political researcher at Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. “This has nothing to do with a transition toward democracy, but a lot to do with creating a new autocratic or dictatorial elite.”

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There were reports of clashes between riot police and demonstrators, according to CNN, with the police firing tear gas and charging at protesters who threw stones. CNN said the police arrested many demonstrators, beating some.

The protesters, nearly 200,000 of them, filled Tahrir Square from Tuesday night into Wednesday. Observers said the crowds were the biggest since former President Hosni Mubarak was ousted from power last year.

Reuters reported that two of Egypt's top courts also stopped work in protest of the decree.

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The decree, issued Thursday night, was met with outrage by Egypt's political opposition, which called Morsi's move an "attack on democracy" and a "threat to judicial independence." It also led to demonstrations of tens of thousands on Friday in Cairo and other Egyptian cities.

Presidential spokesman Yasser Ali said late on Monday that Morsi's decree would not be subject to modification and that it may have been "misunderstood" by the public, reported Ahram Online.

"The decree will only immunize the president's sovereign decisions [from legal challenges]," Ali said in a statement after Morsi met with senior jurists, reported UPI. He also said the decree was temporary and stressed Morsi's respect for Egypt's judicial institutions and their independence.

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Police fired tear gas and hundreds of protesters pelted them with rocks at a street between the U.S. Embassy and Tahrir Square, birthplace of the uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak's authoritarian regime nearly two years ago.

The protesters have been staging a sit-in at the square since Friday night to demand President Mohammed Morsi revoke his decrees.

By mid-day, hundreds were starting to gather in Tahrir, chanting against Morsi's decrees and the Brotherhood. A new banner in the square proclaimed, "The Brotherhood stole the country."

"We are here to bring down the constitutional declaration issued by Morsi," said one protester at Tahrir, Mahmoud Youssef.

Hundreds of lawyers meanwhile gathered outside their union building in downtown Cairo ahead of their march to Tahrir. "Leave, leave," they chanted, addressing Morsi.

The rally planned for later Tuesday, with marches from various parts of Cairo to converge on Tahrir, is to be a significant test of the opposition's ability to bring out supporters and the public against Morsi's edicts issued last week.

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The escalating violence in Gaza and southern Israel, in which 15 Palestinians and three Israelis have so far been killed, presents an early diplomatic and political test for Egypt’s new president and former Brotherhood leader, Mohamed Morsi.

Morsi is under international pressure to safeguard Egypt’s decades-long peace treaty with Israel. But he is also facing calls at home, and even from within his own party, to take a harsher stance on Israel in light of the ongoing strikes.

“If Morsi does not align with Hamas we will remove him,” said Abdullah Al Desouqi, a member of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party in South Sinai. Hamas is the Islamist movement now in control of the Gaza Strip.

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