Egypt « Tikkunista!

1. Egypt: After the Revolution

Feb-25-2011 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: Timothy Ash, our lead, says it best “No one predicted this, but everyone could explain it afterwards.” His Guardian piece is a wonderful look at the similarities and differences between Egypt, and other world revolutions. Juan Cole corrects some of the prevalent untruths that are being spread by writers following what Ash calls the first law of journalism (“first simplify, then exaggerate”). Meanwhile, on the other side of the Gaza strip Uri Avnery celebrates the revolution as good for Israel (if not for the Israeli government) and Rabbi Hartman has an open letter to the Egyptian people well worth looking at for the comments, which contain fascinating responses from Egyptians to his thoughts.

* Egypt and Other Revolutions Timothy Ash The Guardian

Before we go any further, let us make two deep bows. First and deepest to those who started this, at great personal risk, with no support from the professedly freedom-loving west, and against a regime that habitually uses torture. Honour and respect to you. Second, hats off to Lady Luck, contingency, fortuna – which, as Machiavelli observed, accounts for half of everything that happens in human affairs. No revolution has ever got anywhere without brave individuals and good luck.

One leathery old victim of this revolution, at whose death we should rejoice, is the fallacy of cultural determinism – and specifically the notion that Arabs and/or Muslims are not really up for freedom, dignity and human rights. Their “culture”, so we were assured by Samuel Huntington and others, programmed them otherwise. Tell that to the people dancing on Tahrir Square.

* Top Five Myths about the Middle East Protests Juan Cole Informed Comment

Looking to the Tunisian and Egyptian futures, it is not true, as dreary anti-Muslim Israeli propagandist Barry Rubin alleged, that Muslim fundamentalist parties always win free and fair elections in Muslim-majority countries. This frankly stupid allegation is disproved by the Pakistan elections of 2008, the Albanian elections of 2009, the Kurdistan elections in post-2003 Iraq, and all of the Indonesian elections.

Note to Muslim-hater Bill Maher, who should know better: It is not true that women cannot vote in 20 Muslim countries, and please stop generalizing about 1.5 billion Muslims based on the 22 million people in Wahhabi Saudi Arabia, the only place where women cannot drive and where men can vote (in municipal elections) but women cannot. It would be like generalizing from the Amish in Pennsylvania to all people of Christian heritage and wondering what is with Christianity and its fascination with horses and buggies.

* The Genie is out of the Bottle Uri Avnery Gush Shalom – Israeli Peace Bloc

Our future is not with Europe or America. Our future is in this region, to which our state belongs, for better or for worse. It’s not just our policies that must change, but our basic outlook, our geographical orientation. We must understand that we are not a bridgehead from somewhere distant, but a part of a region that is now – at long last – joining the human march towards freedom.

The Arab Awakening is not a matter of months or a few years. It may well be a prolonged struggle, with many failures and defeats, but the genie will not return to the bottle. The images of the 18 days in Tahrir Square will be kept alive in the hearts of an entire new generation from Marakksh to Mosul, and any new dictatorship that emerges here or there will not be able to erase them.

In my fondest dreams I could not imagine a wiser and more attractive course for us Israelis, than to join this march in body and spirit.

* A Letter to the Egyptian People Rabbi Donniel Hartman [NB: See responses below letter]

We, your neighbors, have been speaking a lot about you these last few weeks. As the status quo in your country to which we have become accustomed has changed, some of us expressed concern, others hope, and still others, admiration. Each view has its pundits, whose reading of the “facts” (your reality) seemed somehow to always fit into their pre-existing worldview.

The truth is that we don’t know. We don’t know, first and foremost, who you are. You see, for the last 30 years it seems, we never got a chance to talk. We spoke with your leaders, but as you so aptly proved, they don’t speak for you anymore, if they ever did.

1. Egypt: Celebrating the Present, Creating the Future

Feb-18-2011 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: A non-violent revolution can defeat a dictator: there’s a story that offers hope to the world, and already the ripples of that story’s shock-wave are spreading across the Arab world. We start by looking at Egypt, with Ramakrishnan’s celebration of the victory, and Juan Cole’s exploration of the future. Then a wonderful music video of the people celebrating, forwarded by Eric Walberg, and an In Focus set of photos of the people, united. (Side note: In Focus is Alan Taylor’s new photo blog, in the Atlantic magazine. Previously Alan ran the Boston Globe’s Big Picture, with which readers will be hugely familiar.)

* Gandhi on the Nile Niranjan Ramakrishnan CounterPunch

The people of Egypt have just raised a political monument that will rank alongside their mightiest stone and mortar wonders of antiquity. They have shown the world a model exercise of peaceful, determined, and dignified people-power. Three hundred or more are said to have died in the struggle of the last eighteen days. All of them were protesters, not one a representative of the hated regime. They met assaults by horse and camel borne thugs with even more resolve, thousands more pouring into Tahrir Square in response.

Instead of the suicide bombers for which the region has become renowned, this movement began with a single suicide. Instead of firebombing a building full of people, it began with a man (in Tunisia) setting fire to himself. Instead of clamoring for loaves and fishes, they stood firm on freedom, demanding nothing short of the dictator’s exit. The people of Egypt have exploded something far bigger than an atom bomb — the myth that the Arab and Islamic worlds are unsuited for satyagraha.

“Nonviolence in its dynamic condition means conscious suffering. It does not mean meek submission to the will of the evildoer, but it means the pitting of one’s whole soul against the will of the tyrant. Working under this law of our being, it is possible for a single individual to defy the whole might of an unjust empire to save his honour, his religion, his soul and lay the foundation for that empire’s fall or regeneration”, wrote Gandhi.

* Egypt Situation Still Explosive Juan Cole Informed Comment

The military government of Gen. Mohammad Hussein Tantawi, the minister of defense, has taken important steps toward mollifying the Jan. 25 protest movement, but it is not clear that these measures can succeed in forestalling further clashes and severe conflicts in Egypt. The government has appointed respected jurist Tareq al-Bishri to head a committee charged with amending the 1973 constitution, which had been subject to large numbers of changes that benefited the ruling National Democratic Party. The committee working on these amendments, aimed at creating a framework for free and fair parliamentary elections in late summer or early fall, includes a Coptic Christian and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, a major element in the opposition. Bishri is known as a pious Muslim, not an extremist.

The government says that the amended constitution will be produced within 10 days and then put to a national referendum within two months. The swiftness with which it is working, and the resort to a mechanism for popular affirmation of the constitution, both received some acclaim even from sections of the protest movement, though other branches of it are unconvinced. The military has also just pledged to meet another major demand of the protest movement, to abolish the emergency laws that have suspended civil liberties for nearly 30 years before Egypt goes to the polls in the fall.

Among the big changes being contemplated is moving Egypt to a form of government more like that of Britain, i.e. a parliamentary system with power vested in a prime minister who comes out of the elected legislature. As it is, Egypt more resembles France and the US, in having an independently elected, powerful presidency whose prerogatives curb those of parliament (or Congress). The presidential system in the Middle East has often deteriorated into dictatorship and presidents-for-life. Democratization theorists in the US agree that this move would be a good idea.

* A Song Of Egypt’s Revolution (via Eric Walberg)

“This gives you a sense of the euphoria here.”

* Photos From Egypt (In Focus

2. Egypt: The Outside Implications

Feb-18-2011 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: US politicians, as Chomsky predicted last week, hurried to celebrate Mubarek’s departure after it had happened. Israel, of course, had those who celebrated Egypt as wonderful for Israel and those who deplored it as terrible. (As the old joke goes, if you have three Jews in a room, you have four political parties.) We look at the recalibrating and reassessments everywhere, and in particular the ones the US and Israel are doing… and the ones they should be doing.

* Winners and Losers of the Revolution Stephen Walt Foreign Policy

When Zhou Enlai was asked in the 1970s about the historical significance of the French Revolution, he famously responded that it was “too soon to tell.” Given that wise caution, it is undoubtedly foolhardy for me to try to pick the winners and losers of the upheaval whose ultimate implications remain uncertain. But at the risk of looking silly in a few days (or weeks or months or years), I’m going to ignore the obvious pitfalls and forge ahead. Here’s my current list of winners and losers, plus a third category: those for whom I have no idea.

THE WINNERS:

1. The Demonstrators: The obvious winners are the thousands of ordinary Egyptians who poured into the streets to demand Hosni Mubarak’s ouster and insist on the credible prospect of genuine reform….

2. Al Jazeera: With round-the-clock coverage that put a lot of Western media to shame, Al Jazeera comes out with its reputation enhanced….

* The West Can No Longer Claim To Be An Honest Broker In The Search For Peace Gary Younge The Guardian

Over the last decade in particular, the Arab world has increasingly been depicted in the west as a region in desperate need of being tamed so that it can be civilised. It has been portrayed as an area rooted in religious fervour, where freedom was a foreign concept and democracy a hostile imposition. Violence and terrorism was what they celebrated, and all they would ever understand. Liberty, our leaders insisted, would have to be forced on them through the barrel of a gun for they were not like us. The effect was to infantilise the Arab world in order to justify our active, or at least complicit, role in its brutalisation.

…So the sight of peaceful, pluralist, secular Arabs mobilising for freedom and democracy in ever greater numbers against a western-backed dictator forces a reckoning with the “clash of civilisations” narrative that has sought to overwhelm the past decade. It turns out there is a means of supporting democracy in this part of the world that does not involve invading, occupying, bombing, torturing and humiliating. Who knew?

* Egypt’s revolution can free Israelis, too Haaretz Daily Newspaper

How did it happen that the strongest regime in the Middle East – one that was based on muscle and oppression, as well as an army that enjoyed American assistance 10 times the size of what India receives – surrendered without a battle? Collapsed without even firing a shot?…All of the demonstrations that led to the downfall of Communist regimes in Eastern Europe, combined, do not even amount to the number of protesters who took to the streets in Egypt in one single day. And even more impressive than the sheer number of protesters was the political tactic they employed.

They defined this tactic as “salmiya” – based on the Arabic word for peace, the term can be translated loosely into English as “non-violent.” With the help of a million demonstrators, anything can be done: A television station and governmental buildings can be burned down; wealthy neighborhoods can be looted; loathed security men can be trampled. But in Egypt, nothing of this sort occurred. The rule of non-violence was scrupulously upheld. Judging by what is being broadcast on Arabic-language TV networks, this rule has permeated through the Arab world….Among the Palestinians, there is already evidence that there is an inclination toward favor diplomacy, as opposed to armed struggle. The triumph of the non-violent struggle in Egypt will likely turn this growing tendency among Palestinians into a mass phenomenon. That is very good news for Israelis who believe the conflict can be brought to an end without apocalyptic warfare. The speed by which the non-violent revolt toppled the Egyptian regime teaches us something else: the conflict and the occupation can be brought to an end much faster than anyone around here imagines. Tahrir Square will liberate us too.

*What Egypt Can Teach America Nicholas Kristof New York Times

The truth is that the United States has been behind the curve not only in Tunisia and Egypt for the last few weeks, but in the entire Middle East for decades. We supported corrupt autocrats as long as they kept oil flowing and weren’t too aggressive toward Israel. …let me suggest four lessons to draw from our mistakes:

1.) Stop treating Islamic fundamentalism as a bogyman and allowing it to drive American foreign policy. American paranoia about Islamism has done as much damage as Muslim fundamentalism itself…. We tie ourselves in knots when we act as if democracy is good for the United States and Israel but not for the Arab world. For far too long, we’ve treated the Arab world as just an oil field.

… 3.) New technologies have lubricated the mechanisms of revolt. Facebook and Twitter make it easier for dissidents to network. Mobile phones mean that government brutality is more likely to end up on YouTube, raising the costs of repression. The International Criminal Court encourages dictators to think twice before ordering troops to open fire. Maybe the most critical technology — and this is tough for a scribbler like myself to admit — is television. It was Arab satellite television broadcasts like those of Al Jazeera that broke the government monopoly on information in Egypt. Too often, Americans scorn Al Jazeera (and its English service is on few cable systems), but it played a greater role in promoting democracy in the Arab world than anything the United States did.

1. Egypt: Overviews

Feb-11-2011 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: Yesterday afternoon we thought Mubarek was going; last night he said he wasn’t. Today, between the writing of the previous sentence and this one, he did. But amidst the uncertainty of what will happen next, some of the importance of what has already happened is becoming clear. We start with a long perspective, looking at the significance of this revolution, to the Middle East and to the world.

* Arabs Have Discovered Themselves Richard Gwyn Toronto Star

Something fundamental has happened.

For what really is the first time in history, large numbers of Arabs are talking about themselves. They are not talking about Islam, or jihad, or even Israel, nor about the West, the U.S. especially, obviously, although of course they from time to time take envious pot shots at the fatcats that we are. Instead, they are talking about being treated seriously as people, as individuals, as human beings, of being treated with respect and dignity and not as anonymous serfs. This is the essence of contemporary society in large parts of the world. It’s what charters of rights and freedoms are all about, also gender equality, also religious and political freedom….

Whatever the historical causes, most Arabs have for many centuries been frozen in time. Now they are speaking in the voice of the Enlightenment, of human rights, of contemporary values, of, most simply, being treated seriously as individuals.

* We’ve Waited For This Revolution For Years. Other Despots Should Quail Mona Eltahawy The Observer

Most of the people in the Arab world are aged 25 or are younger. They have known no other leaders than those dictators who grew older and richer as the young saw their opportunities – political and economic – dwindle. The internet didn’t invent courage; activists in Egypt have exposed Mubarak’s police state of torture and jailings for years. And we’ve seen that even when the dictator shuts the internet down protesters can still organise. Along with making “I” count, social media allowed activists to connect with ordinary people and form the kind of alliances that we’re seeing on the streets of Egypt where protesters come from every age and background. Youth kickstarted the revolt, but they’ve been joined by old and young.

Call me biased, but I know that each Arab watching the Egyptian protesters take on Mubarak’s regime does so with the hope that Egypt will mean something again. Thirty years of Mubarak rule have shrivelled the country that once led the Arab world. But those youthful protesters, leapfrogging our dead-in-the-water opposition figures to confront the dictator, are liberating all Egyptians from the burden of history. Or reclaiming the good bits.

* The Revolt in Egypt Is Coming Home John Pilger Truth-Out

The uprising in Egypt has discredited every Western media stereotype about the Arabs. The courage, determination, eloquence and grace of those in Liberation Square contrast with “our” specious fear mongering with its al-Qaeda and Iran bogeys and iron-clad assumptions, bereft of irony, of the “moral leadership of the West.” It is not surprising that the recent source of truth about the imperial abuse of the Middle East, WikiLeaks, is itself subjected to craven, petty abuse in those self-congratulating newspapers that set the limits of elite, liberal debate on both sides of the Atlantic. Perhaps they are worried. Across the world, public awareness is rising and bypassing them. In Washington and London, the regimes are fragile and barely democratic. Having long burned down societies abroad, they are now doing something similar at home, with lies and without a mandate. To their victims, the resistance in Cairo’s Liberation Square must seem an inspiration. “We won’t stop,” said the young Egyptian woman on TV, “we won’t go home.” Try kettling a million people in the center of London, bent on civil disobedience and try imagining it could not happen.

2. Egypt: Closeups

Feb-11-2011 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: Closeups are tricky… but we can offer a few of more than usual value. Robert Fisk has been doing wonderful reporting from Tahrir Square, and we bring you his latest. Juan Cole tracks the increasing abandonment of Mubarek by Egyptians at all levels, and new Tikkunista correspondent Eric Walberg.

* What now for Egypt? Robert Fisk, The Independent (Thanks, Gabe, for all the updates!)

To the horror of Egyptians and the world, President Hosni Mubarak – haggard and apparently disoriented – appeared on state television last night to refuse every demand of his opponents by staying in power for at least another five months. The Egyptian army, which had already initiated a virtual coup d’état, was nonplussed by the President’s speech which had been widely advertised – by both his friends and his enemies – as a farewell address after 30 years of dictatorship. The vast crowds in Tahrir Square were almost insane with anger and resentment….

Last night, a military officer guarding the tens of thousands celebrating in Cairo threw down his rifle and joined the demonstrators, yet another sign of the ordinary Egyptian soldier’s growing sympathy for the democracy demonstrators. We had witnessed many similar sentiments from the army over the past two weeks. But the critical moment came on the evening of 30 January when, it is now clear, Mubarak ordered the Egyptian Third Army to crush the demonstrators in Tahrir Square with their tanks after flying F-16 fighter bombers at low level over the protesters. Many of the senior tank commanders could be seen tearing off their headsets – over which they had received the fatal orders – to use their mobile phones. They were, it now transpires, calling their own military families for advice. Fathers who had spent their lives serving the Egyptian army told their sons to disobey, that they must never kill their own people.

Thus when General Hassan al-Rawani told the massive crowds yesterday evening that “everything you want will be realised – all your demands will be met”, the people cried back: “The army and the people stand together – the army and the people are united. The army and the people belong to one hand.”

* Memo from Egypt: We Shall Not Be Moved Informed Comment

The defection of journalists and TV personalities means that the regime has lost its ability to control the message. Until Monday, the coverage of the uprising by the government owned press has been scandalous. Now, the change in tone coming from the regime’s very own megaphone suggests that even state paid propagandists have read the writing on the wall and decided that the demonstrators have gained the upper hand.

One prominent headline in Wednesday’s issue of Al-Ahram, the official megaphone of the regime, demonstrated the dramatic tilt in coverage. “Fi Al Tahrir Hata al Raheel” translates into “We’ll Occupy Tahrir Square until Mubarak steps down” or in other words “We shall not be moved.” That would have been unthinkable a week ago.

Every journalist in the country is suddenly howling about the mind boggling corruption of Mubarak’s government. The former minister of interior, Habib Adly, apparently amassed a fortune of $1.3 billion dollars. Not bad for a government employee. Other former ministers have amassed similar fortunes. According to Al-Ahram, the former Minister of Tourism, The former Minister of Housing and the former Minister of Health are all billionaires and the attorney general has already issued orders freezing their assets and barring them from leaving the country.

* Flying Into The Egyptian Revolution Eric Walberg (Thanks, Eric (and Elizabeth))

Waiting for my flight to Munich in Toronto, a voluble American my age struck up a conversation. Ed is an attorney from Atlanta with 7 kids — 3 from his first marriage, 2 from his second wife’s first marriage, and 2 from their marriage. “A typical American family these days,” he said, meaning the mixed marriage rather than the number of kids. He launched unbidden into a scathing critique of the US, saying it was basically a basket case, becoming a totalitarian monster, and that he was looking for a place to move to with his family.

When I told him I was going to Cairo, he asked if Egypt was a good prospect. Considering it was in the midst of a revolution, I suggested he consider Cyprus….

3. Egypt: US, and them

Feb-11-2011 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: Notice how ‘US’ always gets capitalized and ‘they’ never do? Many pundits in the US are panicked at the sight of democracy and freedom breaking out in the Middle East. If the plutocrats are thrown out in Egypt, next they might be threatened in the US. We have some fine examinations of this moral abdication, from Salon (looking at Richard Cohen’s Wapo screed), from Mitchell Plitnick (looking at the US fear of ‘terrorists’), and from Noam Chomsky, putting it in historical perspective.

* Richard Cohen: Egyptian Democracy Will Be “A Nightmare” Salon

Nothing saddens Richard Cohen more than the sight of hundreds of thousands of Egyptians peacefully protesting. The longtime Washington Post columnist is sad because those childish Arab Muslims might end up with a democracy, but they don’t know how democracy works. Here is how democracy works: We like it unless “the people” want something that complicates our current foreign policy objectives.

Cohen is just broken up about this. “Egypt, once stable if tenuously so, has been pitched into chaos.” “The dream of a democratic Egypt,” he says, “is sure to produce a nightmare.” It is sure to. Such a nightmare it will be. Just not anywhere near as pleasant as these last 30 years of “stability” have been, for everyone.

…These are the last lines:

America needs to be on the right side of human rights. But it also needs to be on the right side of history. This time, the two may not be the same.

The “right side of history” might not be the “right side of human rights.” Got it? Sometimes you have to be on the “wrong side” of “human rights,” and history will totally understand. Poor Egypt. Maybe you will be grown-up enough in the eyes of Richard Cohen to handle a democracy someday, but right now, it’s just not in the cards.

*The Terrorists have Won: Americans Abandon Democracy Out of Fear Mitchell Piltnick

58% of us find it acceptable for the US to interfere with a call for freedom and democracy in a foreign country, out of fear of a group that has not engaged in violence in many years because we think they may not act as we want them to on the international stage. We would, instead, have the people of Egypt deal with slow reform under a government that has brutally repressed them for thirty years and would be led, in the American vision, by the lead torturer of that regime.

That’s why the terrorists have won. They have made us so fearful, so cowardly, that we believe it is perfectly ok for our feeling of security to be elevated far above other people’s most elementary human rights.

* “This is the Most Remarkable Regional Uprising that I Can Remember”, Noam Chomsky

Well, first of all, what’s happening is absolutely spectacular. The courage and determination and commitment of the demonstrators is remarkable. And whatever happens, these are moments that won’t be forgotten and are sure to have long-term consequences…

The United States, so far, is essentially following the usual playbook. I mean, there have been many times when some favored dictator has lost control or is in danger of losing control. There’s a kind of a standard routine — Marcos, Duvalier, Ceausescu, strongly supported by the United States and Britain, Suharto: keep supporting them as long as possible; then, when it becomes unsustainable — typically, say, if the army shifts sides — switch 180 degrees, claim to have been on the side of the people all along, erase the past, and then make whatever moves are possible to restore the old system under new names. That succeeds or fails depending on the circumstances.

And I presume that’s what’s happening now. They’re waiting to see whether Mubarak can hang on, as it appears he’s intending to do, and as long as he can, say, “Well, we have to support law and order, regular constitutional change,” and so on. If he cannot hang on, if the army, say, turns against him, then we’ll see the usual routine played out.

1. Egypt: Fighting Autocracy

Feb-04-2011 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: Clay Bennett’s cartoon (below) has been getting a lot of net-time this week, and it offers a useful way into the 100+ articles we’ve accumulated on the ongoing Egyptian protests, counter-protests, and world reactions. This section is “Fighting Autocracy”, and we start with Juan Cole’s summary of the increased fighting this week, look at an overview by Jadaliyya (an independent Ezine produced by the Arab Studies Institute), zoom in with a closeup from Robert Fisk, who’s a lot closer than we’d like to be, and end with photos from The Big Picture..

* Mubarek Fights Back Juan Cole Informed Comment

People worrying about Egypt becoming like Iran (scroll down) should worry about Egypt already being way too much like Iran as it is….The outlines of Hosni Mubarak’s efforts to maintain regime stability and continuity have now become clear. In response to the mass demonstrations of the past week, he has done the following:

1. Late last week, he first tried to use the uniformed police and secret police to repress the crowds, killing perhaps 200-300 and wounding hundreds.

2. This effort failed to quell the protests, and the police were then withdrawn altogether, leaving the country defenseless before gangs of burglars and other criminal elements (some of which may have been composed of secret police or paid informers). The public dealt with this threat of lawlessness by organizing self-defense neighborhood patrols, and continued to refuse to stop demonstrating….

* Why Mubarek Is Out Jadaliyya

Many international media commentators – and some academic and political analysts – are having a hard time understanding the complexity of forces driving and responding to these momentous events. This confusion is driven by the binary “good guys versus bad guys” lenses most use to view this uprising. Such perspectives obscure more than they illuminate. There are three prominent binary models out there and each one carries its own baggage: (1) People versus Dictatorship: This perspective leads to liberal naïveté and confusion about the active role of military and elites in this uprising. (2) Seculars versus Islamists: This model leads to a 1980s-style call for “stability” and Islamophobic fears about the containment of the supposedly extremist “Arab street.” Or, (3) Old Guard versus Frustrated Youth: This lens imposes a 1960s-style romance on the protests but cannot begin to explain the structural and institutional dynamics driving the uprising, nor account for the key roles played by many 70-year-old Nasser-era figures….

Western commentators, whether liberal, left or conservative, tend to see all forces of coercion in non-democratic states as the hammers of “dictatorship” or as expressions of the will of an authoritarian leader. But each police, military and security institution has its own history, culture, class-allegiances, and, often its own autonomous sources of revenue and support as well. It would take many books to lay this all out in detail; but let me make a brief attempt here….

* Blood and fear in Cairo’s streets as Mubarak’s men crack down on protests Robert Fisk, The Independent (Thanks, Gabe!)

In Cairo, I walked beside Mubarak’s ranks and reached the front as they began another charge into Tahrir Square. The sky was filled with rocks – I am talking of stones six inches in diameter, which hit the ground like mortar shells. On this side of the “line”, of course, they were coming from Mubarak’s opponents. They cracked and split apart and spat against the walls around us. At which point, the NDP men turned and ran in panic as the President’s opponents surged forward. I just stood with my back against the window of a closed travel agency – I do remember a poster for a romantic weekend in Luxor and “the fabled valley of the tombs”.

But the stones came in flocks, hundreds of them at a time, and then a new group of young men were beside me, the Egyptian demonstrators from the square. Only no longer in their fury were they shouting “Down with Mubarak” and “Black Mubarak” but Allahu Akbar – God is Great – and I would hear this again and again as the long day progressed. One side was shouting Mubarak, the other God. It hadn’t been like that 24 hours ago.

* A Harrowing, Historic Week In Egypt The Big Picture

2. Egypt: Fighting Democracy

Feb-04-2011 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: As Gideon Rachman said this week in The Financial Times, “Democracy is back- how awkward.” He goes on to point out how all world powers are fond of the status quo, (which after all, has them in power.) That’s why they are so hesitant to say anything against a manifestly autocratic and oppressive tyrant: it’s not that they’re chicken, it’s fear that those chickens might come home to roost. If you want it clear and direct, War Tard’s your man.

* The Triviality Of Us Mideast Policy Al Jazeera (Thanks Diana)

Events in the Middle East have slipped away from us. Having long since opted in favour of political stability over the risks and uncertainties of democracy, having told ourselves that the people of the region are not ready to shoulder the burdens of freedom, having stressed that the necessary underpinnings of self-government go well beyond mere elections, suddenly the US has nothing it can credibly say as people take to the streets to try to seize control of their collective destiny. All the US can do is “watch and respond”, trying to make the best of what it transparently regards as a bad situation.

Our words betray us. US spokesmen stress the protesters’ desire for jobs and for economic opportunity, as though that were the full extent of their aspirations. They entreat the wobbling, repressive governments in the region to “respect civil society”, and the right of the people to protest peacefully, as though these thoroughly discredited autocrats were actually capable of reform. They urge calm and restraint. One listens in vain, however, for a ringing endorsement of freedom, or for a statement of encouragement to those willing to risk everything to assert their rights and their human dignity - values which the US nominally regards as universal.

* Israel Fears Unrest May Threaten Peace Treaty The Guardian

Israel’s concern at the popular unrest in Egypt is not just about the internal affairs of a near neighbour, but the strategic issue of its 30-year peace treaty with the largest Arab country, once its bitter enemy. The prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, reportedly ordered his cabinet to refrain from commenting publicly on the unfolding drama, saying only that the treaty must be maintained. But as Haaretz reported today, the government is seeking to convince the US and EU to curb their criticism of Hosni Mubarak to preserve stability in the region, even as Washington and its allies signal their wish for an “orderly transition” which the incumbent almost certainly cannot ignore.

If democracy is the issue on the streets of Cairo, stability is Israel’s paramount interest. Upholding the treaty and its military provisions is the key question, but that is closely linked to Egypt’s internal politics and a likely future role for the Muslim Brotherhood and other opposition groups if the system opens up.

* When Canada Speaks, The World Yawns Travers Toronto Star

Canada should look long in the mirror before advising Egypt on democracy or demanding accountability from the developing world. A sorry record defending one and delivering the other strips credibility and exposes hypocrisy. Actions do speak louder than words. International expediency and domestic secrecy reduce Ottawa’s voice to a whisper when Prime Minister Stephen Harper promotes political freedoms for Egyptians and demands more maternal aid transparency from the rest of the world.

Rarely has the mismatch between behaviour and principles been so obvious. …In 2006, the newly elected Harper joined then-U.S. president George W. Bush and European Union leaders in refusing to accept the Palestinian ballot-box decision to oust the inept PLO in favour of Islamic fundamentalist Hamas. That was wrong in so many ways. It missed that Palestinians acted like voters everywhere in punishing corrupt government. It mistook the symptom of terrorism for the disease of oppression. And it positioned Western nations as supporting self-determination — as long as the local choice safeguards foreign interests.

* The Loss of the West’s Pet Dictator to ‘Democracy’ War Tard

If Western interests lose their pocket dictator Mubarak to ‘democracy’ that could leave Suez in ”the peoples” hands and that’s what will have the major elites shitting their collective pants in boardrooms all across the world. Democracy is always liable to land you with unpredictable results. And none more so than in Egypt.

Oil jumped 4% on Friday on fears that the one million barrels that pass through Suez every day might get disrupted. Oil could go way higher if this revolt puts the Islamic Brotherhood in power and they decide to leverage the canal to mess with the US and Europe. Seven percent of all the world’s goods pass through there every day too. Right now it’s only costing the US and other foreign donors two billionish a year to help Mubarak subjugate the populace, keep Suez open and have Egypt not mess with Israel. That’s bargain basement prices really for what they’re getting in return. The fear now is that that bill is going to rise exponentially.

The corporate oligarchy that runs the US pushed Obama in front of the cameras on Friday and made him say he ‘hopes the protests remain peaceful’. I sprayed beer all over my keyboard. When did peaceful protest ever change anything in human history?…human history is a history of war, a history of who killed who to take their shit, not who asked nicely for some one’s shit and was told politely to fuck off. History says that if the other guy has something you want the only way to have it yourself is by taking it; with rocks, arrows, bullets or stealth bombers. That’s just how things happen to work on this planet. From a hypothetical alien’s point of view, we’re scary and primitive upright apes that enlightened intergalactic travellers would be well advised to steer clear of. Sad really, but true.

2. Egypt: Government in Denial

Jan-28-2011 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: With demonstrations happening, the internet and cell phone networks shut down, El Baradi saying the government is “on its last legs”, the Muslim Brotherhood now supporting the protests, events are changing far more rapidly than anyone could have guessed. The Guardian has live updates, but we offer a few overviews. Juan Cole draws on his expertise to look at what’s at stake in Egypt; War Tard offers a rant (his preferred mode) on governments’ fear of democracy breaking out; the youtube video of the protests that has become (water) cannonical; and a Big Picture overview of popular protest in the past week.

* Egypt forbids Protests Juan Cole Informed Comment

Egypt is of the utmost geopolitical importance. In one recent year, 7.5 % of all the world’s trade passed through the Suez Canal (and a much higher percentage of seaborne trade). Over 4% of world petroleum trade went through the canal. Egypt, with a population of 81 million, is the 15th largest in the world. A middle income country, it has the world’s 36th largest GDP in nominal terms, putting it ahead of Malaysia, Nigeria, Israel, and the Czech Republic. Egypt’s soft power in the Arab world, as its cultural center, and its peace treaty with Israel, make it a crucial ally of the United States. Unrest in Egypt puts a great many things in doubt that are important to the US. Were a government to come to power that was more hostile to Israel and more committed to the Palestinians, that development could roil the region.

I lived in Cairo for altogether about three years, off and on, know Egyptian Arabic, and have written two monographs and lots of articles and book chapters about modern Egypt….

* Tunisia, the Middle East and Democracy. Can the genie be set free? War Tard NSFW

Egyptian dictator Mubarak harvests a billion a year from the US on the idea that he can keep a lid on that subversive notion known as ‘democracy’… Just look what happened the last time there was a popular outbreak of majority opinion in the Middle East. That was in 1979 when the Iranians booted out the Shah and his US backers, replacing him with a top down theocracy of right wing crazy religious nuts who think stoning to death is a fitting punishment….

Democracy.

A nice idea, makes the masses feel all warm and fuzzy, but never something you want to toy with.

That’s why this type of popular revolt and outbreak of “democracy” in Tunisia has been met with a kind of tepid approval in the West. The US invaded Iraq and air dropped a few hundred billion dollars in the desert to bring “democracy” to Saddam’s huddled masses. You’d think the US would be all over events in Tunisia like flies on shit right? Truth is, the sleazy powers that be in the US and Europe are a little wary about the whole thing….It can lead to all kinds of problems for the corporate oligarchy in the US and Europe. For instance, when Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2006, the Palestinians exercised their democracy and duly elected Hamas and not the secular Fatah like they were supposed to. That resulted in the withdrawal of financial support from the US and EU and a blockade by Israel, basically saying, democracy is wonderful except when you get the process ‘wrong’ and elect the guys we don’t like….

* Man and Water Cannon Youtube (1:25)

* Protest spreads in the Middle East The Big Picture

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1. Egypt: After the Revolution

1. Egypt: Celebrating the Present, Creating the Future

2. Egypt: The Outside Implications

1. Egypt: Overviews

2. Egypt: Closeups

3. Egypt: US, and them

1. Egypt: Fighting Autocracy

2. Egypt: Fighting Democracy

2. Egypt: Government in Denial

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