The Long and Winding Road for Democracy in Egypt Part 13

Darker Skies Ahead: Egypt's Future of Uncertainties

    

          The battle for middle earth has begun as the forces of tyranny and the forces of freedom are colliding for one decisive battle. This a memorable scene from J.R. Tolkien’s the third bestselling novel of all time The Lord of the Rings resembles the situation now in Egypt. The forces of freedom have once again reunited under one banner in manner unseen since the first 18 days of the January 25^th revolution. This time they rallied for one last decisive battle for freedom in Egypt to fight and they don’t intend to give concessions to tyranny any longer.

Egyptians of all creeds and political affiliations gathered3 times on the November 23^rd , 27^th and 30^th2012 defying the new tyrant in the making president Morsi’s Edict and affirming that they didn’t go this far for tyrant to take away their freedoms under any pretext. Will Egypt emerge as a free country and retain its historical position as a beacon of culture for the region and the world or will it succumb to the dark ages under Islamist tyrannical rule? Only upcoming days and weeks will answer that question.

Egyptian president Dr. Mohamed Morsi who just edged his contender Dr. Ahmed Shafiq by 1% in a controversial election in June 2012, have self proclaimed himself a demigod in every sense of the word. Not since the time of the Pharaohs who even had consultants, has any Egyptian ruler assumed all powers in his/her hands like Morsi have claimed in a dark day in Egypt’s 7000 years. Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood group have single handedly euthanized the long awaited Egyptian dream for a free democratic life and a long sought after freedom.

Morsi’s Edict and constitutional declaration have surpassed any authorities accumulated any other tyrant even during Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. It’s an unprecedented instance in the Egyptian political life that a president has the audacity to sideline the Judiciary system as well hold the legislative, executive and judiciary power in his own hands.

The Constitutional Declaration also immunized the Upper House of Egypt’s Parliament, Shura Council, and the predominantly Islamist Constituent Assembly from the dissolution or contending any court of justice. Furthermore the “unconstitutional” constitutional declaration have included the sacking of the General attorney and replaced him by another thus triggering an unprecedented event in the history of the Egyptian Judiciary system.

Furthermore, the edict have established a new judiciary body called “Revolution Protection” with its announced aim is to suppress the Mubarak regime figures and sympathizers but in reality it will the President and brotherhood legal arm to suppress any opposition by witch-hunting their political opponents utilizing the Iranian Mullahs’ regime modus operandi.
In response, The Egyptian Judges club that represents that represents the main judges body in Egypt have called all operating courts to suspend their operations till the president withdraws the unconstitutional edict and the ousted Attorney General to return to office. Also, the Judges Club declaration demanded the reformation of the constitution committee to include all factions equally to chance its Islamist predominant nature.

This courageous stance from the Judges has saved Egypt from a tyranny under the pretext of a constitutional declaration and kept the president in his place while reminding him of the limits of his authority. Whether the president will realize the gravity of the situation or not, it will be up to him and his group of consultants to undo the harm they caused an already divided and near bankruptcy nation. But each day the president defies the judges, he is bringing his short life reign to a closer and darker end with most of the country now being vigilant against him judging by the deterioration conditions in all sectors in Egypt.

Egyptians have a uphill to fight, against a tyrant president who is backed by a group that is the mother of all Political Islam groups which later adopted. The president is all backed by former terrorist groups namely the so called “Gamaa Islamiya” or Islamic Group. The Gamaa Islamiya are directly responsible for various political assassinations and terrorist bombings in the past 4 decades. These same factions that vowed to go to the streets and clear Tahrir from the protestors in move that could ignite a civil conflict and end up in a civil war.
It’s noteworthy that many experts have warned before that the Muslim brotherhood and Islamists are treating democracy as a single serving recipe for power. It seemed like over 50% of Egyptians didn’t understand the negative signals about the danger that these groups represent on the Egyptian identity and the national security. However, the same Egyptians who fought hard for their freedoms before will fight the religious tyranny represented by Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood group.

Morsi’s reign of disasters:

“It’s not titles that honours men but men that honours titles” – Niccolo  Machiavelli 

       Lack of proper services and security has never been so prevalent in recent Egyptian history like it was clearly manifested during the 6 months of Morsi’s reign. Even during the years of wars with Israel 1949-1973 the Egyptians hardly felt the agony and burdens of daily life like they did in the past period. The prices of the simplest commodities are on a continuous rise and unemployment is reaching record levels with the sense of insecurity prevailing in the Egyptian society. Ironically those who voted for Morsi claimed that Presidential candidate Shafiq victory would turn the country into chaos however the exact opposite happened.

Never in Egypt’s modern history had daily electrical power cuts and water shortages becoming a norm in the average Egyptian’s life more than any time in recent memory. There is no excuse for the incompetence in all facets of life even for formely functioning services like the underground metro which has witnessed countless problems on Morsi’s newly selected government watch.
In addition, the president seemed more concerned about the welfare of Hamas who turned Gaza into a modern version of Tortuga the 17^th century pirates’ haven in the Spanish Main than his own people. Hundreds of casualties on daily basis occur in the country be that through clashes, deteriorating mass transit system or infrastructure. Yet, the president didn’t act as efficiently in any of these issues as much as he did for Hamas which is the Muslim brotherhood franchise in Gaza. This carelessness in handling matters that concerns Egyptians’ lives compared to those of Hamas have turned the average Egyptians more Vigilant towards him and his policies especially when it concerns domestic issues.

Furthermore, Morsi main election campaign propaganda project called “El Nahda Project” or renaissance project that they claimed over 1000 scientists have planned to push Egypt to the 21^st world was a fiasco and the mastermind behind that fake project Khairat El Shater (Brotherhood former and main candidate for Presidency) declared after Morsi’ victory that the project is simply just ideas and sketches and nothing material to build on. Egyptians who voted for Morsi based on this fiasco were duped by the biggest Elections’ scam of all time. This is enough to put Morsi on trial for perjury and misleading the public.Morsi Misled the public further when he promised that over 200 Billion Dollars as direct investments upon his election as president have also vanished among a long list of promises.

Furthermore, another fiasco was Morsi’s so called the first 100 days plan whereby he promised that he will urgently solve Egypt’s transportation, food shortages, lack of sanitation in many areas and other daily life problems in the first 100 days. Nothing was attained and another instance of perjury takes place.
Yet another Morsi promise was to reform the committee for constitution writing which he didn’t do and on the contrary he immunized the committee from any Constitutional court verdicts against it that can dismantle it since its predominantly a Muslim brotherhood and their Islamist allies and serves his interests. Another shameful act was the rushed method of writing the most horrendous constitution in Egypt’s modern history happened as a defiance to the will of the people and included articles that exudes with sectarianism , bigotry that befits a medieval kingdom not a 21^st century republic which is a  shameful day for Egypt. It remain to be said that this constitution is null and void and no referendum can take place or abided with without the Judges monitoring it and as mentioned before they are on strike till the dictatorial and unconstitutional edict is withdrawn and the constitution committee is reformed.

Finally, Morsi had promised all his campaign allies that he will form a new government headed by a publicly recognized national figure that will lead the country through these turbulent economic and political stage. People were surprised by the appointment of Dr. Hisham Kandeel an unknown figure who didn’t excel in his former position as the minister of irrigation and water resources.

Dr. Kandeel lacks the political charisma, tact and economical expertise to handle a country’s economy that is on the verge of collapse and his statements are usually out of touch since his oratory skills are limited side by side to his vision. For more than 4 months Prime Minister Kandeel has not presented a sound plan for the economy, development and works on the basis of reactions to crisis containment than long term planning.  Kandeel has become the laughing stock of Egyptians in many occasions. The most famous would be when he asked Egyptians suffering from daily power shortages during the hottest summer in several decades to turn one air condition while sitting one room gathered and dressed in light cotton clothes. That was his solution to the striking power shortages problem.

The president is still defying the nation in every step and giving priorities to issues on Gaza and supplying gas, food and electricity while most Egyptian cities are suffering the abudance of such commodities and services recently. Even during the Assyut train catastrophe which resulted in the death of 51 people out of which 49 in November 2012 and he didn’t bother to do more than 2 minutes short speech contrary to a long hour one for the Gaza support in the same period.  These kinds of actions have led to further distancing between Morsi and his own voters some of which vowed to remove him in any upcoming elections despite voting for him willingly.

Finally, the president not content by failing to extinguish the fires speeding across Egypt but also setting fires of his own when he publicly accused the Egyptian Constitutional Court , the highest court of the land of plotting against him to overthrow him and also admitted that implicitly that he is recording conversations for some of its members representing breach of constitution and protocol unprecedented in any country or regime.  The court have issued a strong worded statement in response to these allegations and demanded Morsi to show the proof which he failed to do as well.

Unsurprisingly the liberals, leftists , centrists and even few wise Islamists who rallied around this president when he took the power are jumping the ship now since he failed to deliver any of his promises and also is turning to be a worse tyrant who is  only compared to the likes of Stalin and Hitler. Morsi is consolidating his powers furthermore to recreate an Iranian model in Egypt will is likely to fail more sooner than he expects.

The Sellouts redemption:

Now the regime lost its last allies in the form of the Islamist sympathizers among the pseudo-liberals, politicians and journalists who fought the entire country for Morsi rise to power after some pre-elections arrangements and promises by the Muslim Brotherhood . But when the brotherhood sidelined these sympathizers as expected they attempted to appear as heroes again among the liberals but have been so far from successful.

Examples of these pseudo liberals are the likes of Amro Hamzawy a liberal researcher and former defunct Parliament member who despite not voting for Morsi and annulled his vote had the audacity to call his liberal critics “Stay at home Liberals” just days after his election for a seat in the ill fated Egyptian parliament as they criticized him for his approval and giving concessions to extremists to have internet censorships. Others like former 2005 Presidential Candidate and Ghad El Thawra Party Leader Ayman Nour thought that he would outsmart the Islamists by conceding to their wills and insisting to be a part of the predominantly Islamist constitution writing committee that have sidelined all the non-islamist political figures eventually.

Hardcore Liberals and Libertarians have already shunned those who betrayed their cause, sold out their principals and even pledged allegiance with them to approach the ruling Islamist regime. Public figures like Novelist Alaa El Aswany and journalist Hamdy Kandeel and Political Analyst Waheed Abdel Mageed have all played the devil’s advocates role and in the past 2 years despite being warned about the consequences of this and their support of Morsi candidacy and Muslim Brotherhood on the country’s Future.  But they took no heed to these calls and till recently when they have been shunned by their new allies and apologized to the Egyptian populous of their endorsements for such extremists. However, despite their daily apologizes none could care less about what they say or do and they are dubbed unforgiven.

Despite the above incidents by some pseudo-liberals, it may not be the time to settle the scores with any of them as the liberals and all the free Egyptians have a greater task now is to unite against the bigoted and tyrannical forces of the Islamists who believe that Egypt belong to them and only them. Yet, it’s worth mentioning that the above names and many others who followed suit cannot be entrusted as leaders or even thinkers for the upcoming period.

New leaderships must emerge to replace the current ones who are disillusioned, indecisive and unable to inspire the masses. That will take time but it’s bound to happen eventually. The new leaders should be savvy politicians with strong causes to defend and on top of them is the real freedom of Egyptians from any tyrannical forces. The focus now must be resisting the tyrannical regime , yet there is  lesson that can be extracted for the future and that is conceding to extremists will never turn them to moderates but only more vicious and powerful extremists.

Almost all Islamists in power and political spectrum now in Egypt are fascists in nature be that the Salafist groups, Jihadists or the Muslim brotherhood. They have proven time and again that they have used the name of a great religion to serve their political agendas through the decades. Giving these groups any concessions in the name of unity have proven to be the wrong path from the beginning because as like all fascists do they can never be appeased by the gains they have acquited and they will always ask for more power and more authorities.

The religious frenzy in Egypt:

Egypt nowadays is witnessing a religious frenzy that is sweeping large sectors of the society. It’s becoming apparent that more men are letting their breads grow the size of Santa Claus beards as a sign of piety More women are encouraged to wear Niqab (Full Veil) and unveiled women are being targeted by groups of predators including women wearing Niqab. 3 incidents reported of Coptic women had their hair cut by Niqab wearing women; these attacks happen in public places and among them the Cairo Underground which was one of the safest mass transportation systems in the country before Morsi’s rule.
The frenzy extended that the so called leaders of the Salafist movements are threatening everyone against the president by physical and verbal abuse.

The government and Morsi hardly denounced these mad constant attacks on liberals except in one instance when a prominent actress was verbally attacked by a Salafi cleric on a private TV network. The hate mongers are having a field day during Morsi’s reign of religious extremism. One Salafi sheikh had the audacity to say that once the jihadists take over the rule in Egypt, they till tear down the Pyramids, the sphinx and all ancient Egyptian monuments for he believes they are idols and must be removed.

The sheikhs and clerics are becoming the traditional guests in most Egyptian TV talk shows and issuing one controversial Fatwa (Islamic Opinion) after another that left the public disillusioned and confused about their own religion. Furthermore, a new wave of clerics asking people to abide by what Morsi decrees as he is a righteous man is done during TV , Press interviews and worse during traditional Friday prayers sermon.

This religious frenzy fuelled by the president himself who chooses to conduct a weekly tedious Friday speeches himself is turning the country into a replica of Iran . The difference is that many Egyptians are mocking him publicly and protesting about the president who is pretending to be holier than thou in every possible chance and forgetting his main role to improve the conditions of their lives.

Furthermore, Religious freedoms are under serious threats and the Coptic church under the new pope Tawadros as well as the Catholic and Anglican ones in Egypt have withdrawn their representatives from the Constitutional committee in protest against a bigoted and sectarian constitution is numerous. Morsi didn’t even as much tried to calm the fears of Christians and other minorities except through clichéd statements that hardly come to practice in reality.

Obama Administration support to the Muslim Brotherhood:

On former President Jimmy Carter’s watch, a tyrannical and theological regime seized power in Iran in 1979 and on President Obama’s watch the same is happening in Egypt with full support and applause from the Obama administration.

In fact, it’s not a coincidence that with every visit from Hillary Clinton to Egypt is always followed by further tyrannical power seizing edicts from President Morsi who seized the opportunity of her visit in August 2012 to oust the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) from power.

During the second visit following the short lived Hamas-Israeli war, Morsi issued the second edict with constitutional declaration gathering all powers in the land in his own grip , denying any Egyptian citizen the right to seek courts to revoke any presidential decision. Morsi now holds the entire country by the throat as he gathers executive, legislative and judiciary powers thus a new demigod tyrant is born in Egypt.

The reactions of the Obama administration as usual were slow, incohesive and hesitant like most of the international crisis that occurred during his reign. He still believes that his charm and wit will solve the world problems without having to get involved decisively. Obama attained some success in Libya but still failing on the Syrian conflict as well as transitional periods in Egypt and other Arab Spring countries where has chosen to stand next to the Islamist powers hijacking the Arab spring revolutions like in Tunisia and Egypt.

Obama administration infatuation by Morsi’s role as a mediator a role that Mubarak have played to perfection for 30 years have seemed to give Morsi and the brotherhood the impression that they have USA on their back and Egypt is fair game for the Islamist rule to dominate. As mentioned in a previous article again Obama appears to resemble British PM Chamberlain who appeased Hitler in several occasions and turned his head away from a crisis brewing that eventually led to Hitler annexing one country in Europe after another and eventually leading to a very costly World War II.

The myth that the Obama administration believed that Muslim Brotherhood control the streets is now debunked by the November 27^th protests that swept Egypt from corner to corner.. That  same myth which led Obama’s administration to forge an unholy alliance with the Muslim brotherhood and endorsingtheir rise to power throughout the past year and half which is manifested in the countless meetings in USA and Egypt with their leaders and the obscure arrangements.

USA interests in the security of Israel and the free passage through  the Suez Canal have blinded them from the fact that the security of Israel will never be reached through having a fascist dictator in power who is willing to retract from any agreements, election promises or declarations even with his own people let alone a country that Morsi’s group always called a mortal enemy and vowed with his followers to free Jerusalem through Jihad during his election campaign.

It’s up to President Obama in his second term to undo the harm that his first term policies caused in Egypt and at least try to act neutral instead of providing more support to democracy not through democracy NGOs working in Egypt but keeping Morsi to his promises and providing aid to demcoracy through an electronic voting system that prevents fraudelent activities during elections which is expected in any upcoming elections or referendums on Morsi’s watch.
President Obama is still enjoying the euphoria of a landslide victory and domestic economical issues that is still keeping him away from curing a situation that he helped to deteriorate.

The Muslim Brotherhood group is still proving to be a disease and not a remedy to the Middle East problems and they are drawing more extremism by the day. This was evident in the growing anti-sentiment towards the USA itself and manifested in the violent protests that occurred following the release of the Anti-Islam movie last September that result in the storming of the American Embassy in Cairo by the incitement of leaders from the Muslim brotherhood and their Islamist allies themselves despite denying that later . These groups have managed to break all the promises to their own people let alone to a country whom they deem as the “Great Satan”. Wagering the American Middle Eastern policies fate on the Islamist regimes is proving to be a fatal historical mistake.

Finally, The American Press and Media infatuation with Morsi seems like an organized propaganda campaign of facelifting the ugly real face of Egypt’s new tyrant and it’s shameful as much as it’s insulting to millions of Egyptian freedom fighters who already paid their lives and willing to pay more for unrestrainedfreedoms.

Conclusion:

“If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles” - Sun Tzu

The enemies of freedom cruel intentions are now publicly known and the masquerade of piety and righteousness has fallen from the Muslim brotherhood faces and their holier-than-thou radical Salafist parties. No longer the fake piety will fool any rational Egyptian regardless how pious is that Egyptian. That doesn’t mean that these groups will vanquish overnight. On the contrary, they are more likely to be more vigilant and return to their bloody roots that they terrorized Egypt with since 1940s all the way to the Early millennium and still through their franchise Jihadist groups in Sinai and upper Egypt.  Their leaders are still threatening their opponents with violence and in absence of any reaction from the President or regime.

History has countless amounts of events and cases when the people of a nation go in a frenzy to believe in a leader or political group with an extremist ideology and they would be willing to give their lives and family for it . Even the welfare of their own country becomes a small price to pay for the ridiculous ideology to thrive and in the end it’s always the demise of the nation that serves as a late wake up call for everyone who got involved.

The word purification seems to be in the rhetoric of Muslim Brotherhood on daily basis and usually it means eradicating their opponents in the most unorthodox of ways. This represents a resemblance of everything fascist and racist regimes have done in history. The free world might need to open their eyes at what Egypt is turning to before it’s too late and if the situation continues to escalate it will no longer be an Egyptian problem but regional one if not an international one.

Morsi is probably now setting a new Guinness world record for a presumably elected president as his people revolted in only 6 months after his presence in office. Morsi and Muslim Brotherhood believing delusionaly that they are the real force behind the revolution led them to believe that they know the streets vibe and can control the public support in their favour effortlessly. That fatal perception of grandeur resulted in a series of fatal mistakes that will be the beginning of the end for this Islamist group and on top of that their president reign.

Time has proven that all the fake opposition practiced by the Muslim brotherhood was a charade and just power seeking games that fooled the naïve among some politicians who aligned with them and many others who believed their fake piety.

Furthermore, Morsi’s edict is not just a breach for the freedom of the Judiciary system, freedom of speech and all other human rights but also an infringement to 4 international treaties protecting the independence of the Judiciary system that Egypt signed before. Thus this declaration pushes the Egyptian state to be under scrutiny and possible condemnation from the international community thus adding further constraints on Egypt at time that the Egyptians are seeking assistance from the international community. Morsi as president and his obscure Islamist group didn’t put in account Egypt’s highest interests or image abroad but only their power mongering activities when that shameful edict was issued.

Even if the president under pressure from the public and the freedom fighters will withdraw that shameful assault on the constitutional rights of the Egyptians to curb public outrage, the damage is already done and the Egyptian society is more split now than any time in recorded era modern or ancient. The “C” word or the civil war symptoms are becoming more apparent day by day and can already be observed in several main Egyptian cities though till this moment they are still limited .

The worst case scenario would a Syrian or Algerian like conflict that could extend for years if measures are not taken now to contain the situation or it will would turn into a fully fledged conflict with all factions being on edge now. Morsi would do Egyptians a great favour that will be recorded in history and might save his legacy if he steps down and calls for an early presidential election monitored by the UN and international NGOs.

The last recorded civil war was a limited one which was the Alexandrine Civil war circa 47 BC Between Cleopatra VII and her brother Ptolemy XIII which ended up in the Roman commander Julius Caesar intervening in favour of Cleopatra and defeating Ptolemy forces. A series of events led to Julius Caesar assassination, Cleopatra committing suicide and Egypt becoming a Roman province and effectively ending the Pharaonic civilization after more than 4500 glorious years. While that is not likely to happen but Egyptians’ solidarity has been their chief weapon to combat any foreign invaders throughout their history and they even managed to Egyptianize their invaders to their ways, the same can’t be said now and Morsi legacy will be tainted forever for being the president who divided Egyptian’s unity.

Finally, The current position of the army is still  unknown with the newly appointed Minister of Defense El Seesy have declared that army will always protect the people and uphold stability. As understood from the statement that the army is not very keen on getting involved and will not get involved unless the situation spirals out of control like the events that took place in January 28^th 2011.

While it’s not far from that melting point now the questions on how the army will respond exactly and what will be the response of the revolutionaries who don’t trust the army based on what the nation have witnessed during the past two years still pose themselves.

As regardless whether one can agree or not, it is SCAF and the army commanders who paved the way for the Islamists and the brotherhood to take over the country and handed the country on turnkey basis to the current tyrant regime through a series of steps that started by the ominous 19th March 2011 referendum that effectively split the nation and rendered the first revolution goals unattainable. Yet, it will be quite interesting to follow the army commanders’ reactions in case the situation deteriorates even furthe as a result of the new protests.

Mubarak had ruled with “emergency” law for over 30 years and promised repeatedly that he will revoke it  given the right chances; that situation remained for 30 years and even extended for a year after his ousting in 2011. Morsi declaration represents a much worse infringement for human rights than anything happened during the 30 year emergency law during Mubarak era. Morsi’s new proclamation is an invitation to destroy the fragile judiciary independence that Egyptian judiciary system enjoyed through the past decades.
The impeachment of Morsi would seem to be a very logical consequence of this situation since the president have broken the oath which he was sworn to abide with in June 2011 and the constitution declarations based on which he was elected.

Moreover, he overstepped the boundaries of his authority and combined unconstitutionally all the legislative, executive, and judicial powers under his authority thus breaching the same oath he has taken to respect the separation of powers in the Nation thus impeachment is warranted.

Egypt which was even during years of dictatorships was a oasis of peace needs the efforts of every able bodied patriot to pass through this critical stage of its modern history and the moral and political support of freedom fighters all around the world. For if Egypt is in trouble the whole region will be in turmoil just a short while after.

The Long and Winding Road for Democracy in Egypt Part 12

….Of War and Peace: Egyptian Israeli Relations

“Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum.” – Vegetius “ If you wish for peace, prepare for war”

The 5th century Roman writer couldn’t have been more accurate to describe the prevailing situation taking place between Egypt and Israel in the 20th and 21st century post peace era. The countries that fought 4 wars in 1948, 1956, 1967 and finally 1973 have always been skeptical of each other’s intentions. Despite the peace treaty which was signed in 1979, none of the countries have felt quite comfortable with the intentions of others. This can be manifested in the endless hidden and announced diplomatic and espionage between the two countries since the signing of the Peace Treaty. The number of Israeli spies caught by Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate EGID  in espionage cases have been increasing in the last decade and that the EGID are working 24/7 to uncover such continuous attempts to breach the Egyptian National security.
There are many issues on which Egypt and Israel may collide about and at the same time many others that they are in total agreement about at least till recently.  In that regard, the Palestinian cause, occupation of Arab territories and continuous founding of new settlements are all very critical diplomatic issues that  Egypt have attempted for decades to be the fair middleman to counter the shift in balance from the American side that was always Pro-Israel after President Carter left office. After the fall of the USSR and end of the cold war the shift of American favoritism towards Israel became more prevalent especially after the first Gulf war 1991 and continued onwards.

Egyptian intervention and coordination with Israel in favour of the Palestinian cause has shown some success and the Gaza – Jericho agreement between Israel and Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in may 1994 couldn’t have been reached without Egypt paving the way for it despite PLO leader Yasser Arafat’s unrevealed tactics to cover the process of negotiations and keeping Egypt out of the loop during critical times of the negotiations.  On the other hand, Egypt and Israel completely agree that the Islamist militants represent a clear and present danger to both countries’ security and borders. This has been manifested by the on the continuous coordination between national security bureaus as well as Intelligence agencies in both countries to counter terrorism. Also further coordination has led to over a thousand of imprisoned Palestinians to be released in exchange of prisoners like Gilaad Shalit in 2011.

However, extremist groups like Hamas represent a dilemma in the Egyptian- Israeli relations. Egypt during Mubarak’s era was not cordial to Hamas who always act as loose cannons on the border and rejected any peace initiative. Also, Hamas have been supporting Jihadist groups in Sinai with weapons through hundreds of tunnels between the Gaza and Egyptian borders. Egypt have repeatedly attempted to mediate the Palestinian-Palestinian reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas in vain with the Hamas extremist elements rejecting any peace proposals and placing hurdles in the face of final settlement of the cause as well rejecting any new elections in Gaza or  recognition of the Palestinian authority as the only representative of the Palestinians.

The relation between the two regional powers has witnessed ebbs and tides between Egyptian and Israeli regimes in the past decade despite its publicly frozen nature.  One of the examples of is the emerging of hostile statements from Israeli politicians and regime figures like Avigdor Lieberman the minister of Foreign of affairs in Israel against Egypt and former President Mubarak. Lieberman the extreme right wing representative threatened to bomb the High Dam of Aswan in retaliation of Egypt support to Yasser Arafat and spoke of degrading manner about the former Egyptian President.  As a result Mubarak banned the minister from entering Egypt despite Shimon Pires and Ehud Olmers Israeli Prime minister apologies and from Lieberman himself in later years . He is still banned till this date. Lieberman loose cannon attitude led him to be shunned by even European allies of Israel like former French President Sarkozy who urged Prime Minister Netanyahu to fire Lieberman because of his negative role in the region and the peace process.

Moreover, unlike several decades ago and particularly after the Egyptian Israeli peace treaty the hardliner type of Politician like Lieberman seems to be more appealing to the average Israeli voter as a result of Israelis feeling more shunned and insecure in the middle eastern regionand accordingly they vote to hardliners who they assume would be more capable of protecting their state.
Egyptian relations with Israel throughout the past 3 and half decades have taken several forms and shapes most of which have been cloaked with tense situations due to many elements as discussed further below.

Media wars  :

The Doctor Heikal and Mr. Hyde Syndrome
The sense of Xenophobia between the populations of both nations is overwhelming, many Egyptians and Israelis believe that they will never be safe till the other side is complexly obliterated. The demise of the neighbor became the infatuation of many extremists on both sides and the use of both nationalist euphoria and religious one in both Egyptian and Israeli media outlets have been the ongoing theme for decades.

Many Egyptian Leftist and Nasserist have fallen victim into what can be labeled as the “The Doctor Heikal and Mr. Hyde” Syndrome. For many years the Nasserist prominent journalist and Middle East famous writer have always fed his loyal readers with almost a daily dose of alternative reality in his Ahram newspaper 17 year daily column and later in his books.

Throughout, years of practice especially during the Nasser Era (1954-1970) Heikal have mentioned piles of half-truths and fabricated realities to the Egyptian reader. For instance, he was the first to call the 1967 Egyptian defeat a “relapse” as a method of toning down the reality of a heavy military loss that took the lives of tens of thousands of Egyptian men in service and resulted in the full occupation of Sinai.  In recent years, for some odd reason and just for spite of Mubarak he downplayed the role of the Initial airstrikes in the 1973 war which is a huge error as every military expert have confirmed that these airstrikes have been critical in the success of the 1973 war by the Egyptian army and they crippled Israeli defenses and paved the way for the Mechanical infantry  units and tanks to do their job .  Heikal and later followed by his many disciples in Egyptian media were categorically against Camp David accords signed by late President Anwar El Sadat, the treaty that actually restored the Sinai Peninsula was labeled as a treason by Heikal and his syndrome struck disciples .

On the other hand, the Nasser’s regime mismanagement, total lack of tact, responsibility and total military failure was nicely labeled as simply a “Naksa” or relapse Heikal and disciples in Egyptian media have never mentioned what would be the alternative. Usually Heikal and Ilk state they don’t wish to go through more wars but all their actions say otherwise as a simple glance by any observer towards their actions they  would conclude that they have been beating the drums for war for decades. Their justification for rejecting the peace treaty is that the Palestinians, Syrians and Jordanians didn’t accept it back then. However, they fail to acknowledge that the terms were presented to the leaders of these countries and they were persuaded to sign it and end this catastrophic struggle once and for all but that never occured. Hence for the good fortune of Egyptians and Israelis, Sadat acted on the best interests of Egypt and didn’t listen to these war-mongers who possess no future vision or alternatives.

The Doctor Heikal and Mr. Hyde syndrome continue to dominate most of Egyptian Media anchors and pundits till this date. One of its manifestations, is the claim that Sinai is an unarmed zone which is completely false as it will be explained later in this article as well as pinning Israel and blaming it for all internal disputes as an easy scapegoat. These attributes have been synonymous with Egyptian media and is becoming more resounding post the Egyptian revolution.

As an example for this the mishandling of the media towards critical issues is the case of the storming of the Israeli Embassy in Egypt by angry mobs led mainly according to videos by some Salafi Sheikhs. The mobs were angry due to the death of 6 Egyptian border soldiers who were caught in the line of fire by Israeli borders who shot at some terrorist militants who penetrated the Israeli borders and they tried to follow them and shot the 6 soldiers by mistake. The fury of all Egyptians is normal and understood but to storm a foreign embassy that is protected by international laws and particularly the Israeli embassy possesses a special and very delicate position is outrageous. The media were literally cheering the attacks with many people calling the assailants as heroes especially a young man who climbed almost 14 floors to pick the Israeli flag and took it down. These incidents among many others like cheering the extremists attacks on the gas pipelines which was blown by anonymous saboteurs  over 10 times was cheered and considered as acts of heroism.

Now Egypt is paying the hefty price of endorsing such acts of violence as now mobs storm everything be that USA embassy or the Egyptian Football Federation. Even the popular Egyptian football club Ahly was not spared from being stormed by hooligans among the Ahly Ultras firm who demanded that Al Ahly would cease all activities till their comrades who lost their lives in the Football massacres of Port Said are vindicated by the courts.  And as poetic justice goes, some of the anchors who have endorsed these acts on ONTV channel like Youssef Housseiny found himself a victim of Mob attacks by Muslim Brotherhood elements upon his entrance to Egypt Media City. The violence endorsed and applauded by the media as a way of self-expression now is now the cause of fear of everyone one. Most of the anchors and journalists who are possessed by the Dr. Heikal and Mr. Hyde syndrome have patriotic feelings towards the country and nationalist feelings towards other Arab ones , but their lack of responsibility in regard of what they publish is uncanny and have thrown Egypt into a dark abyss. The old saying the  Road to hell is paved with good intentions old saying certainly applies in their case.

Arab media depiction of Israelis and Jews

It’s notable and ironical that the Egyptian media in the past 3 decades (post the Peace Treaty) have been more vicious against Israel in general than the long years of war. The tone of the media became harsher after the peace treaty. The leftists and Nasserists amongst media anchor and journalists have managed to display their rejection of the treaty in different forms of art as well as in the Media and Press.

The Israelis are usually depicted as a conniving, manipulative, mean, smart but prone to make silly mistakes which the Egyptian protagonist would capitalize on in the end for a final victory for the Egyptian side.  One may attribute this to the frustrations of many Egyptians and their believe that there can be no real peace with Israelis due to their rejection of peace initiatives with the Palestinians as well placing hurdles in the path of any serious attempt to reach a final settlement with the peace process.

Other more extremist artists and media outlets adopt a strict no peace with Israel stance that displays their unwillingness to reach any settlement with Israelis. This is more prevalent with the Nasserites and Islamist media outlets.  Mubarak’s regime media utilized quite a strange tactic on Egyptian National TV and Press. In most cases, the media would utilize Israel as a scapegoat for a lot of economical, social and political hardships that the Egyptians were facing.  Witch hunts against any artist; writer or journalist who calls for peace or normalization of relations is exercised by the Nasserist dominated media in Egypt. It’s just as simple as to accuse on person of calling for “Normalization of relations” and all hell will break lose against him.  A “Normalizer” is used as effectively by the Egyptian Media as the word “Anti-Semitic” to the Israeli one.
Furthermore, Pro government and opposition analysts and intelligentsia would appear on TV or write columns about the responsibility of Israeli Mossad for most problems in the Egyptian society be that sectarian, economical  and social. That scapegoat tactic gave many Egyptians the feeling that they are targeted by outside forces and it worked for a short while. However, Mubarak appearance shaking hands with Israeli officials in Egypt and mostly in his favourite resort in Sharm El Sheikh with wide smiles and hugs did leave a lot of Egyptians confused. Thanks to his own media, he appeared to be in cahoots with the same people his own media labels as conspirators and killers.

The vilification of the Israelis even those who seek peace among them like the “Peace Now” movement did have a counter effect  on Mubarak’s image himself among many Egyptians . Added to that media image was the case of exporting Natural gas to Israel which was portrayed in the media as a form of aiding Israeli aggression Palestine. The Islamists and Leftists have capitalized on this case and even an Egyptian court ruled that the Natural gas shouldn’t be exported to Israel.

Former Egyptian minister of Petroleum Sameh Fahmy was put on trial of this deal after the revolution and received a prison sentence as according to the court verdict he exported the Gas with much lower prices than the international average prices. But the devil was in the details since the former minister of petroleum committed a huge business mistake of signing long terms contract on fixed price rate per unit and during the latest oil and gas price hike it led to big losses. The decision to sell Egypt’s Gas is possibly not very economical even with good prices because of the desperate need for energy resources in Egypt. However, that was not the main focus since similar gas deals were signed with Spain for example. Moreover,this case was not overhyped because of its economical inviability but because it happened to be a form of “normalization of relations” and economic cooperation with a country that many in Egypt still deem as an enemy.

Throught the years, the media never attempted to differentiate between pro-peace and pro-war Israelis. The Egyptian media had no distinction between Ariel Sharon and Yusi Belin the Israeli Parliament member and pro-peace advocate. They were both the same in their eyes.  In that regard the Egyptian media failed miserably to pave the way for a long term settlement of the 7 decades long struggle they were calling for through vilification without distinction thus resulted in a similar attitude and alienation from the other Israeli side that found themselves fighting their the Hawks and pro-war within Israel as well as feeling shunned by both sides and the same goes for the Egyptian pro peace activists like prominent Playwright and writer Ali Salem . Moreover, it can be safe to state that  the rise of ultra right wing parties in Israel and recently in Egypt was a direct result of these media wars between the two countries that negatively affected the public opinion about the importance and viability of the peace.

Israeli and Zionist sympathizing media depictions of Arabs :
The Media war was never one sided but actually mainly fought by Israel by proxy through many American and western media outlets. Israeli media and American pro-Israeli media networks and press pursued the habit of dehumanizing the Arabs for the sake for claiming higher moral ground and righteousness for the cause of the Israeli state.  From time to time, appears in many Israeli Press and media outlets articles by right wing parties and groups that incite hate and violence against Arabs and particularly Palestinians. There have also been calls by the religious right wing to cancel the treaty with Egypt though these calls are hardly heard by the decision makers in Israel despite their far right wing leniency of some in Israeli Cabinets. Incitement against Israeli-Arabs and the call for their eviction from Israel can be noticed as well in many Israelis newspapers. On the other hand, Israeli press have the habit of over blowing even the smallest incident in Egypt out of proportion and the heightened sense of self preservation is still very prevalent in their literature and media.

The pro-Israeli lobbies and Media production companies like the Canon Group (Formerly Golan- Globus Production) have portrayed Arabs as the villain for long decades. This vilification was aptly elaborated on American Author  Jack Shaheen’s excellent Book and documentary Titled “Reel Bad Arabs” which documented countless cases where Arabs and Muslims are negatively portrayed in Hollywood movies throughout its long history. At the same time, it’s noteworthy that most of the bashing done by these media outlets were not targeting Egyptians but on other Arabs like Palestinians , Syrians, Iraqis, Libyans and Gulf states populatoins.  However, Anti-Semitism charges became a witch-hunt for any journalist, anchor, politician. Even former Egyptian Minister of Foreign affairs and presidential candidate Amr Moussa was not spared from being labeled as anti-semitic by the Israeli media and their allies in the American Media. For decades. The Israeli right wing media exercised vicious on their attacks on Egypt from time and stir waves of hatred that can be labeled as bigotry and discriminatory.

Sadat’s Initiative, Jerusalem visit and Camp David Peace Treaty

“Fortes fortuna adiuvat” Fortune favors the brave the ancient Latin proverb has been synonymous with the late Egyptian president and war and peace hero Mohamed Anwar El Sadat.  From his youth years fighting the British occupation of Egypt through his years as a President of fighting Israelis to regain the occupied land of Sinai till the forging of the most famous peace treaty in the 20th century with Israel, The word “fearless” seemed to be synonymous with the man throughout his illustrious life.
Hardly any world leader in history has performed a courageous feat like Sadat did in the midst of an era when even the very thought of initiating negotiations with Israel was shunned and rejected by Egyptian and Arab politicians and people alike. Thanks to the propaganda campaigns during the long decades of war, it was not any easy feat to achieve to convince the  Egyptians masses that the war has ended and it’s time to rebuild the nation and forge peace.

Sadat applied a scientific approach in his campaign to achieve peace and retrieve the remainder of the occupied lands in Sinai. That approach can be simply described  that the best way to connect between two distant points is a straight line. Hence, he didn’t hesitate to travel directly to Jerusalem to be the first ever Arab leader to visit Israel and possibly the first ever head of state to perform such a feat with a former enemy which had no previous diplomatic relations. The historical visit was a bold move that broke the ice of 3 decades of war and one that changed the face of the Middle Eastern politics forever. Sadat victorious in his war in 1973 war (Yom Kippur War) stood on solid ground in the Israeli Knesset and demanded that this would be the last of all wars and next generations would live in  peace and build their nations instead further bloodshed.

Furthermore, Sadat stressed on the liberation of all Arab lands to the borders of June 4 1967 and Palestinians should be retrieve the right for self-determination and their own state with Jerusalem (Eastern) to be its capital. Sadat in his 1977 speech was demanding the same demands that the Arabs would wish to reach now and many initiatives from international and Arab leaders failed to reach anything and the deadlock is still the dominating the situation now for years.
Sadat as an Egyptian nationalist believed like all Egyptian patriots that Egypt is the main player and the most important country in the Middle East and all its decisions and actions should be on based on the highest national interests of the Egyptian state.

As a consequence of the visit , other Arabs states led by Iraq, Syria and Libya formed what they called the “Rejection Front” and banned Egypt’s membership in the Arab League which was formed and headed by Egypt since its inception in 1949, Sadat believing that peace is forged with your enemies and not your friends as a rule, was resilient to continue the peace process and retrieve the Sinai Peninsula back to the Egyptian Sovereignty and finally signed the peace treaty in 1979.

Unfortunately, the Arab leaders of that time were very short sighted and wasted a historical opportunity to end the struggle once and for all and with terms no longer attainable at the moment. Years of Arab –Israeli negotiations since the Oslo accords in 1992 have proven this theory and what was once an easy path to full settlement in 1979 is now a very rocky road in 2012 and onwards.

The Syrian case of Hafez El Assad is particularly a peculiar one, since Al Assad rejected the peace treaty vehemently with the Golan Heights still in Israeli hands till this day.  Till the end of his life and throughout his Son’s Bashar El Assad reign of blood, they never directly ordered the firing of a single gunshot against Israel since October 1973 till this date.
Some these nations positions are very peculiar as they seemed completely reliant on Egyptian forces to do the job for them even some forged the most outrageous slogan in the history of warfare which was “Arabs will fight till the last Egyptian Soldier!” . One of the reasons for this stance yet it’s still incomprehensible is the amount of financial support that the Syrian regime received annually from the Arab League and military support from former USSR and Russia afterwards.

The Arabs couldn’t reach in the past 35 years more than a fraction of what was offered in the Camp David accords of what was presented to them by  on a golden platter as a result of Sadat dedicated efforts. The situation in the late 1970s was completely different and very few Israeli settlements were built on Arab Occupied land compared to nowadays. Also there was a real desire from Israel to reach a settlement with all Arabs and to be recognized by them as an independent state. However, that eventually changed with the continuous rejection of the peace treaty and the path to peace became bumpier as the years passed by.

In Later years, the Israelis still feeling shunned by the Arab World became more aggressive and resilient with massive settlements beingbuilt on occupied Arab territories as a policy of forcing new realities on the ground was being forged. Moreover, the invasion of Lebanon to attack Arafat’s PLO strongholds in 1982 and what resulted from their invasion of the massacre known as Sabra and Shatilla done by their Lebanese allies The Phalanges . That atrocity did give hard time for pro-peace advocates in Egypt to defend the peace treaty. However, the peace still serves Egyptian highest national interest and for any Egyptian policy maker that is what counts above all other elements.

Sadat contrary to his adversaries; Egyptian and Arab critiques had a long term vision that served his country and saved generations of Egyptians a lot of bloodshed and economical ruin which would have led to the same ending i.e. further peace talks under more strenuous conditions. Sadat decision was impeccable and to him timing was everything. He earned his Nobel Peace Laureate shared with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin not just for their bravery to take the right decision but for opening the door towards a shift in politics towards a final settlement in the Middle East. Sadat’s efforts were backed by the assistance of former Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky  and the great efforts former USA president Jimmy Carter.

It’s worth mentioning that if your archrivals or enemies were Saddam Hussein , Moamar El Qaddafi , Hafez El Assad and Ayatollah Khomeini who happened to beSadat’s mortal enemies , then you should know that you are on the right track.

Demilitarization of Sinai : The truth and myth

According to the treaty of START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) signed between USA and former USSR (Russia) Russia  is prohibited according to START treaty to move their mobile Intercontinental ballistic missile launchers  (Topol SS-25&SS-27 ) without notifying the United States. These launchers have fixed locations and should these locations be changed for any military purpose by the Russians they are obliged under the treaty terms to notify the USA or that that will be considered as an act of aggression.  This is one of many other examples of post –wars or conflicts arrangements that countries take to diffuse any situation that can lead to a full struggle. These by no means represent any infringement of the sovereignty of the states signing such deals. Similarly, when the Camp David treaty was signed some precautions must be made from both sides including the limited number of Egyptian Armed forces in Sinai.
For many years, the Egyptian media propagated that the Sinai is completely demilitarized and that was a complete misguidance. The truth is that Sinai is divided into 3 zones A,B and C . In Zone C it is almost completely demilitarized short of some lightly armed border patrols, snipers and police forces. On the other side in Israel Zone D is lightly armed as well. The current security challenges in Sinai were not present in 1979 as there were no smuggling tunnels built by an extremist group like Hamas or other extremist militants at that time. Sadat took the right decision to sign the treaty with its current for many reasons:

1- Liberating and retrieving 61,000 square Km (3 times the size of Israel) of precious Egyptian land was the paramount and most imperative goal to achieve under any circumstances.

2-  The willingness of Egypt that peace would prevail between with Israel and later in the whole region required a form of good will since it was agreed that any military movements from both sides within the 4 zones in Sinai and Israel would be monitored by international observers stationed in Sinai and whom are also notified by each side prior for any troops movement in the region.

3- According to some Egyptian military experts that Sinai would require about 250,000 soldiers to maintain a certain degree of security in an almost impossible to secure rugged desert and mountainous region. These expenses would be hefty and hence new military technological advancements would substitute the constant presence of Armed forces in the Sinai Peninsula as the ability of the Egyptian army to mobilize their troops inside Sinai should the Israelis would breach the terms of agreement is very high.

4-   Historically , Egypt had the army fully deployed all over Sinai in 1967 war and yet the country was defeated and Sinai was occupied while the reverse happened in 1973 with Israelis had their army fully deployed in the same place with a bonus of the highly fortified Bar Lev defense line stretching with the entire length of the Suez canal and Israelis were defeated as well and the Bar Lev defense line was completely overrun and destroyed by Egyptian troops in less than 6 hours of military operations in October 6th 1973. Hence full deployment of troops in Sinai had no effect in the outcome of the 2 last wars and even might represent a burden to fully fortify the troops within that area.

5- The treaty allows the redeployment of troops in cases of emergency upon the notification and approval of the opposite side like what happened in August 2012 when a sneaky terrorist attack by Islamists militants took the lives of 16 innocent and brave Egyptian soldiers. Egypt had to retaliate heavily and Operation “Eagle 2” was initiated to cleanse Sinai from terrorists who infiltrated the peninsula through Gaza.  Main Battle heavy tankers were deployed as well as air force units to eliminate the terrorists and managed to kill and apprehend many of them. Hence, the treaty is not written in stone and flexible enough in cases of emergency. Further modifications for better border security on the treaty might be discussed in the near future though the hardliner governments in both countries might represent an obstacle for this goal to be achieved shortly.

Accordingly despite all the naysayers, the treaty managed to stabilize the region for over 3 decades and restored Sinai to Egyptian sovereignty. The treaty ensured that no further bloodshed is spilled on orders of the commanders of both countries. Also it ensured the free and secure passage through the Suez Canal and saved billions of dollars for Egyptians to rebuild their country. Also , it created great sources of economic income with the Establishment of the touristic Egyptian Riviera on the Red Sea.

Those who oppose the limited presence of Egyptian army in the region still haven’t answered what if the treaty wasn’t signed and Sadat didn’t have the intelligence and prudence to accept it? The answer is simply that would have been no Sinai to discuss about its security arrangements because it would still be a battlefield for decades to come.That is a question the critiques especially those Egyptians extreme socialists as well as Islamists, journalists and politicians who rejected the treaty and never provided an alternative solution for the simple reason that unlike Sadat they don’t have one. Sadat paid a price with own price in 1981 by being assassinated by terrorist Islamist group in the same day of celebrating the 6th of October 1973 victory. He died heroically defending that peace and future generations have realized how mistaken were their elders especially they have seen what his enemies done of exterminating  their own people under the pretext of fighting the west and the Israelis be that Saddam, Qaddafi,  Khomeni, Assad or Assad Jr.

History is quite an open source for everyone to learn from it should they wish to. Sadat joined an elite club of heroes and leaders who paid their lives for changing the nations destiny and believes among them are Abraham Lincoln, John Mahatma Gandhi , Martin Luther king,  Benazir Bhutto, Indira Gandhi and few more. They died trying to liberate their countries and pushed them forward in an attempt to change realities forged by years of bloodshed and endless struggles.

Religion at play:

Both sides Israeli and Arab were keen to interpret the Old Testament in the case of Israel and the Quran in the case of Egypt in their favour throughout their struggle. These interpretations were mostly done according to their own whim and based on that interpretation; their political and even war strategies are formulated.  Quoting verses of the Quran and the Old Testament seemed to provide legitimacy for any political act taken by any side. Sheikhs and Rabbis could become very handy in these matters to legitimize any acts taken upon their mortal enemy to have the blessing of God be that air bombing villages with civilians and children in Palestine or Lebanon to suicidal bombings of Public transportation busses in Israel.  Each side believes that God is on his side and his side only and those whom he kills are sent to hell because they are the enemies of God while they are fighting on the side of the righteous.  As a matter of fact, both sides have ignored each other plights and misery for decades.  One Islamist radical Sheikh would call the Jews as descendents of the apes and pigs while a Rabbi Ovadia Yosef the Sephardic Chief Rabi of Israel would call the Arabs as insects and animals that must be wiped out.
Historically, religion and wars were always a deadly mix that keeps struggles ongoing for decades and centuries.  The Middle East is cursed by these religious struggles since the crusades. From the very beginning of the Arab Israeli wars and struggle both sides used their own religious rhetoric to justify and rationalize any political or military action against their foes. However, that Arabs usage of religious rhetoric came later in the struggle and particularly after the occupation of Arab land in 1967 especially with the fall of the holy city of Jerusalem  in the hands of Israelis.

With the current shift of powers in the Arab spring countries particularly Egypt, the manipulation of religion is expected to continue and be more aggressive especially with Islamists in control of Egypt at the moment.  The Islamization of the Arab-Israeli  conflict will not work in favour of Egypt nor Arabs In fact it will rally further support for the Israeli religious extremists. Ironically that an Islamic constitution in Egypt might work in favour of Israel’s desire to be recognized as a Jewish state and apply Jewish Jurisprudence instead of its relatively current secular state. In that case, Israel might claim the right that Israeli Arabs have no place inside Israel territory unless they convert to Judaism and the ultra conservative Jews are adopting this strategy to cleanse and clear all Arab presence within the boundaries of Israel which further complicate the struggle.

Military relations and Balance of power:

Ironically for two states that have been in 4 wars, their military leaders have the strongest and most cordial ties of all the factions living in both nations. The army leaders of the two strongest armies in the Middle East are respectful and cordial to one another as they apparently seem to be the only ones who know the implications of not being one. It’s evident that no one abhors and realizes the tragedies of wars more than a soldier and this is manifested in both Egyptian and Israeli army’s till this date.

The balance of power is almost tied between the two countries with Egypt possessing more defensive weapons than Israel as well as more

Main Battle Tanks and anti –tanks and anti- aircrafts. Yet Israel air force is more superior in terms of numbers and quality  but Egypt has a close number of modern Jet fighters like F16 and Mirage 2000 Jet fighters. Egypt still maintains the largest Navy in Africa and Middle East with Israel purchase of German Dolphin Submarines tilting the balance to its side slightly. However, Egypt didn’t stand idle to this and they are purchasing newly improved German submarines as well for coastal defensive purposes.

Some might believe that Israel having undeclared nuclear capabilities provides with the ability to have the final say in any confrontation. But that could be true if the nuclear armed Pakistan was efficient enough for the country to counter the Islamists in Waziristan area or retrieve the lost Kashmir region  from the Nuclear armed India as well.

For Long years , Former Egyptian president Mubarak had declared an initiative to clear the Middle east of all nuclear weapons and declare the region as nuclear-free region to counter the threats of utilizing these weapons in any future conflict but Israel has rejected this and declared that they are under continuous threat from their neighbours and countries like Iran. However, it’s high likely that these weapons will be of use in any future conflict because Israel would be invoking not just world condemnation but actual involvement of countries like China, Russia and possibly Pakistan in such struggle.

The two countries still view the other side power with respect and the military commanders particularly unlike their politicians tread carefully for any step they do as it will have a resounding effect on not just the region but the whole world.

Conclusion:

“In peace sons bury their fathers; in War fathers bury their children.”– Herodotus
Life can tolerate every one of all creeds, races and ideologies, the only faction that the world can’t tolerate and shouldn’t tolerate are the terrorists be they are government sponsored or not.  Terrorism  should be eradicated by all means from this world.

Contrary to popular belief, Mubarak’s era which has been criticized by Egyptian opposition as being too cordial to Israel, has never been that warm in relationships. In fact for two countries that had been in a state of peace since in 1979 and in a state of ceasefire since 1973, the degree of cooperation between Egypt has been minimal. In fact the peace between the two countries has been labeled as the cold peace.

In comparison to what happened in many other regions in the world, the Egyptian Israeli peace is frozen indeed and serves mainly one purpose which is the cease of spilling further blood. The trade agreements between the two countries are limited and usually accompanied by much fuss from the Egyptian media that they usually fail or minimized.  The Israelis appear to be more pragmatic when it comes to economical issues unlike most of the Egyptian counterpart business and trade sector. To compare Egypt and Israel with France and Germany for example would be comparing a fairy tale with harsh reality. After more than 30 years of wars and two invasions by the German armies in 1914 and 1940 and occupying France twice by Germans,  these very wars that resulted in millions of human casualties and total destruction of infrastructure didn’t prohibit both French and German nations to celebrate 60 years of friendship with a wide celebration all over the 2 nations in September 2012. Germany is now France’s biggest trade partner.

Some may argue that the case is different since Israel is still adopting the same tactics and aggression practiced in years of wars with other Arab nations like they did before the peace agreement with Egypt. It maybe a valid point but it’s still not an excuse to shut down all forms of connections with the Pro-peace camp in Israel and alienating them. Treating Israelis as one entity or being all the likes of Netanyahu and Ariel Sharon is fatal mistake since stereotyping is the key to further struggles and endless wars. Among Israelis are children, women, older people, scientists and hard working people like Egyptians and any other nations.  Average Israelis look for the same peaceful life as the average Egyptian and they want their families to be safe, well educated and prosperous as well.  It’s imperative that both need to realize that that peace is always forged with your enemies and not your friends so sacrifices and concessions must be made to achieve it.

On the other hand, Israel has an uphill battle to fight to convince the Arabs and most of the world of their future good intentions and that they are not another religiously driven expansionist force in the region. They have to prove that they are not the force that utilizing religious or historical pretexts to occupy more Arab land.

A Declaration from Israel that Eastern Jerusalem will become the capital of the new Palestinian state capital as part of the final settlement of the peace process will be an imperative step to consolidate the peace deal. Without Eastern Jerusalem all peace negotiations are bound to fail regardless of any progress that they could ever reach. Also Israel, should vow to cease all settlement activities on Palestinian territories on all areas seized post 5th of June 1967. Despite their are some calls for a single state for both Palestinians and Israelis with shared resources and rights, that solution is still far fetched given the very deep profound animosities between the two.

Similarly, Arabs have to calm the fears of Israelis that they are not out there for their blood and they are not planning to obliterate their state given the chance which was the rhetoric that dominated their literature and political speech throughout the past 7 decades. Threats to wipe out the Israeli state can no longer be tolerated under any pretexts and each country shall responsible for all activities of political and militant groups operating on their sovereign territories. The Camp David accords signed in 1979 between Egypt and Israel despite their expiry, can form a model for any upcoming negotiations and certainly Egypt can play a key role in the final settlement provided the tough negotiations expected should have both sides of the equations committed once and for all with all good will to accomplish unlike the situation since the Oslo accord in December 1992.

However, in order to revisit the reality on the ground, any future political settlement will be met by the usual enemies of peace in other words those who benefit from the status quo. Like religion has been a business in the Middle East for ages, the Palestinian cause and the Arab/Israeli struggle has been one also since its inception in the 20th century. Hundreds of Egyptian and Arab Politicians, media anchors, writers and religious clerics will fight any movement for peace to the bones. The reason for this is obvious that the business of the Palestinian and Arab Struggle is far too big to be to be given up that easy. The thriving business of book writing, daily columns in major newspapers, press conferences, talk shows, etc. will vanish. Also a lot of trade arrangements within the Arab world have been set on the basis of the current situation like the ones of Hamas in Gaza strip and their smuggling business.

Aside from these facts, the boogey man of Israel in this case will disappear to many Arab regimes who curbed the freedoms in their since the 1950s till now in the name of fighting the common enemy. All opposition was crushed in Egypt during the Nasser’s era in the name fighting the “Zionist identity” as media used to call Israel and still does occasionally. Late Egyptian President Nasser famous words were “There shall be no higher sound than the sound of the battle” and on that pretexts Egyptians lost a lot of freedoms for that purpose. The same tactic was utilized by almost every Arab dictator from the Atlantic Ocean to The Persian Gulf and ironically by those who had no contact with Israel or ever were willing to fight the Israeli state like Saddam’s Era Iraq and Saleh’s Era Yemen for example.

On the other hand, the ultra conservative Israeli parties and politicians will be out of business and so the associations like AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) the famous Zionist affiliated lobby and many other similar lobbies and associations that built their entire structure on supporting Israel and funding their military and economy by all possible means.

Their entire discourse was always based on the fact that Israel is under threat of elimination of by all its neighbours and thus endless support financial, military and political must be provided for them to sustain the Israeli state. These powerful lobbies, parties and politicians have no interest in a full implementation of a real and final peace treaty with a two state solution. The reason is like the Arab side self-interest groups, these interest groups very existence rely on the continuity of the struggle.

Aside from the above, the Islamists who just claimed authority in Egypt, Tunisia and expected more in the future aren’t peace advocates. On the contrary, their very message like their Jewish radical counterparts defies any peace with the Israelis. Despite the fact that the current Islamist Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi have vowed to honour the peace treaty with Israel, there are indications and fears that he is being pressured by the constituency of his followers like and particularly his own group the Muslim Brotherhood to take harsher stances against Israel.

Thus, the already cold peace can turn into a frozen one and that ironically will ignite further troubles in the near future. It’s still lurking in the minds of many political observers, those pre-elections Nazi styled rallies of Morsi’s supporters organized with the chants and slogans of recapturing of Jerusalem and threatening further wars in the regions.  Of course President Morsi and even the Muslim Brotherhood leaders in an attempt to appease the west downplayed the importance of these rallies and reaffirmed their continuous commitment to peace. But the duration of this stance before Morsi for some electoral or domestic reason will succumb to the pressures some of the loose cannons from his camp or the more conservative camp like the Salafis are yet to be seen.  Should this occur, that will be the equivalent of committing a huge political sin that will ignite not just the entire region but the whole world. Hence, there are so many politicians and players in the region and outside that will lose their leverage should a fully fledged peace reigns the region.

Unfortunately, so many people in Egypt have forgotten the years of wars or haven’t been around during them so they believe it will be fought far away battlefields and nothing will hurt them as they will be following it like a Football World Vup in their favorite satellite or cable channel. Realistically that is will never be the case , what they believe is daily hardships now from power outages, lack of certain types of fuels or food commodities will be magnified tenfold just in case the misfortune of a war in the region is ignited again. Their usual habits of spending their time with family and friends till the early hours of the morning will be a distant memory and their entire way of life will change to much worse.

Most importantly, all those war-mongers among Islamists, leftists, journalist and strategic experts who portray themselves as heroes daily in the night TV shows will be the first to flee the country using their second passports which most of them actually carry and for those who don’t, many have amassed quite a fortune of selling their propaganda throughout the years enabling them to live like royalty in any country of their choice.. The ones who will actually suffer are the simple everyday Egyptians who are still suffering hardships as a result of Political miscalculations and horrendous mistakes by previous regimes that led them into wars they could have avoided or at least would have more efficiently fought.

The usual victims will always be the average citizen of this region whose life will be turned into a living hell and his sons will be taken for the slaughterhouse in an effort to extend an endless conflict over a land though precious and holy for all the Abrahamic Monotheistic religions but still the size of the state New Jersey, USA (ranked 47th out of 50)
It might be high time for Egyptians to focus on their domestic pile of economic, social and cultural issues before tapping into further international issues. The pride of modern Egyptians relies now on restoring their presence in the world as an economic, scientific and cultural center of the world and not through further military incursions and adventures. The economic situation in Egypt is dire as it is now let alone bearing the costs of a new war.  Maybe it’s time now to channel all the negative emotions into rebuilding a country that has suffered a lot in the past few decades out of wars and mismanagement of resources instead of searching of military pride which they already attained in 1973 war.
Many Egyptians abhor the idea of the normalization of relations with Israel. They attribute this stance and feeling to the continuous occupation of the Israelis forces to Palestine and other Arab lands and the continuous wars of aggressions of the Israeli army in the past decades last of which in Lebanon 2006 as a result of Lebanese Militia Hezbollah ambush led to the killing and caputring several

Israeli Soldiers. Despite its very harsh military retaliation mainly on civilians in Lebanon, Israel lost a lot in this war more than the actual war which they lost as well for failing to achieve its strategic goals set by Israeli command. It’s actions like these and magniloquence statements from the likes of Israeli Minister of Foreign minister of bombing the high dam in Egypt are still lurking in the minds of many Egyptians.

Accordingly, Israeli government figure statements and actions, make it even harder for moderate Egyptians to accept the normalization of any relations. Aside from these facts, the continuous assaults by some extremist orthodox Jews on Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem which represents the third of the holiest places for the Muslim world represents reason for continuous anger from Egyptians and Muslims in general. “

On  the other hand , Arabs are not without their pile of sins as well, most if not all the Arab countries are dictatorships of some level , the degree of freedoms in Arab countries till recently were minimal and still many suffering from oppression exercised either by regimes generally or from majorities against minorities. It’s really hard for Egyptians and Arabs to claim moral superiority when some extremists among them celebrate the bombing of a mass transit bus filled with Israeli civilians and consider that part of their struggle to liberate Palestine. The Egyptian and Arab media in the past 2 decades have altered the name of suicidal bombings to “Martyr bombings” to paint these acts of terrorism with a religious colour.

Iran funded Hamas as a Palestinian extremist organization and its allies with a lot terrorist and violent activity against Israelis and Egyptians alike have been attempting since their inception in 1989 as a Muslim Brotherhood franchise branch of the Palestinian resistance to drag Egypt into another collision with Israel. Their gun smuggling business into Sinai through tunnels have had a negative impact on the level of security in the Sinai Peninsula. Now with a Muslim Brotherhood on the president seat, Hamas feels safer than ever before and have expanded their smuggling operations in Sinai. It will be a fatal mistake for President Morsi to trade Egypt welfare and international obligations to appease some of his comrades in Palestine. The national security of Egypt and its highest interest supersedes any other priorities.

Unfortunately, Those who oppose these kinds of terrorist activities among media and people are being criticized of siding with the enemy and selling the Palestinian cause.  The double standards exist in the Egyptian media mentality in regard of Israel and any other country particularly Arab ones. For instance, Turkey attacking Kurdish PKK army and villages in Iraq was hardly ever given any attention. The crimes committed by many dictators were never given the same coverage and the focus remains on Israel alone.

Furthermore, Israel is still used as a scapegoat for all domestic problems which is a road to nowhere in case Egyptians are seeking real development in the near future. Avoiding confrontations with the dire social, economic and educational problems in Egypt and focusing on the Palestinian cause will only lead to further deterioration in Egypt.  Israel becoming the usual suspect for any dispute even sectarian violence is attributed to Israeli Mossad by the Egyptian media with can be considered by some as a complete form of denial. Instead of tackling the roots of the issues they simply defer it to any other source.
Also, Many Egyptians may have to reconsider the fact that there are problems existing in Egypt have much bigger priorities and importance than the Palestinian cause and if they wish to liberate or assist in the independence of Palestinians, they have to start with themselves and rebuilding their nation and apply an Arabic well known proverb  “He who doesn’t have it , cannot give it” If they cannot provide Freedom and good life for their people and minorities , there is no possibility they will be able to provide it for any other nation.

If equal rights are not provided to Nubians, Christians, Bedouins and Women, It’s almost impossible to provide the same by proxy for the Palestinians. A lot of self-criticism might be in order here.  The care and support about Palestinian case is important but the overzealous infatuation about it over everything else is definitely unhealthy especially, that many Egyptians don’t show the same degree of infatuation to other human tragedies within the region like that of Somalia, Iraq ,Syria , etc.. People dying or shot in the previously mentioned countries are not killed by sugar coated bullets and chocolate bombs. Equal care about them as well is of paramount importance but still of very important is to bring back Egypt as a functioning country and economy.

Dehumanizing everyday Israelis in the media ought to stop as well since this sends a negative message to the world. Forging peace doesn’t mean that you have to love your neighbour or your enemy but it’s a declaration that you can co-exist.  The next generations are likely to curse the current ones for wasting numerous chances of reaching any peace in this unstable region and instead left them a legacy of hate, troubles and potential for further wars.

Egyptians, Israelis and the entire Middle Eastern region have to be careful what they wish for. The current weapons in the arsenals of the Middle Eastern armies are much more devastating than their counterparts during the 1960s all the way till the 1980s. War is something that cannot be taken lightly and so simple to ignite yet very hard to extinguish.  Even the smallest scale war could cause huge devastation and casualties on all sides something that no sane person would ever wish for. The whole world is holding its breath and held as hostage for the triggering of a war that can be ignited at any time and drags the entire world to a devastating nuclear Third World War. This ticking bomb must be diffused and in the most peaceful and just way in order to avoid this impending doom that not just the region will suffer from but will have repercussions all over the planet.

In the best scenario, an Egyptian Israeli war will drive the oil prices skyrocketing to reach the boundaries of $200 per Barrel in the most optimistic forecasts thus fueling a 1929 similar world economic meltdown due to the incredible price hikes of all possible commodities that are transferred through the Suez Canal. This scenario which is very viable is the reason that the USA and other world power will make sure that the peace between the two countries will prevail at all costs but as history would teach everyone that there is no guaranteed results and peace must be waged vehemently in order to maintain it.

All parties might wish to learn from what President Sadat figured out 4 decades ago and what the great 17th century Dutch scholar Desidrius Erasmus eloquently expressed in his historical quote “The most disadvantageous peace is better than the most just war”

The Long and Winding Road for Democracy in Egypt Part 11:

Egypt lost in Bermuda Triangle: USA, Muslim Brotherhood and the Qatari Connection

American Politicians have proven to the world once again that they are big history enthusiasts. In fact that they love history so much that they strive to repeat their historical mistakes once or more every generation. Apparently, the mistakes done by looking the other way during the establishment of an Islamist regime in Iran and establishing Al Qaeda in Afghanistan to battle what they called the communists expansion in central Asia during the 1970’s and 1980’s still continue through the 21st century.  Back then, the plan worked initially and not only the communist expansion was quelled but the entire Soviet Union was splattered into pieces and divided into 15 republics that formed later a wall around the Russia, some countries that are pro-Russian while the rest are Pro-USA.

However, the American consecutive administrations believed that the mission was accomplished with the fall of the USSR and left Afghanistan in Turmoil to be ruled by warlords that wreaked havoc and terrorized the local populace. As a consequence the infamous Taliban militants who were Islamic Jurisprudence students (Shaaria) emerged on the scene and swept most of the Afghani state. Eventually they allied with Al Qaeda led by Osama Bin Laden and Ayman El Zawihiri who found refuge in the war torn Afghanistan. Eventually Afghanistan became the headquarters to export terrorism worldwide and the pinnacle was the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York’s Twin Towers that changed the face of the earth as we know it.

Obviously all the above didn’t change the perspective American strategists and think tanks and they are bound to repeat their support for radical groups in Middle East to take power while effectively doing the same mistakes that resulted in a war on terror post the cold war era.

USA is the De-facto superpower in the post cold war era with the GDP of $15.09 Trillion USD per year (2011 figures) , that is 3 times that of China and about 2.5 Trillions less than the European Union Countries (26 + UK) amounting 17.578 (2011 figures). These numbers indicate that USA is still the dominant force in the world economy though that will not be the case should the economic situation continues to slide towards the doom it is heading for. That doom can be manifested by the USA national debt amounting 15.879 Trillion USD (July 20th 2012 numbers) with an increase in debt by 3.91 Billion per day since August 2007. The USA economy might be the crippling factor for the United States to sustain its current status as the superpower.

While some may argue about the fact that USA is still the major superpower, none will argue about the extent and leverage that the USA can exercise economically, military and politically on a global scale. USA cannot enforce its will entirely on the planet especially with the presence of rising powers like Russia, China, European Union, Brazil as well as military threats like North Korea and Iran. However, it can certainly make life miserable for countries which oppose its general politics and the examples throughout the past decades are numerous.

1-THE USA AND EGYPT : The love-hate relationship

Egyptian American relations extend for over two centuries and have been almost steady and cordial throughout most of its history with the exception of the period during the Nassers’s reign (1954-1970) This period witnessed Egypt severing its ties with USA  as a result to the direct intervention by USA to the Israeli side according to Nasser’s claims in the 1967 six days war  .
In 1974 and post the 1973 war , Sadat who was victorious restored the Diplomatic relations with USA and paved the way for the Camp David accords in 1979. Since that date the USA has been the greatest friend for Egypt in terms of economic and military aids. Egypt received over 60 billion in direct military and economic aid since 1979 till now. Despite the annual aid represents less than 1% of Egypt’s annual GDP but it still represents a binding tie between the two nations and a cornerstone of the Middle East hope for peace. The regular military maneuvers known as “Operation Bright Star” represents one of the two nation’s attempts to bring closer the Egyptian and American Central commands.

General Anthony Zinni, former Commandant of the USA Central Command (CENTCOM) which oversees the Middle East, Central Asia and African regions(CENTCOM), once said, “Egypt is the most important country in my area of responsibility because of the access it gives me to the region.” This statement from the former commander elaborates how Egypt plays a key role in the stability of the region without which USA can lose its grip on the oil resources in the Arabian Peninsula as well as the safe passages for its fleets all over the globe.

“Operation Shining Star” is one of the biggest manifestations of partnership that USA and Egypt have throughout the past 3 decades. The Strategic alliance has enabled Egypt to acquire cutting edge technology weapons while guaranteeing the safety of the most important naval passage i.e. Suez Canal as well as the security of Egyptian- Israeli borders and the secure supply of Middle Eastern oil to Europe and USA.  These are the main elements of cooperation but aside from these pragmatic ties with the USA, the cultural influence of both countries worldwide as well as their importance for stability of many regions be that the Persian Gulf, Middle East and Africa are paramount.

Despite all of the above, the American intervention in the Egyptians policies and their lobbying against SCAF throughout the transitional phase since the abdication of Mubarak till Mohamed Morsi is in office was staggering.  It’s safe to say that President Barack Obama can be held directly responsible this time into bringing a fully fledged Islamist president and government in Egypt. Obama  is still under influence that the Islamist can be dealt with and he seems to believe that Egyptian Islamists are similar to the Development and Justice party of Turkey.

Also Obama’s administration still feels the grudge towards SCAF for the raids against unlicensed human right groups in December 2011. But SCAF ended up freeing these workers later but after causing a rift between both governments.
Moreover, The American administration formulated their new strategy in the Middle East by means of forging alliances with Islamists in the region and capitalizing on their rise of post the Arab Spring revolutions in the Middle East. This strategy is based on endorsing and occasionally funding these groups like Muslim Brotherhoods and their franchises in the region.  The middleman in this operation is Qatar which through its Al Jazeerah TV network Propaganda machine have been persistently propagating the Muslim brotherhood rhetoric while vehemently defending their cause, rhetoric and portraying all their rivals as anti-revolutionary or pro –Mubarak regime.

The plan worked neatly in Egypt and Tunisia whereby an Islamist dominated parliament in both countries Islamists were elected and given the right to select the commission for the constitution. Naturally, this was a defeat to both Revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia bearing in mind that Islamists were conservative and unenthusiastic about the revolution initially but they managed to reap the rewards of what others sowed.

Julian Assange’s Wikileaks website  have revealed a lot of documents displaying double dealings by consecutive US Administrations with the third world dictators and instead formulating new policies they are still infatuated by the old school behind the door dealings and forging deals with oppressors. Only this time, the new oppressors are the Islamists in the Middle East and their flagship is the Muslim Brotherhood organization. The biggest political Islam franchise in the world with about 80 branches worldwide seemed to fit the bill for the America’s next allies to the region.  And once again the USA is doomed to commit the mistakes they have done in Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan and now apparently it’s Egypt’s turn. Muslim Brotherhood were in contact with the United States consecutive administrations for decades and many of their leaders hold US citizenships, they among others radical Islam leaders found refuge from Mubarak’s regime in the heart of the USA.

However, It maybe also a factor that it’s in America’s best interest to place loyal regimes within the middle east as a preparation for their expected assault on Iran , however if that is the case Obama should rest assured that Egyptians will not be open to the idea of joining forces with USA to attack any other country. Even at the height of Mubarak’s close ties with USA, Egypt refused to participate in the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan .Even participating with peace keeping forces was rejected so the likeness of Egypt getting involved against Iran is highly unlikely. But it can be plausible that the Obama administration believes that Muslim Brotherhood president would curb Hamas in Gaza from attacking Israeli targets during the expected war should it occurs.
Furthermore, Mohamed Morsi the new president elect of Egypt is ironically the most American president outside USA territory. Despite he spent only 3 years in USA. All his 5 sons and daughter are holders of US Citizenship and similarly with his grandchildren who have the same.  His sons already rejected giving up their US citizenships. Morsi and his presidential campaign claimed that they were pushed to accept these citizenships which to any person of knowledge of American laws, standards or posses a modicum of logic will find that totally ridiculous.

According to Nick Mills in his 2007 book “Karazai, the failing American Intervention and the struggle for Afghanistan” Afghani President Hamid Karazai was a former CIA contact during the Soviet Invasion to Afghanistan Karzai remained in Pakistan during the Soviet intervention his siblings immigrated to the United States.Some similarities can be drawn to Morsi who was recruited in 1977 by the Muslim Brotherhood which studying in USA.

There is no indication of any relations with the CIA like in the case of Karzai but it is elementary that the USA will prefer a president who has direct family ties to USA like Morsi than a nationalist military commander like Major General Ahmed Shafiq the former presidential candidate.

American and British Press Handling of the Egyptian Presidential elections:

One of the most misleading campaigns that stained the US and British press lately was the coverage of the later chapters of the Egyptian revolution and particularly the Egyptian presidential elections. Apparently the USA and British media attempted to appear more in love with the revolution than actual Egyptians. The reactions of some editorials and news banners in newspapers the New York Times, The Guardian regarding the anticipated results of the second round of elections were biased and far from objective. They have neglected the facts on the ground and started pushing for the inevitable victory for Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate Mohamed Morsi. It’s not a secret that some of the journalists working for these newspapers had close ties and links to the Qatari government and particularly Al Jazeerah network but more of that is later.

The complexities of the Egyptian culture, society and civilization will never be fully grasped by a 30 something year old researcher in a Washington based think tank dressed in a fancy suit or even a CIA analyst who visited Egypt twice in his life for 3 weeks and claim to be a glorified expert. One would think that they actually read books like “Arabian Nights”  Also known as  “1001 Nights “as their reference for the middle east policies judging by the amount of disasters they help to create based on their analysis. The war on Iraq is how an inaccurate analysis based on rumors of the storage Weapons of Mass destruction in Iraq can create a global disaster and millions of people pay their lives for it.

During the course of elections coverage by USA and British media, Shafiq’s entire military career neglected as a 1973 war hero Fighter pilot , a, Military attaché’ at Egyptian Embassy in Rome , a Chief of Staff  of the Egyptian Air force, followed by  a career as the most successful Egyptian civil aviation minister of all time and finally a Prime minister for Egypt during the last few days of Mubarak’s reign and one month afterwards.  All that history was neglected by many western media outlets and the main focus was his connection to Mubarak. For instance, in a New York Times article by David Kirkpatrick (Cairo bureau chief correspondent) on may27th 2012 titled “Egyptian counting on the worries of Elites” is an example of a how an article can be misleading.

Simply from the title, it is implying that that General Shafiq is appeasing the elites while the facts on the ground proved that he received more votes from rural areas all over Egypt than urban areas. Added to this , over 12 million Egyptians have voted in Shafiq’s favour  with a percentage of 48.27% according to the disputed results that led to the victory of the new president Morsi who edged by a controversial 51.73% in a repeated Bush/Gore 2000 scenario. These 12 million people who voted for Shafiq are by no means elites but people of all ranks of society and in a country with poverty rates exceed 40%, the existence of 12 million elites is impossible and not even a fraction of that number would sound plausible.

Furthermore, Kilkpatric  described the comparison between Ahmed Shafiq and Mohamed Morsi as follows: ” Mr. Shafik, 70, and Mr. Morsi, 60, offer a rematch of the struggle that has driven Egyptian politics for six decades, between secular authoritarians and Islamists who promise a novel experiment in religious democracy”  This was another misleading statement.  In the 21st century hardly an “Authoritarian Secular” participates in elections after revolutions and seeks the approval of a nation in a state of revolt. On the other hand, he implies that the so called religious democracy is a novel experiment, the fact that this experiment has been tried and tested in other countries like Iran and Pakistan. Both countries have Islamists dominating their parliament and heads of state offices in the case of Iran while backed by the military.

The rhetoric of the Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi was synonymous with the same rhetoric utilized both in Iran and Pakistan. So the case of them having a novel experiment for Egypt is quite weak since they have stated clearly that their ultimate goal is to establish a Caliphate with a capital in Jerusalem.  Similar cases of misleading readers about the situation in Egypt can be easily found in editorials and columns and even headlines in L.A. Times, Washington Post, The Guardian, and The Daily Mail. The common theme was that they tried to convey to the readers in USA and UK that the Morsi is ironically the revolutionary candidate and Shafiq is nothing but a mere shadow of the former regime.  These mistakes can hardly be attributed to coincidence or good will , this very likely to either be a result of ignorance of the Egyptian and Middle Eastern politics , loss of proper translations from Arabic sources or intentional . It’s evident that many of these media outlets are not hiring correspondents who speak proper Arabic if any and they acquire their information from Muslim Brotherhood English websites without checking their rhetoric or declarations in Arabic. Only few correspondences have mastered Arabic language like in the cases of Pittsburg Tribune’s Betsy Hiel or CNN’s Ben Wedeman .

The synchronized attacks on the Dr. Ahmed Shafiq and even misquoting their campaign statements became very aggressive and cannot be attributed to coincidence. For instance,  a case of misquotation was  made against Ahmed Sarhan  (Spokesman of Shafiq’s Campaign) who mentioned that after the elections the revolution has ended and rebuilding the country will commence.  Washington post and other news networks printed that Ahmed Sarhan spokesman says that “The revolution has ended”. There is no plausible explanation on why a reputable newspaper misquotes a spokesman of a Presidential campaign that was specific in his words.

Furthermore, Mohamed Morsi’s campaign and Muslim Brotherhood managed to trick the western Media days before the declaration of the final result of the second round of elections by announcing it at 4:00 A.M Cairo local time in the same night of the last polling closed.  Around that time it would be at the evening news in New York to send a message to the American audience that Morsi won the election despite the fact that Cairo districts votes were not counted yet as well as several other cities.

Many media outlets have fallen in the trap set for them and declared Morsi as winner despite the very close race which was only resolved almost a week later. The reason for this declaration by the brotherhood is that their Al Jazeerah propaganda machine and other networks would cry foul in case they declared Shafiq’s as winner.

This action has exerted a lot more pressure on SCAF who couldn’t verify or investigate the case of 800,000 ballots forged by Muslim Brother in favour of Morsi found in Amiriya Government Printing press and lots of incidents of coerced forgery as well in many districts. Cases of forcing Christian voters to stay home during the elections by Islamists in the southern districts of Miniya and Fayoum have been reported as well and neglected by international media who only exerted pressure on SCAF to hand the power to the Muslim brotherhood candidate in a very bizarre show of solidarity to the Islamist candidate.

Finally, it is a fact that the high committee for elections is the only entity designated to announce the results and SCAF under pressure neglected this fact and the investigations about fraud as well.  Evidences of this was prevalent when the result declaration was pushed for many days only to have the Election commission head judge Farouk Sultan mentioned that only 3 ballot boxes were recounted for fraud which  is quite illogical since the 3 ballot boxes don’t take 5 days to count but a mere 2 hours maximum.

2-The Muslim brotherhood and the master plan for hegemony

The success of the Muslim brotherhood and Islamists in Egypt would mark up the beginning of the end of Pan Arabism and beginning of new era of Pan Islamism. Why this would be bad news for the west unlike what’s propagated there? Because as much as Pan Arab nationalists seemed to be in conflict with the west since the 1950s till now, they were mostly distinctive in choosing their foes which was mainly USA regimes and its closest allies but Pan Islamists are mostly in conflict with anyone or any country which is not Islamic .In fact they can be in conflict with Islamic countries that doesn’t adhere to their strict believes like in the case of secular Turkey or Shia’ ruled Iran.

Now this can mark a new struggle between the west and the middle if the Islamists take a hold of the Egyptian Army which is their next in line target especially after removing both SCAF head Tantawi and deputy Anan from power recently. The Egyptian modern Army since Mohamed Ali Pasha reformations and establishment of  a Middle Eastern empire has distinguished itself as a secular army to an Islamic majority country.  The Egyptian Army didn’t involve itself in wars for religion with the exception of Ibrahim Pasha Campaign in the Arabian Peninsula to the quell the Wahhabi revolt and against the House of Saud between (1813-1815) and ending officially in 1818 by the surrender  The Saudi Leader Abdullah Bin Saud  and  the fall last stronghold in Diriyah  . But even that war led by Ibrahim Pasha who managed to achieve a decisive victory against the house of Saud was not aimed for strictly for religious purpose despite quelling the first Wahhabi movement but mainly to affirm an initial alliance between the new ruler of Egypt and Ottoman empire by quelling the rebellion that seized all the holy places in Mecca and Medina. That was the only struggle that the Egyptian army got involved that has certain degree of religious conflict within it.

Now with the Muslim Brotherhood in power of Presidency and seeking to Islamize the Egyptian Army from within, the dangers of this process on the status of the Middle East peace particularly with Egypt and Israel is bound to be negative. Turning the status of the Egyptian army from a national army that that defends the Egyptian soil from any foreign intervention or aggression to a so called “Islamic Army” will result in turning the Palestinian struggle into a purely religious struggle instead of a national one.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s ideology is mainly based on their founder Hassan El Bana’s saying “God is our objective; the Quran is our law, the Prophet is our leader; Jihad is our way; and death for the sake of God is the highest of our aspirations.” With this motto being implemented and Brotherhood penetrating the ranks of the army this can’t be good news for the region.

Moreover, Muslim Brotherhood presidential campaign and rallies in many Egyptian city like Mahalla North of Cairo expressed the willingness of the Islamist group represented by new president Mohamed Mosri’s campaign to initiate what their campaign of what called the Liberation of Jerusalem and defeating the “Jews” . This rally among many others accompanied by the chants and singing appeared to be more synonymous of a Rally that would be organized by Hitler followers in Nazi Germany than a post Millennium presidential campaign in a democratic country.   Some would claim that this is just campaign rhetoric and it’s aimed to rally the populist and Islamist votes behind Morsi who eventually won in a very controversial manner. But that couldn’t be further from the truth since the same crowds that stood behind the Islamist candidate will be pressing Morsi to deliver these promises made during his campaign.

The Muslim brotherhood that are known to be extremely pragmatic will not likely to be to take any offensive moves against Israel or any other nation especially that the army is still not fallen in their hands yet. However, under stress from those overzealous voters seeking to restore Jerusalem and the whole of Palestine as they dream, one can only imagine what sort of aggressive ambition they may adopt once they grab a hold of the Egyptian army command.  The likeness of Morsi taking offensive action or rhetoric against Israel is minimal as long as the Army is still away from the direct influence and command of Morsi and the brotherhood but at the same time it’s worrying to think how long before they attain that goal.

The above mentioned speeches and what can be described as a preparation for a war was overlooked by the US and Western regimes and media. On the contrary, Presidential candidate Shafiq who rivaled Morsi during the presidency elections 2nd round. Shafiq’s who vowed clearly to strengthen the ties of relations with USA as a super power and key ally to Egypt as well as maintaining peace treaty with Israel was overlooked by the same western media while focusing on the Morsi campaign and clearly overlooking the Nazi rhetoric rallies and promises to squash the opponents under his shoes according one of Mohamed Morsi’s Speeches.

Of course the United States represented by Obama’s administration had a long list of demands before approving Morsi as a president while giving up on Shafiq as a more likely friendly face. Among the most important demands are that Egyptian-Israeli treaty to remain untouched and the Suez Canal to remain open for international trade.  The USA have direct negotiation channels with the Muslim brotherhood for long years and these channels were used from time to time to add pressure on the Mubarak’s regime as many of the Muslim Brotherhood members found safe havens on American soil from prosecution during Mubarak’s era. Renewed Negotiations with Muslim Brotherhood were initiated since 2005 according to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the ties continued ever since. Evidently Obama is still under influence from his advisors who portray to him a romantic view of the Muslim Brotherhood as a moderate movement with the likes of Dalia Mujahid his Islamic and Middle Eastern advisor in his crew.

Morsi who was during the first days of the revolution till January 28th 2011 was incarcerated on the account of accusation of espionage with foreign powers. Some might attribute that incarceration as a prosecution on behalf Mubarak regime.  However, the charges were never pursued and ironically Morsi was broken out of jail during the chaos that occurred. Egyptian courts and SCAF for some unknown reason not opened this case files and Morsi found himself eligible to run for President despite all the charges and actually won the presidency bearing in mind that he was a second choice for the Muslim Brotherhood themselves who only presented him on the scene after Business Tycoon Khairat El Shater their primary candidate for presidency was disqualified by the Presidential elections committee. However, the same was not applied on Morsi since wasn’t indicted yet but was to be held on trial when all of a sudden no charges were to touch him after his nomination and definitely after his victory.

Khairat El Shater associates toured the USA in good will missions in an attempt to persuade and rally USA support. One of the delegate members is a peculiar case and he is Attorney Abdul Mawgud Dardeery the Muslim Brotherhood’s Attorney who was Ironically implicated in a child pornography case but not charged and was even allowed to enter the USA despite its strict laws in regard any person of interest or those who were implicated in any charges. The delegation was allowed by US government and even was interviewed by the press. . El Shater was touring between the USA and Qatar trying to rally support for his candidacy and affirming that that the brotherhood will continue to honour the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel and all other international treaties. Though he never got the candidacy , he started doing the same for his replacement Morsi and conducting interviews on western media claiming that SCAF will forge the elections against Morsi.

On the other hand, The above mentioned rallies and parades organizing by Brotherhood  during the replacement candidate Morsi campaigns prove that they were selling false promises to the USA till this moment.  Muslim Brotherhood ties with organizations ranked by US administration as terrorist like Hamas and the full knowledge of the Obama’s administration gives this USA approval of the Muslim Brotherhood a very bizarre decision and endorses the claims that Muslim Brotherhood forged a deal with the USA in exchange of some verbal promises which the Muslim Brotherhood are likely to never keep.
Conspiracy theorists in Egypt believe that the USA administration is involved in a conspiracy to divide Egypt into two or more countries in a similar case to Sudan on the basis of religion and Muslim Brotherhood is the Trojan horse for this plan. Though this might be farfetched since a divided Egypt will hurt the USA equally if Egypt would have a civil war but many indications and evidence found can be attributed to reinforce that direction as well.  However, USA should bear in mind that neither the Greeks , Romans , Ottomans nor even British occupation with their divide and conquer motto succeeded divide the Egyptian state since its establishment as a unified kingdom over 5500 Years ago and the USA will not be an exception.

3-   The Qatari connection Al Jazeerah : The Muslim Brotherhood’s Pravda

Hardly TV news networks changed the pace of politics in any region in the world like Al Jazeerah did in the Middle East post Millennium era. In the Middle East where freedom of speech was a rare commodity back in the 1990s and onwards, Al Jazeerah was a leap forward in the amount of freedom of expression provided as well as  political and social taboos were broken and openly discussed.  Since its inception in 1996 Qatari TV network Al Jazeeraah have managed to forge a peculiar usually unmixed message that mixes Leftist Pan Arabism rhetoric with the conservative Islamist one.  The network pioneered in hosting key opposition figures who found no one to host them in their respective countries media outlets to profess their ideas and rhetoric. This resulted in major reshuffle of the old media policies in many Middle Eastern countries and particularly in Egypt which witnessed much more freedoms of expression and policies during the later years of Mubarak.

Qatar a small Persian gulf peninsula established in 1971 who’s Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani have orchestrated a coup d’état against his father in an attempt 1995 to gain power and the coup was successful and although he ruled since June 1995 the official coronation didn’t take place before June 2000 as the Amir (Prince) of Qatar. Afterwards, he struck gold by the incredible wealth of Natural gas that represented an abundant fortune for the scarcely populated nation. This assisted Qatar to adopt the role of the financier and the propagator to a lot of activist movements and Islamists movement in the Middle East.  Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani enjoys an enormous wealth and he is depicted in his small Emirate as the man who have the knowledge of everything, be that in military, politics or ironically sports
Qatar which is an Absolute Monarchy is preaching the entire Arab world on daily basis about the importance of democracy and freedom of expression through its extended media arm Al Jazeerah news. Qatar have recruited hundreds of professional anchors, editors and technicians with offices in all major cities around the world to try to battle the influence of CNN and BBC in the middle east or that was the cause declared initially. Later after initial successes of breaking political taboos in media coverage, the network reached international fame during its coverage of the US invasions of Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003) as they managed to display the other side point of view that was usually covered up by the USA and British media. They have been the first to broadcast the infamous terrorist Osama Bin Laden voice messages on regular basis to the extent that American conservatives labeled it as “Al Qaeda TV”.
The professionalism facade officially displayed by Al Jazeerah in its earlier years began to fade away eventually as the Qatari network intentionally neglected any criticism to the Qatari regime or politics to the extent that days can pass of continuous news without a single headline mentioning Qatar let alone criticizing it by any means.

Also other Qatari friendly regimes like that of Syria and Algeria got free passes from any criticisms and the focus was always Egypt which was miles ahead in democracy and freedoms even under Mubarak rule compared to the likes of Syria, Algeria , Iraq and of course Qatar itself.   The Qatari news network neglected the international reports of human rights abuses including human trafficking and abuse of foreign labour among many others taking place in Qatar itself and just focused on other Middle Eastern countries.

Moreover, a new CEO was running the Al Jazeerah network the Palestinian/Jordanian national Wadah Khanfar who managed in a few years to radicalize most of the network staff according to prominent Egyptian anchor Hafez El Mirazi who was the director of Al Jazeerah bureau in Washington in an interview in 2009. Al Mirazi stated that Khanfar systematically replaced all the old technical teams with newer radical Islamist adopters from other networks who mainly outcasts but Khanfar who is a Muslim Brotherhood member did that to gradually Islamize the message of the network. It was prevalent throughout the past years that the mix of Pan Arabism – Pan Islamism rhetoric that dominated the Al Jazeerah network recently was shifting more to extreme point of views Islam led by the famous Egyptian origin and Qatari national Youssef Al Qardawi.

Al Qardawi the former Muslim Brotherhood member who fled Egypt during Nasser’s regime is often described as a controversial cleric who has views ranging from very sane to very extreme managed to propagate the ideas of Islamists in neighboring countries and particularly Egypt through his weekly talk show.  Wadah Khanfar resigned after a scandal was revealed by Wikileaks website that he was in close cooperation with the CIA and he turned his resignation despite any links to the CIA and refuting the Wikileaks reports’ contents but the timing of his sudden departure and the release of the scandalous documents rules out any coincidence and proves Khanfar cooperation with the CIA.

Furthermore, Al Jazeerah in an attempt to reach a wider audience worldwide have launched an English version of its channel and mustered a lot of renowned worldwide anchors like Cnn’s Riz Khan and British anchor David Frost among many others. The rhetoric and the message of the newer English network is categorically different from the Arabic version. Instead of the traditional anti-American and anti –Israeli rhetoric that distinguishes Al Jazeerah and addressed to the Arabic speaking audience, a much toned down and civilized rhetoric is presented to the western audience in complete contradiction of the traditional Al Jazeerah.

The above can have very few meanings and the most obvious one is that Al Jazeerah is just a propaganda tool in the hands of the Qatari regime that they operate it at different levels and with different messages depending on the targeted audience  to serve their politics. Al Jazeerah may look as a professional network with a lot of capabilities and excellent coverage but the hidden message is far from that professionalism level and it’s not very different from any TV station in the former USSR that were utilized for pure propaganda.  For instance, while criticizing Egyptian and Jordanian regimes for having relationships with Israel, Qatar maintained a permanent Israeli commercial bureau in their Capital El Doha and Sheik Al Thani meets on regular basis with Israeli officials including former Israeli Prime minister Tzippi Livni in September 2007 and onwards. Qatar during the revolution and onwards establish a special channel called “Al Jazeerah Mubasher Egypt” that translates Al Jazeerah Live Egypt, The 24 hours live news channel has been the spokesperson and the propaganda machine of the Islamists particularly Muslim Brotherhood since its inception post the January revolution and till this date.
Moreover, the above could have been understandable if Qatar was a role model for democracy in the region. However, Qatari regime is doing exactly what they criticize others about is exactly the motto of their politics for the past 15 years masterminded by their foreign minister Hamad Bin Jassim Al Thani the prime minister and Foreign minister of Qatar. Hamad Al Thani with his impeccable maneuvering and negotiation skills mixed with worldwide relationships is the defacto decision maker and mastermind for all Qatar’s plans.

On the other hand, another hand that Qatar has been utilizing is the Qatar Investment Authority to buy influence within the EU and USA be that through direct investment in major banks, corporations, publishing houses and even sports clubs.  That strategy includes hosting foreign journalists in Qatar in attempt to appease them for a good word about Qatar especially when campaigning for certain events like the successful bid of Football World Cup of 2022 for which the hosting rights were awarded to Qatar.

This bid that involved a lot of dubious dealings and it’s being under scrutiny now by the FIFA. Also Qatari Asian Football Confederation President Mohamed Bin Hammam was banned for life from FIFA related activities upon his indictment by a five member panel  of offering bribes in his campaign for FIFA Presidency.

Qatar pays professional journalists like The Guardian’s Louise Taylor who wrote an article on the Guardian dated 25th of November 2010 lobbying for the perks of Qatar hosting the World Cup. She failed to report the identity that paid for her trip which was the Qatari government and many readers found that appalling and she was warned by the editor of the newspaper. The same cases took place on multiple levels with Qatar buying their way through prestigious newspapers and periodicals and lately it has been utilized in favour of Qatar’s political agenda and will. None of the foreign correspondents or anchors working in Al Jazeerah English and those who are writing in propagation of Qatar’s point of views is mentioning the terrible foreign labour conditions in Qatar and the fact that it’s an all Autocratic country that is ironically preaching for democracy.

Finally, Qatar’s involvement in Egyptian internal affairs and politics has been gaining the small gulf peninsula a lot of enemies in Egypt especially they feel that Qatar is directly involved in bringing Islamists to power. This is adding up the more enemies to the Qatari state Even when Qatar deposited 2 Billion dollars as loan in the Egyptian National Bank as economic assistance. It left many Egyptians for what purpose and what are Qatar is planning next of Egypt.  The answer came just the next day of his visit and Morsi removing both Field Marshall Tantawi and Chief of Staff Anan from power and SCAF and overruling their appendix on the constitutional declaration. This is likely to cause turmoil in the country as now the full Islamization of the country is reaching its final stages with the appointment of Al Seesy as the New Defense minister who possess Islamist tendencies. The building up of a new Iran in the region but with a much more powerful influence in the Arab world as well as much more powerful army at hand is now taking place. Thanks to the Qatari funding and Obama’s blessing.

To simplify it even further, Qatar intervention in Egyptian politics is equivalent of the Caribbean Islands of Trinidad and Tobago trying to interfere and influence the USA policies which certainly won’t make American citizens any happier.

Conclusion :

The USA and its Middle Eastern vassal state Qatar have committed a huge historical strategic and tactical mistake by siding to the extremists in Egypt and guiding them all the way to the seat of presidency. This strategic mistake if not corrected by measures that guarantees all the freedoms in Egypt by the elected president, the USA would have created a monster to be unleashed in Egypt and even Iran the boogey man of the Middle East will pale in comparison if Egypt is under full control of the Islamists. The ramifications of this decision by the Obama administration might manifest itself sooner than the USA department of state believes. The Qatari ambitions of controlling the politics of the middle east by pumping funds to extremists, political groups and  journalists  in Middle East and west alike while propagating a the views of Political Islam in the region is likely to fail on the long run.

Despite the initial successes, Qatari regime has been creating more enemies within the Middle East more than they will be able to handle in the near future. The wrath of these countries and populations might befall on them one day and that day might be coming close.  Obama administration have helped to plant once again the seeds of a latest theocracy in the region and overlooked the bigger picture and future interests of the region and the USA itself in the upcoming generations. What’s worse they supported all  pre- Nazi  rhetoric  for some verbal confirmations of the Muslim brotherhood about the peace treaty and the minorities rights which Muslim Brotherhood can turn back away from at a glance.

The Qatari- USA alliance to change the Middle East and turn of the wave of originally liberal and democratic revolutions also known the Arab spring turned the movement into an Islamist nuclear winter. Most of the key Arab countries of the movement are now transforming from relatively secular countries like Tunisia, Egypt and soon to follow Syria into Islamists strongholds that will ignite the Middle East even further. This historical political sin of Obama’s administration will have countries like USA , Europe and all the democratic world will pay the price for.

For the first time ever, USA government now is criticized and even loathed by secular powers as they believe they have aligned themselves with the enemies of freedom for their short term gains.  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was greeted with flowers in Tahrir in her first visit post the revolution then greeted with tomatoes and thrown shoes at her motorcade in her latest visit in July 2012. This change of emotions has resulted as a consequence that more than half of Egyptians are staunch believers that USA is conspiring against their freedoms by assisting the Islamists to consolidate their powers. It will not take a real political observer to witness the frequent visits by congressman and American delegations to the Muslim Brotherhood headquarters. After each visit the Muslim Brotherhood members feel more empowered and become ruthless with their enemies. Now people who oppose them are being attacked in broad daylight in the streets and be that politicians, judges, artists, activists or media anchors.

Muslim Brotherhood has turned their back on Egyptians themselves with all the promises gone in tatters from the very beginning of the revolution. They broke their promises when they stated that they don’t want to be in power passing through the elections when they said they will nominate candidates for 30% of the seats all the way to promising not to nominate a presidential candidate. They have always found excuses for themselves not to deliver any promises and accordingly for a man like Obama whom they believe is the leader of the “Great Satan” i.e. USA is not a man whom they would care to keep their promises to.
USA still plays with old cards all the time and still using antiquated cold war strategies regarding the Middle East and that’s the abysmal result of this game. This is not a traditional conspiracy theory from the USA but more of a scenario preset in the event of the fall of Mubarak among many others scenarios but Obama’s and co have chosen the worst possible one thus gaining more enemies in Egypt for his nation than new friends as it should have been.

Some European Union countries may believe that having Islamist regimes in Middle East would be a plausible idea to combat the influx of illegal immigration from North African countries to Europe as they will find Islamic Sharia in their homelands without trying to Islamize Europe according to the believers of this theory,. However should that be the case Europe would be trading one problem with a fully fledged disaster as they would be surrounded by a belt of radicals in the south of the Mediterranean which is a security threat much more clear and present than any illegal immigrants may pose.

What Egypt is witnessing these days is similar to what Germany witnessed in 1933 when the Nazi took over Germany in demoractic elections then they took over the army, the judiciary system, the government and the presidency. Everyone knows how that ended and in this case Obama is Chamberlain (British Prime Minister) who appeased the fascists but as all historians know, fascists are never appeased because they want everything. This is not a panic fever but actual events taking place in Egypt on the ground now.
With the current tensions in Egypt will and current economic struggles, the Million Dollar question is still whether Mohamed Morsi and his Islamist group survive 4 years of presidency or the waves of change will reach them before their term ends.

In over 2 centuries of modern Egyptian history and even before that, not a single Egyptian ruler be that a viceroy, king, sultan, khedive or a president escaped one of 3 inevitable fates with the fourth is yet to happen and these are: Exile, imprisonment or moving directly from the palace to the…….… graveyard.