Widespread anger in Egypt at Mubarak regime

[IndianaGreen]

In the wake of the Gaza war

Widespread anger in Egypt at Mubarak regime

Johannes Stern reports from Cairo
24 January 2009

Muhammad lights up a cigarette and quietly utters an oath directed at Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. The 25-year-old expresses what many Egyptians think at present: "Mubarak is a swine who has worked together with Israel to turn Gaza into a prison and is responsible for the suffering of the Palestinians."

The student from downtown Cairo continues to speak harshly about the government. Today, three days after Israeli troops began to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, he remains angry and criticizes the role played by Egypt in the Gaza conflict. "Probably Mubarak gave Livni permission to attack Hamas, which he regards as a thorn in his side."

In fact, Livni met Mubarak two days prior to the Israeli attack and, according to a report in the Israeli daily Haa'retz, Egyptian government officials were informed in advance of the planned offensive.

Many other Cairo residents share Muhammad's anger and revulsion. They are shocked by the crimes committed by Israel during its three-week offensive in the Gaza Strip and furious with the Egyptian government, which—in the midst of the Hamas-Fatah fighting in June 2007—blocked its own border with the enclave and effectively turned the densely-populated region into a prison camp.

The fact that Mubarak refused to open the Rafah border crossing during the latest continuous bombardment by Israel, thereby leaving Palestinians to their fate, has left many Egyptians feeling just as much hatred for their own government as for American and Israeli militarism.


Read more: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jan2009/egyp-j24.shtml

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Mubarak is a torture-loving tyrant that is beloved by successive American administrations for reasons that are hard to fathom. The day will come when he will be overthrown, together with his corrupt regime. Mubarak's fate is not our concern for his repressive regime has created more terrorists than a democratic one would have. Hopefully his days are numbered, and the sooner the better.

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

1. I thought our reasoning was "he's a bad guy, but he's *our* bad guy."

Egypt traditionally kept the communists "in check" in the Middle East, so at this point our government's alliance with it may be just a relic from the Cold War.

May the people of Egypt establish a true democratic republic soon.

[IndianaGreen]

3. If the communists had run Egypt, there wouldn't be a Hamas, or an Ayman al-Zawahiri

Communists are implacable foes of Islamists, or any kind of religious fundies.

[Alamuti Lotus]

5. Iraq was more the anti-communist bulwork

Egypt's Communists were never terribly strong, especially after Nasser (army, bourgeois nationalists) came under the patronage of the Stalinist bloc. The strongest Communist party in the Middle East was always in Iraq, before it was attacked on two fronts and almost completely destroyed--the Baath party (bourgeois nationalists) and Hizb al-Da`wa (the religious establishment). Egypt's place is still very vital to the current (bad) policy, in that it keeps a boot on the Ikwanis and other Islamist currents, and protects Israel's southern flank phyiscally and gives it a shameful garb to be covered with politically.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

2. Still?

30 years...:party:

[MidwestTransplant]

4. The Arab street feels solidarity with the Palestinians while their leaders consider them to be

thorns in their side. This bears watching...particularly if their is civil unrest in Egypt.

[Scurrilous]

6. Gaza crisis threatens outlook for Mubarak

<snip>

"Egypt's efforts to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Gaza have brought it no peace at home.

Its restive population has taken to the streets by the thousands in protest, blaming President Hosni Mubarak for his inability - or unwillingness - to help Palestinians in the coastal enclave, more than 1,300 of whom died in the three-week conflict. Taxi drivers replace Arab pop with Palestinian martial music on their cassette radios, businessmen in central Cairo sport checkered Palestinian scarves, and art galleries produce instant antiwar exhibits.

If negotiations fall apart, Egypt's credibility as a self-declared regional stabilizer and leader of the Arab world will be damaged. Mubarak's popularity was already low among Egyptians because of the country's increasing economic problems. Turmoil even threatens a smooth transition to new leadership - with Mubarak's son, Gamal, as heir-apparent to his 80-year-old father.

"This is a nightmare for Egypt," said Abdel Monem Said, director of the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo. "It's hit from all sides."

He said the problem with Egypt's mediation is its desire to be all things to all people: peaceful associate of Israel, ally of the United States, backer of the Palestinians, standard-bearer of Arab nationalism - at a time when its citizens want Mubarak to take the Palestinian side."

more

[Idealism]

7. Last time there was rising anger in Egypt under Mubarak's rule

the Nile ran red. What makes anyone think more civil unrest won't end the same way?