"So far, the so-called Egyptian
Revolution has only been a game of musical chairs. The United States
still dominates Egypt’s military, policy, and economy. Washington
provides wheat without which Egypt cannot feed itself.
"Israel still exercises powerful influence over Egypt thanks to its
supporters in the US Congress. An angry word from Jerusalem, and Egypt’s
wheat could be cut off. Egyptian and Israeli intelligence are as entwined
as was Israel’s Mossad with the Iranian Savak secret
police."
Egypt's Faux Revolution: Bait and
Switch on the Nile
by Eric Margolis
"Plus ça change," say the cynical French, "plus c’est la
même chose."
Many thoughtful Egyptians will be recalling this "bon mot" as
the watch one ruler, the ousted Husni Mubarak, replaced by a military
junta led by Field Marshall Mohammed Tantawi.
Egyptians are getting more Mubarakism, sans Mubarak, at least for now.
This not what most Egyptians want or deserve.
The new military junta just proclaimed it would support the hated
Israeli-Egyptian peace deal signed by Anwar Sadat, thus assuaging fears
in the US and Israel. In an example of typical post-coup talk, the junta
says elections will be held sometime in the future.
Many Egyptians are still euphoric over the ouster of Gen. Mubarak, known
to one and all as "pharaoh."
Most of them do not yet seem to have realized that the people who have
taken over the regime are the very same generals, policemen and tycoons
who ran it under Mubarak.
The dreaded secret police, or "Mukhabarat," is commanded by
Gen. Omar Suleiman, who is widely viewed as America’s and Israel’s man in
Cairo. Alongside him are Marshall Tantawi, chief of staff Lieutenant
General Enan and Ahmed Shafik, also seen as America’s men on the Nile.
The US usually had a backup for its favorite dictators; this writer noted
last April that Gen. Omer Suleiman was Mubarak’s US-anointed successor.
After Anwar Sadat’s assassination, Gen. Mubarak was quickly engineered
into power.
The latter two generals attended the Pentagon’s updated version of the US
military’s School of the America’s in Panama that recruited Latin
American officers for the CIA. Senior ranks of Egypt’s 465,000-man armed
forces and the secret police are believed to receive sizable secret
stipends from CIA and the Pentagon.
Egypt’s senior generals are part of the ruling establishment. Many spend
more time managing their business affairs than military matters. Such is
also the case in many other Arab one-party states.
As in Pakistan, Egypt’s army is up to its helmets in big business:
shopping centers, tourism, property, hotels, steel, telecom. Few among
Egypt’s top brass wants to end their gravy train by changing the status
quo. They are ready to fight to the last mall or stock split.
The US has paid Egypt’s military $1.4 billion annually since 1979 not to
confront Israel, one of the biggest bribes in history. On top of this,
Egypt receives some $600 million more annually in economic aid,
subsidized US wheat, and a host of other goodies -- all to make nice to
Israel and keep Egypt from supporting the Palestinians.
Egypt’s large armed forces were reconfigured after the Camp David
accords, turning it under US supervision from a force designed to defend
Egypt’s borders and regional interests to one whose primary function was
to control the population and protect the US-backed regime. The
military’s stocks of munitions and spare parts for its US arms were kept
to a bare minimum to ensure Egypt could not go to war with
Israel.
As I watch Egypt’s slow-motion revolution, I wonder if somewhere among
the armed forces is another young colonel who loves his people even more
than he loves real estate. The Muslim Brotherhood, an object of
ill-informed hysteria in the US, wants to reallocate arms spending to
social needs.
Egypt’s younger officers must be thinking about the example of Gamal
Abdel Nasser, who seized power in 1952 after Egypt’s disastrous war with
Israel in 1947–8. Perhaps there is a young colonel or even major who may
try to seize power and emulate Nasser, who is still adored by many
Egyptians in spite of his disastrous mistakes. People have forgotten many
of them. What they do remember was that when Nasser died of a heart
attack in 1970, his family had little money, and they recall that Nasser
spoke for Egypt, not foreign powers.
So far, the so-called Egyptian Revolution has only been a game of musical
chairs. The United States still dominates Egypt’s military, policy, and
economy. Washington provides wheat without which Egypt cannot feed
itself.
Israel still exercises powerful influence over Egypt thanks to its
supporters in the US Congress. An angry word from Jerusalem, and Egypt’s
wheat could be cut off. Egyptian and Israeli intelligence are as entwined
as was Israel’s Mossad with the Iranian Savak secret police.
The massive pyramid of Egypt’s police state -- to use a fine metaphor
from the brilliant Albanian writer Ismail Kadere -- will not be easily
lifted, perhaps without a full scale, violent revolution. To date, the
revolt on the Nile has not even produced a Kerensky, never mind a
Lenin.
If Egyptians feel cheated by the change of power in Cairo, as many will,
and violent demonstrations begin, what will happen if the junta orders a
battalion commanded by a colonel to open fire on protesters?
The first young officer who refuses and orders his men to join the
demonstrators could become Egypt’s new hero. Nasser’s ghost haunts
Cairo.
www.ericmargolis.com
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