"Along with the laundry list of domestic grievances expressed by Egyptian protesters calling for an end to the regime of Hosni Mubarak, the popular perception of Egypt's foreign policy has also been a focal point of the demonstrations.
Signs and chants have called on Mubarak to seek refuge in Tel Aviv, while his hastily appointed vice-president, Omar Suleiman, has been disparaged as a puppet of the US. Egypt's widely publicised sale of natural gas to Israel at rock bottom prices has featured in many refrains emanating from the crowds.
The widespread view among Egyptians that the regime has served the interests of the West has not been helped by Israel's call for world leaders to support Mubarak, or the apparent unwillingness by American officials to give the protests their full backing.
...The image of Egyptian officials as tools to pressure the Palestinians also emerges out of conversations between US and Palestinian officials. In late 2009, George Mitchell, Barack Obama's envoy to the region, told Erekat that he had spoken with Suleiman and the two agreed that the PA could unilaterally declare new elections without any input from Hamas."
7 comments :
This guy is also a tool...and an asshole. Egyptians should be thankful they don't have him as their military commander:
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/02/09/iran.opposition.warning/
"We definitely see them as enemies of the revolution and spies, and we will confront them with force," said Revolutionary Guard Cmdr. Hossein Hamedani, according to IRNA news agency."
Mubarak is worth up to $70 billion. Where do I sign up to be a tool?
Iraqi hip hop:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wwx1GpSwsIs&feature=related
Sandmonkey unveiled.
http://tinyurl.com/4z6k4f5
And he's ranting again.
http://www.sandmonkey.org/
Hope this story is true.
"Reports: Mubarak May Step Down: Top Military commander tells Cairo protestors their demands will be met" at http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/02/10/501364/main20031324.shtml?tag=stack
Mubarak is going on TV tonight to address the Egyptian people. If he has any sense Mubarak will annouce his resignation.
As we prepare for the end of the Mubarak era, I hope the Egyptian revolution carefully examines the lessons of past democratic revolutions.
My revolution betrayed
by Yuliya Tymoschenko
To be effective, elections must be preceded by an extensive debate, in which political arguments are made, attacked, defended - and, ultimately, embodied in ideologically coherent party organisations. Democratic consent can truly be given only when voters know what they are consenting to. Whoever refuses to make a public case for what he or she intends to do when in power, or lies about it – as Ukraine’s president, Viktor Yanukovich, did during his campaign against me last year – is no supporter of the democracy that citizens risked their lives to establish.
Moreover, democracy must be rooted in the rule of law. There must be accepted rules that are binding on everyone in politics, so that whoever does not accept or obey them is disqualified. Yanukovich’s naked attempt to hijack the election that precipitated the Orange Revolution should have caused him to be banned from running in future elections. Yet he was not.
Now, as president, Yanukovich’s crude instinct is to treat the law and constitution as Karl Marx thought of them: as a mixture of sentimentality, superstition - and the unconscious rationalisation of private interests. Stealing elections, suppressing the vote, and behaving in contempt of the rule of law are negations of democracy. Those who engage in them must be seen as democracy’s enemies - and treated as such.
Source: Al Jazeera
Thanks for linking to that article, K. I did not know that Ukraine's President stole the election.
"Indeed, as my country, Ukraine, is now demonstrating, after revolutionary euphoria fades and normality returns, democratic revolutions can be betrayed and reversed.
The first of Ukraine’s lessons for Egyptian and Tunisian democrats is that elections do not a democracy make. After all, what if the enemies of freedom use elections to entrench their anti-democratic agendas? What if elements of the old regime, or the cadres of militant minorities, only pretend to embrace democratic norms in order to hijack the new democracy?"
Post a Comment