The Egyptian army has said that it will not use force to put down the popular movement for reform...
Gary Ackerman, L.I. congressman, and big Israel supporter, won't stand in the way either. Beautiful statement: "The Egyptian people have made their wishes very clear: it is time for President Mubarak to step down and allow Egypt to move forward into a new era of democracy, human rights and the rule of law."
Ali Gharib tells me that American Enterprise Institute and Foreign Policy Initiative just put out emails with lots of articles from their experts that are saying that Mubarak will fall (resigned to, if not in some cases mildly encouraging) and how to go forward.
Meantime, Times' Mackey has picked up on "The Friday of Departure," the march set for Friday, an ultimatum to the army to choose sides. The demonstrators know they have the hammer.
love it!!!!
A news tid-bit:
Egyptian Bedouin in the Sinai joined nation-wide demonstrations by forming their own protests in the Sinai. Now, according to the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, Egypt must maintain a demilitarized Sinai. No military personnel or military hardware are allowed into the peninsula.
But, when the Bedouin revolted, Mubarak got permission from Israel to send in a few tanks to Sharam al-Sheikh to stamp down the uprising, the first Egyptian military presence in the Sinai since 1973.
urgent news if this is authentic. leaked memo from interior ministry: Topic: Plan to address the mass demonstrations (that is the google translate version). original here.
more at the link, not sure if this is disinformation or truth.
More info or intox (not very familiar with MEMO, I have to admit)
“Rights NGO claims that Israeli planes carrying crowd dispersal weapons have arrived in Egypt” :
link to bit.ly
One possible scenario, one that I dread, is that this will lead to a massacre the consequences of which will be increased hatred for Israel — and in all likelihood — push a post-Mubarak Egypt to sever ties with Israel. Israel would have once again actively shot itself in the foot.
The leadership in Tel-Aviv is in panic mode.
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The United States government has sent marines to — allegedly — protect the U.S. embassy in Egypt.
That is not a good development.
Looks like another anti-Israel ‘news’ site to me. The sheeple will believe anything as long as it is anti-Israel.
I wonder if they’ll bring Mubarak back to Tel Aviv on one of those jets, or maybe the Mossad agents which are causing all of the riots throughout Egypt.
They Israelis provided the Honduras coup people with sonic guns (aka sound cannons) to disperse the crowds supporting their elected president back in 2009.
I will try to not get carried away but if that’s a true, can there be a better proof that Israelis are completely fine with tens of millions of Arabs living in chains as long as it allowed them some peace of mind and the easier pursuit of their expansionist plans?
Just how unacceptable would that be? We’d be talking real pathology here. The nuclear armed psychopath…
causing all of the riots throughout Egypt.
what riots?
No but thinking of it, they would not have used Israeli airplanes. They are not that stupid or that desperate. 3 El Al 747 cargo landing at the Cairo airport? Give me a break…
How about some Israeli tanks in the streets of Cairo?
I don’t believe it.
Israel denies sending riot gear to Egypt:
Hmmm, who to believe, the Israeli government or Al Jazeera?
I know my answer to that one, especially since it’s generally reported that two Israeli planes took Israelis out of Cairo airport. Would they really have made the flight to Cairo without anything on board?
annie
“what riots?”
That’s what they’re called in Israel.
yonira :
No, I hear he has a room all set up for him in the Red Palace at Riyadh. At the rate this is all going, they’re going to run out of space over there pretty soon.
It’s called stock photography. That photo is not of the actual aircraft that landed. Do you see a date attached to the photo? No.
Something strange happened. I think that since this Suleiman fellow has been named Vice-President, every last commentator harboring the faintest neocon pedigree has called for Mubarak to go.
It looks to me like neocons are all in on this Suleiman dude. He seems to be their last hope.
I believe I remember the 1978-9 equivalents of neocons applauding the Shah’s appointing Gen. Gholam-Reza Azhari as head of a military government in Nov-Dec. 1978.
Yes, just for a refresher course on Suleiman, in case somebody missed it :
link to voices.washingtonpost.com
and Jane Mayer:
…
link to newyorker.com
I’m not Egyptian, but if I was, the prospect of Suleiman succeeding Mubarak as President (or wielding any kind of authority in the new government) would not be of any consolation to me.
The U.S. is sending as special envoy to Egypt Frank G. Wisner, the son of the old CIA hand Frank Wisner, responsible for, among other things, the Operation Mockingbird that allowed the CIA to control U.S. media.
‘He [the late Frank Wisner Sr.] was instrumental in supporting pro-American forces that toppled Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran and Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán in Guatemala.’
In other words, an expert in counter-democratic coup d’etats. Like father, like son?
Hate to be so skeptical, but the antidemocratic profile and actions of the US are extremely consistent.
The people can’t afford bread FFS. They aren’t going to accept a Yank friendly patsy.
This, I think, can summarize the Israeli view. It paves the way for Suleiman. (and is also quite racist, obnoxious and hateful… wrong on so many levels!):
“Democracy is something beautiful,” said Eli Shaked, who was Israel’s ambassador to Cairo from 2003 to 2005, in an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE. “Nevertheless, it is very much in the interests of Israel, the United States and Europe that Mubarak remains in power.”
Shaked considers the West’s demands for more openness and democracy in Egypt to be a fatal mistake. “It is an illusion to believe that the dictator Mubarak could be replaced by a democracy,” he says. “Egypt is still not capable of democracy,” he adds, pointing out that the illiteracy rate is over 20 percent, to give just one example.
…
Ultimately the choice is between a pro- or an anti-Western dictatorship, says Shaked. “It is in our interest that someone from Mubarak’s inner circle takes over his legacy, at any cost.” In the process, it is not possible to rule out massive bloodshed in the short term, he says. “It would not be the first time that riots in Egypt were brutally crushed.”
AP — ‘The State Department said Monday that the former US ambassador to Egypt, Frank Wisner, is now on the ground in Cairo and will be meeting with Egyptian officials to urge them to embrace broad economic and political changes that can pave the way for free and fair elections.’
It’s par for the course among ambassadors drawn from the corporate realm … but Wisner has sterling neoliberal credentials. From Wikipedia:
link to en.wikipedia.org
Doesn’t sound promising, but let’s hope for the best. Mubarak’s lockdown is rapidly crippling the Egyptian economy. With a budget deficit of 8% of GDP and bond yields north of 7%, Egypt has a similar financial profile to Portugal, which is rumored to be next in line for a European bailout.
The financial angle — stopping an Egypt-initiated ‘emerging market contagion’ at a moment when developing-country markets are at quite speculative valuations worldwide — is probably near the top of Wisner’s to-do list. China is taking a back seat publicly, but is quite exposed in this respect.
Good cop, bad cop?
Good cops: The Lobby
Bad cop(s): Israel(is)
Hedging their bets?