The Times’ David Kirkpatrick and Steven Erlanger did an excellent interview with Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s president, on the eve of his trip to the U.N. Excerpts emphasizing the importance of the Palestinian issue, as a reflection of the Egyptian people’s democratic engagement:
He suggested that Egypt would not be hostile to the West, but would not be as compliant as Mr. Mubarak either.
“Successive American administrations essentially purchased with American taxpayer money the dislike, if not the hatred, of the peoples of the region,” he said, by backing dictatorial governments over popular opposition and supporting Israel over the Palestinians….
“The president of the Arab Republic of Egypt is the commander of the armed forces, full stop. Egypt now is a real civil state. It is not theocratic, it is not military. It is democratic, free, constitutional, lawful and modern.”
He added, “We are behaving according to the Egyptian people’s choice and will, nothing else — is it clear?”….
he also argued that Americans “have a special responsibility” for the Palestinians because the United States had signed the 1978 Camp David accord. The agreement called for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the West Bank and Gaza to make way for full Palestinian self-rule.
“As long as peace and justice are not fulfilled for the Palestinians, then the treaty remains unfulfilled,” he said.
thanks for covering phil. when i read this earlier today here’s what jumped out at me:
the day mubarak fell all the talking heads were yammering about ‘will egypt keep its commitment to the treaty’ when what was glaringly apparent to me was what they really meant, ‘will egypt keep ignoring israel shirking its own commitment to the treaty’.
The day the last Pharaoh Mubarak and his clan fell, the timeline changed. Everything that the GoI has done since that day has been an effort to disguise that fact.
The most insightful thing I have read on I/P was written by STRATFOR, looking at Israel purely from a geographical/political point of view. This geography is a focal point of the competition between empires, not for the first time. Picking the wrong side in that clash, at the wrong time, has resulted in expulsion, a whole population removed from the front line. It has already happened twice in 5000 years, in this space, on this coast, between the Nile, the Euphrates and the Bosporus. This pivotal coastline is part of a web of trade among Italy, Africa and the Nile delta, Anatolia and the hinterland of Iraq and Persia. That is what really stands out when you visit Israel for the first time. Not the self-involvement and self-interest and self-adulation. But all the missed opportunity.
Morsi…dead spot on…put it just right.
Imagine if every Arab state adopted this posture.
It would bring Isr’merica hegemony in ME to full stop, and to not be shut out of any influence it would have to cooperate not dictate because the US can’t threaten or afford to blow up every state in the ME.
Egypt was in it’s past a leader of Arab states, perhaps post Mubarak it is headed that way again.
The most important things about that interview are (a) that it happened, and (b) that Morsi came across as firm but moderate.
If he and other Muslims are able to keep presenting themselves like this, it’s going to be very hard for Islamophobia to survive outside of the lunatic fringe.
I think the reason Sadat was assassinated was because he signed the treaty and Israel subsequently ignored the Palestinian content.