Anti-Morsi Egyptian protesters marching yesterday with Qatar-Israel-US flag stitched together (photo: @SultanAlQassemi)
The U.S. image isn’t doing too well in Egypt. This picture of a Qatar-Israel-US flag was posted by Sultan AlQassemi from yesterday’s protests. Qatar has been accused by protesters of meddling in support of the Muslim Brotherhood. The U.S. is also being accused by protesters of propping up the Morsi government.
There is a stunning set of photos up of the demonstrations yesterday at Arabist, which says Morsi has now lost legitimacy. Thanks to Annie Robbins.
I think that it is a given that whatever bad happens in Egypt the blame will go to USA (and/or Israel).
Once I thought that this tendency goes to hilarious extremes. There was a series of shark attacks on Sinai beaches and an Egyptian official was quoted as suspecting that the sharks were trained by Mossad. A year or two later I have seen a program on those attacks on Canadian TV. Researchers established that sharks exhibited unusual behavior that could be best explained as approaching humans in expectations to get food, and then attacking when they were getting nothing. Apparently, this species does not have a history of approaching humans, and the way of attacking was atypical too: circle around and attack next, that would not work at all with normal prey. The conclusion presented in the show was that somewhere on the shores of the Red Sea someone was making experiments that involved feeding sharks and the sharks somehow escaped.
Suddenly the Egyptian paranoia did not look stupid at all.
Morsi unpopularity is largely of his own doing, but while his duplicity in dealing with Palestinians had at most moderate domestic cost, it cemented the American tag on his government. Like Erdogan, he is pigheaded, and while it sometimes works well, when it does not you get a disaster. In a wider context, the Qataris are getting tarnished, and so is the cause of supporting Syrian rebels. Obama chose truly bad time to open his hand on Syrian issue.
When I was in Egypt during some of the liberal anti morsi protests, Cairo was uniformly quiet except for tahrir and some other cities where , according to the locals, paid criminals were attacking the police , military, and MB. The mood then was very hostile to the protestors except amongst the wealthy elite. The suspicion was that the deep state, the Mubarak supporters, were behind the destabilization of the MB government. None of this appeared on Al Jazeera and even now its hard to tell who is populating the protest massive crowds, pro MB allies or actual protestors?
Is this another color revolution , facebook uprising as in Turkey recently ?
Let’s see… For decades the Egyptian military got lots of US taxpayer cash for kissing Israel, and then there was the Arab Spring, ousting the Muburak regime. The MB took over. Obama did nothing until the MB took over, then, despite some weak protest from Israel Firsters in Congress, Egypt got it’s latest annual dole of US cash after he got reports back Egypt would continue kissing Israel. Now, the Egyptian Air Force is flying Egyptian flags in support of the anti-MB protesters. Looks to me like the locals are unhappy with the MB way of governing, just as they were when the Egptian military ran everything. The key is the people keep getting screwed, have no jobs, neither the religious MB nor the secular military will help them, but both factions need US foreign aid, simply to pay the most basic bills. Obama will again do nothing in this second Arab Spring until he sees good sign of winner. Then he will again barter US tax money so the newest regime kisses Israel–until the next Arab Spring.
Phil, I think Issandr’s pieces at the Arabist and in the National were far more nuanced than the way you characterize them. He writes about how, in addition to making several bad moves of its own, the Morsi government has been the target of a sustained and often vicious campaign of delegitimization. Not that simply it “has now lost legitimacy.”
HELENA COBBAN- I agree that this post trivializes the reality of Egypt to the point of being borderline tabloid. The sourced article by Max Fisher in the Washington Post is a joke. He asks “Why is the same administration that helped push out Mubarak now the bad guy?” (Max Fisher)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/07/01/egypts-protesters-find-a-new-villain-the-u-s-ambassador/
Are we to believe that he isn’t aware that Washington supported Mubarak as long as realistically possible, calling for his removal only when that was a foregone conclusion, and then working with the Egyptian army to ensure continuity of policy? Or that Morsi was acceptable to Washington because of his support for neoliberalism? Or that what the Egyptian people need and want (economic and political independence) is diametrically opposed by the US and global finance?
As you state, the article by Issandr El Amrani is more nuanced, and provides a good starting point for a realistic analysis of events in Egypt. He says:
“And he has made at least one disastrous decision, in the context of last December’s crisis, that has significantly worsened the economic outlook of the country by postponing reforms that had been planned as part of the IMF rescue package. I do not think it is fair, however, to blame Morsi for the more general economic situation (he inherited massive debt, an electricity crisis, a subsidies crisis, etc.) but it is true that save from raising loans from Qatar and elsewhere he has done little to stem it….” (Issandr El Amrani)
http://arabist.net/blog/2013/6/30/the-delegitimization-of-mohamed-morsi
Two things should be clear. First, the IMF “reforms” consist of structural adjustment and neoliberal austerity, the very things which the protesters were rebelling AGAINST. The fact that the author is advocating for speedy implementation suggests that he is a victim of the neoliberal mindset. Second, the fact that Morsi is dependent upon loans from the IMF and Qatar indicate that he has big problems. And while Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood ideologically support neoliberalism (the privatization of social services via charity), I suspect that he has little leverage with the IMF in any event, that is, little room for compromise with the opposition.
A quote followed by a link to a group calling themselves “Comrades from Cairo” : “References to the coming of “democracy” have no relevance when there is no possibility of living a decent life with any signs of dignity and decent livelihood. Claims of legitimacy through an electoral process distract from the reality that in Egypt our struggle continues because we face the perpetuation of an oppressive regime that has changed its face but maintains the same logic of repression, austerity and police brutality.”
http://www.zcommunications.org/from-taksim-and-rio-to-tahrir-the-smell-of-teargas-by-comrades-from-cairo
If Morsi prevails, it will likely be more of the same. If Morsi is toppled it could conceivably get worse. Unless some group can figure out a way to extricate Egypt from the global matrix of financial control, to be able to feed the people and have an economy without IMF loans and interference, nothing will fundamentally change. Washington would rather see a failed, starving Egypt rife with sectarian strife, than a successful Egypt outside of empire.