Blaming Israel-U.S. Begins

The demonstrations in Egypt began as a referendum on the poor economic conditions and have slowly morphed into calls for democratization, but the underlying sentiments of the Egyptian people and strong support for the radical Muslim Brotherhood continue to shine through the rhetoric.

In several news articles today, Israel and the United States were injected into the demonstrators please for a better future, even though their initial complaints first targeted embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

For example, one article states:

“I don’t care if we have peace [with Israel] or not,” Ahmed continued, echoing the indifference of many demonstrators who don’t have a clear agenda for what they want a future Egypt to look like, as long as it does not include Mubarak. “But will Israel allow us to have a real president? For example, Turkey elected an Islamic government, but it was their choice. Will Israel give us the freedom to make the same choice?” he asked.

And another:

Some of the protesters objected to ElBaradei on the grounds that he was too close to the United States, despite the frictions between him and the U.S. administration over the Iranian and Israeli nuclear programs when he was head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog body….

“He would follow Mubarak in the same policies and would take U.S. aid,” he added, reflecting an anti-American strand which was largely absent in the first four days of protests.

This shift, while in its infancy, is emblematic of a broader ideology sweeping Egypt and would likely takeover any faux-democratic or Muslim Brotherhood-led government.

The Egyptian people have not embraced the peace treaty with Israel. It is very rare to find Egyptian tourists in Israel or traversing the Taba border crossing into Eilat. It is much more common, however, to find Egyptians wary of Israeli actions and still considering Israel an enemy, even after over 30 years of peace. In fact, in one of Cairo’s museums, a piece of an Israeli fighter jet is prominently displayed as a trophy (that aircraft was probably one of the only planes shot down by Egypt from the early 1950s through the late 1970s).

Coupling this deep-seated distrust for Israel, the Muslim Brotherhood has used its radical Islamist ideals to conscript more Egyptians away from Western allegiances and toward an ideology that does not embrace democratic values.

These anti-Israel and anti-U.S. sentiments — which are ultimately anti-Western — were an inevitable transformation of the demonstrations.

In the event a ‘democratic’ Egypt emerges, these sentiments will no doubt factor into Egyptian governance, and perhaps those elected will depart from Western-allegiances to appease the population as it espouses anti-Western views. Further, the Muslim Brotherhood, as the chief opposition to Mubarak, will also most likely play a major role in any future ‘democratic’ Egyptian government, with Islamic extremists most certainly urging adoption of fundamentalist interpretations of Sharia that are ultimately antithetical to Western democratic values because they subjugate women, strip non-Muslims of rights and suppress freedoms.

Incorporation of these fundamentalist views of Sharia into a democratic government would undercut the very foundations of a democracy and begin Egypt’s transformation into another state governed by radical Islam.

Unless the future Egyptian government somehow counters this decades-long distrust of the West and keeps Egypt allied with Israel and the United States, the Egyptian people should not look forward to a 21st century filled prosperity, as anti-democratic radical ideologues will most certainly drag the country into a period of regression.