{"id":4030,"date":"2011-02-18T17:07:30","date_gmt":"2011-02-18T13:07:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=4030"},"modified":"2011-02-18T18:22:14","modified_gmt":"2011-02-18T14:22:14","slug":"%e2%80%98from-the-gulf-to-the-ocean%e2%80%99-the-middle-east-is-changing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/showcase\/%e2%80%98from-the-gulf-to-the-ocean%e2%80%99-the-middle-east-is-changing\/","title":{"rendered":"From Gulf to Ocean the Middle East is Changing"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Now that the Egyptian people have finally wrestled their freedom from the hands of a very stubborn regime, accolades to the revolution are pouring in from all directions. Even those who initially sided with Hosni Mubarak\u2019s regime, or favored a neutral position, have now changed their tune.<\/p>\n

\u201cArabs celebrate from the Gulf to the Ocean,\u201d proclaimed a headline on Al Jazeera TV. The phrase \u201cfrom the Gulf to the Ocean\u201d is not a haphazard geographical reference, but very much a geopolitical one. Ever since former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat defied the will of the Arab collective and chose a self-serving (and according to popular Arab opinion, disgraceful) exit for his country from what was until then the \u2018Arab-Israeli conflict\u2019, the above phrase functioned only as an empty slogan. Saddat\u2019s signing of the Camp David treaty in 1979 had effectively marginalized the most committed Arab country from a conflict that was previously defined by Egypt\u2019s involvement. It thus left Israel\u2019s weaker Arab foes as easy targets for uneven wars, and in a perpetual state of defeat and humiliation.<\/p>\n

Mubarak\u2019s importance to Israel and the US stemmed from the fact that he guarded Israeli gains for the pitiful price of $1.8 billion a year. Most of this went to fulfill military contracts, upgrade military hardware and subsidize US military expertise aimed at \u2018modernizing\u2019 the Egyptian army. Israel, of course, was given almost double that amount and was promised, through a separate agreement with the US, a military edge against its foes, Egypt included.<\/p>\n

But Mubarak gained much more than hard cash. His greatest gains were related to US foreign policy in the region. While the US violated the sovereignty of various Arab countries, Mubarak\u2019s regime was left largely unscathed. Free from any effective resistance at home, and any serious criticism from abroad, members of Egypt\u2019s ruling National Democratic Party used the lack of accountability to accumulate unprecedented wealth, at the expense of 40 percent of Egypt\u2019s 84 million people who lived below the poverty line. The ruling party had indeed become a club for millionaires. The barely existing middle class shrunk even further, the working class lived with the dream of finding employment elsewhere, and the underclass \u2013 millions of whom lived in \u2018random\u2019 neighborhoods, and often large graveyards \u2013 subsisted in a most humiliating existence.<\/p>\n

All this mattered little to Washington, whose policies have only verified Lord Palmerston\u2019s assertion that \u201cthere are no permanent allies\u2026only permanent interests\u201d. Henry Kissinger eventually took Egypt out of the whole Middle East equation, and others followed in his lead, ensuring that Egypt could never act in a way that disturbed Israeli interests. Ironically, it was also Washington that jumped on the opportunity to chase Mubarak – but not his regime – out of power. Soon after Mubarak\u2019s newly appointed vice president read the short statement of Mubarak\u2019s departure, Obama elatedly read his own statement. When he announced that the Egyptian people would settle for nothing less than \u2018genuine democracy\u2019, he sounded like one of the guys in the Tahrir square in Cairo, not the leader of the very country that had defended Mubarak\u2019s reign and defined the former president as a \u2018moderate\u2019 and a good friend. \u201cNo permanent allies,\u201d indeed.<\/p>\n

It was also this very Obama – now using poetic language to describe Egypt\u2019s popular revolution – who chose Egypt in June 2009 to deliver his reconciliatory speech to Arabs and Muslims everywhere. Cairo was chosen because Mubarak had been a most faithful friend to the US and Israel. He had rallied the Arabs against Iraq in 1990. He had taken a stance against the Lebanese resistance in 2006. And he had championed Israel\u2019s \u2018security\u2019 by sealing off the Gaza border, resulting in the loss of thousands of Palestinian lives. To justify keeping the border shut, Mubarak had cited the Rafah Agreement of 2005, claiming that opening the border could harm Palestinian sovereignty somehow. As it turned out, Egypt under Mubarak was fully involved in suffocating Palestinian democracy, destroying any resistance to Israel and ensuring the success of the Israeli siege.<\/p>\n

According to Wikileaks, Omar Suleiman, until recently Egypt\u2019s Intelligence Chief, had, in 2005, made a promise to Amos Gilad, head of the Israeli Defense Ministry\u2019s Diplomatic Security Bureau: \u201cThere will be no elections (in Palestine) in January. We will take care of it.\u201d When this promise could not be kept, and Hamas was elected to power, Suleiman invited the Israeli army to enter into Egyptian territories to secure the siege on Gaza. The CIA was also allowed to torture \u2018terrorists-suspects\u2019 under the supervision of Mubarak\u2019s goons, Suleiman in particular. A US official praised Suleiman\u2019s cooperation and the fact that he was not \u2018squeamish\u2019 about torture. It is important here to note that during nearly three weeks of Egyptian protests, the US pushed for a smooth and peaceful transition of power – from Mubarak to Suleiman.<\/p>\n

The determination of the Egyptian people, however, forced all such plans to be aborted. The schemers will continue to scheme, of course, but their options are quickly declining. When Egyptians said they wanted to change the \u2018regime\u2019, they really meant it.<\/p>\n

Perhaps one of the greatest achievements of the Egyptian revolution is that it was indeed exclusively Egyptian. No American branding companies were hired to manage the moment, no former Bill Clinton advisors were needed to provide consultations to some self-serving opposition. Noone from Cairo called on Washington, London, or even Tehran to come to their rescue. If any such calls were made, they were made to the \u2018Arab people\u2019 and to the \u2018free world\u2019 to stand in solidarity with ordinary Egyptians as they orchestrated their return as the rightful owners of their own country and shapers of their own destiny.<\/p>\n

The Egyptian revolution has shown the world that democracy and freedom in the Arab world needs no military funding, no political doctrines, no Great Middle East Democracy Projects, and no foreign invasions or foreign-backed military coups. It only needs ordinary people to unearth their own, innate and extraordinary strength. The Egyptian revolution has finally restored the power back to the people, a collective experience that many of us will always remember, with pride, and some will always fear, for good reason.<\/p>\n

– Ramzy Baroud (www.ramzybaroud.net) is an internationally-syndicated columnist and the editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story (Pluto Press, London), available on Amazon.com.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RAMZY BAROUD: The revolution has restored power to the people, an experience many of us will always remember with pride, and a few with fear. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":4031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,83],"tags":[3207,4334,2270,378,2279,3182,18300,456,278,227,4206,2323,3206,18321,18311,2605,630,191,2640,2316,1313,3208,1747,2853,1808,399,2744,18302,2020,3217],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4030"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}