Egypt is feeling the heat

Posted on 10/20/2005 by Meryl Yourish

Let’s see if I can interpret the words of the Egyptian foreign minister yesterday:

“We have a difficult situation in Iraq and in the Palestinian territory,” Aboul Gheit said. “We cannot allow another hotspot of tension to develop.”

“Regarding the Palestinian problem, it has been a hot spot for 60 years already. You can add the situation in Iraq to that problem,” he said. “We have to relieve this tension at some point because the Middle East needs stability, development and peace … stability and peace will naturally lead to a change in the relationship of the Islamic Arabic world with the West.”

Here’s what I think he really meant: “Holy crap! You can’t touch Syria and Lebanon, because when you’re done with them, we’ll be the only dictatorship left in the area!”

That’s right. Egypt is feeling the cold wind of freedom on its neck.

Here’s hoping. A Middle East of democracies is a Middle East mostly at peace.

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2 Responses to Egypt is feeling the heat

  1. mrdrybones says:
    10/20/2005 at 4:38 pm

    Meryl
    I too have been feeling an undercurrent of something maybe good about to happen in the middle east. An american army in Iraq and Iraqis going to the polls? Egypt staggering towards democracy? Maybe? Assad screwing up. Lebanon looking to free itself? Expressing the feeling openly is obviously tempting the evil eye, which your thoughtful post skillfully (but narrowly) avoids.

    Dry Bones

  2. Cynic says:
    10/21/2005 at 1:42 pm

    They worry about the Palestinians but give little thought to their own.
    At the boiling point

    Job demand is high in today’s Egypt, but supply is low – leaving millions of young people without a future, caught between the socialist country that no longer exists and the globalizing capitalist one, which is not yet ready to stand on its own.

    What’s more, corruption controls most aspects of the economy and government.

    “In Egypt, you need wasta,” said Ashraf, referring to what Israelis would call protektzia,…

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