I have to admit that I am quite amazed at the celebratory tone of much of the blogosphere in regards to Egypt. Let me say immediately that I have no use for Morsi or his al Ikhwan al Muslimun but, guys, is it not apparent what is going to happen now?
Kaveh L Afrasiabi aptly summarized it for the Asia Times:
Henceforth, a post-Morsi Egypt will likely embed itself more firmly in the Saudi-led conservative camp, take a more assertive role vis-a-vis the crisis in Syria, provide greater assurance to Israel and put to rest the US and Israeli concerns about any regional realignment, in other words, a “thermidorian” restoration of status quo foreign policy approach favored by the unreconstructed Egyptian armed forces. For sure, such a development in Egypt is antithetical to the interests of Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah in Lebanon, not to mention Hamas in the Palestinian occupied territories, and will free the hands of Israelis even further with respect to their current policy of settlement expansion, their disregard for a Middle East peace process, and the strangulation of Gaza..
So which part are we so happy about?
A pro-Saudi Egypt?
More Ikhwan intervention in Syria?
Greater assurances to Israel and the US?
A return to the status quo ante?!
Is it not clear to everybody that the Egyptian revolution has been hijacked?!
And then this: who elected Mr ElBaradei the head of the opposition? Not the Egyptian people, that is for sure. So its either the US NSC or the Israeli Cabinet.
As far as I know, ElBaradei is the prototypical international organization bureaucrat, a loyal Bilderberger and a “trusted” guy 100% vetted by the New Word Order.
So why are we all celebrating again?!
The Saker
As if Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood did not already support US and it regional allied interests like the unrest in Syria from day 1.
I posted in a previous post Morsi was addressing crowds advocating the overthrow of Assad and foreign intervention in Syria that was being opposed by the Egyptian military.
“Army concern about the way President Mohamed Morsi was governing Egypt reached tipping point when the head of state attended a rally packed with hardline fellow Islamists calling for holy war in Syria, military sources have said.
At the June 15th rally, Sunni Muslim clerics used the word infidels to denounce both the Shias fighting to protect Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and the non-Islamists that oppose Mr Morsi at home.
Mr Morsi himself called for foreign intervention in Syria against Mr Assad, leading to a veiled rebuke from the army, which issued an apparently bland but sharp-edged statement the next day stressing that its only role was guarding Egypts borders.”
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/africa/morsi-role-at-syria-rally-seen-as-tipping-point-for-egypt-army-1.1450612
Hamas also supports the overthrow of Assad.
Currently Egypt is an ungovernable mess so I don’t see what threat it poses to Israel.
The addition of including Saudi Arabia is really stretching it unless you are trying to push the Wahabbi bogeyman angle.
There is indeed huge disagreement amongst anti-Zionist bloggers about the merits of Morsi’s downfall. Without getting into the overthrow of an elected government, the one thing that I don’t understand is how this is going to benefit NATO’s plans for Syria. What could they do without Morsi that they couldn’t have done just as easily and more so with him? Just two weeks ago, he was inviting Egyptians to go fight in Syria, calling for a NATO enforced no-fly zone, expelling the Syrian embassy and spewing sectarianism. The mob lynching of Sheikh Shehata was a huge embarrassment for the government and I think was a factor in its collapse.
Now, the MB media outlets have been shut down and Al Jazeera offices in Egypt have been closed. Which I assume means that A$$ clown Qaradawi wont be gracing us with his wisdom.
Yeah, KSA is happy with the coup. But therefore what? Qatar, which was Morsi’s biggest backer and leading the charge against Syria, got blind sided.
Everything else will remain the same. The strangulation of Gaza will continue. The “security cooperation” with Israel was apparently just fine under Morsi. And he seemed to be playing his role in the divide and conquer grand strategy of the west.
Certainly Syria and Hezbollah didn’t seem at all upset about Morsi’s fall. Iran seemed more ambivalent, but I think they just didn’t want to gloat.
All in all, I view this as either neutral or mildly positive for the resistance forces.
@Lysander: well, we could say that this is a case of a glass half full or half empty, but I think that what is happening is much worse than that. Why?
1) The Egyptian people have shown a determination, patience and, frankly, heroism which is absolutely amazing. And yet, after all this time, it got them nothing tangible other than basically a return to square one. I think that they deserve *so* much better!!
2) The US has managed to narrow down the options to two (almost-)equally bad options: the IB or the military. Both paid for and run by the USA. At the beginning, when it was still about Mubarak, the people clearly said that what they wanted is not a change in puppets, but the departure of the puppet masters. What do we have today? The same puppet masters and a choice of 2 puppets.
3) What has not emerged as an option: a PROGRESSIVE, PATRIOTIC and ISLAMIC movement which, like the Shia, would be not only tolerant, but supportive of Christianity, but which would clearly stand against the Zionists. If not, then a PROGRESSIVE, PATRIOTIC and SECULAR movement which would not only be tolerant, but supportive of both Islam and Christianity but which would clearly stand against the Zionists.
Corrent me if I am wrong, but at this moment in time there is nobody representing such an option in Egypt.
Combined with HAMAS’ betrayal of the resistance, the “neutralization” of Egypt is a major victory for the Anglo-Zionists, sorry, my good friend…
Kind regards,
The Saker
Morsi and the ikhwan have taken Egypt down this dead end road that gave the military the chance to step in. As far as I can tell he wasn’t prepared to share any political power – he didn’t reach out to any of the other factions or significant minorities such as the Copts.
Just kicking out Mubarak was never going to be enough, Egyptians need to wake up to the harsh fact that their current efforts are not going to be enough – a setback yes but perhaps the mammoth task at hand has been made a bit clearer to the Egyptian people starting with supporting religious leaders not in thrall to their paymasters in Saudi and Qatar.
(Morsi let in the wahabi sheikh that agitated against the presence of Shia in Egypt that resulted in the murder of Sh Shehata)