Every Arab revolution of rage, since Mohamed Bouazizi's self-immolation on 17/12/2010, had its own reasons, be they Tunisian, Egyptian, Yemeni or even Libyan. However, one thing is common among them all, and that is the hatred for Israel. The Egyptians attacked and broke into the Israeli embassy, having chanted against Israel in Tahrir Square before. The Jordanians held protests in front of the Israeli embassy in Amman, and Turkey expelled the Israeli ambassador in Ankara for a ‘Palestinian' reason, i.e. the raid against the Freedom Flotilla in the high seas to prevent it from reaching the Gaza Strip. Yet, we heard that the G8 has pledged 39 billion dollars to help the cause of change in the Middle East, while the United States has offered 65 million dollars to pro-democracy groups in Egypt. In truth, this last move has angered the government on the one hand, and on the other hand made some groups state that they do not want any American money, while others said that the U.S. administration is attempting to buy off reforms. Upon her arrival, newly appointed U.S. ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson was received with rather unjustifiable hostility by the local media. But then we know that such resentment is chiefly aimed against U.S. foreign policy and not the ambassador personally. In the end, she is a professional diplomat, and she will no doubt attempt to mend relations with Egypt, and I read a statement by Patterson in which she stated that she feels Egypt is well on the path to democracy. I hope so, but does democracy in Egypt or any other Arab country really suit the United States? If legislative elections are held in Egypt, in the second half of November as expected, the Muslim Brotherhood would be one of the biggest winners, even if they do not obtain a parliamentary majority, and their stance against Israel is self-explanatory, really. And if presidential elections are held next February, as reports are saying now, the programs of all the candidates converge when it comes to one particular issue, and that is their militancy against Israel. Today, abolishing the peace treaty with Israel is a subject for debate in Egypt, and perhaps Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi was only echoing the Egyptian people's sentiment when he refused to take Benjamin Netanyahu's call during the siege of the embassy in Cairo, while many Egyptian ministers also refused to take the calls of their Israeli counterparts. This prompted the U.S. administration to intervene to carry messages between the two sides. Of course, with an extremist rightwing government in Israel that brings together a number of war criminals, relations will remain tense, and the Arab public will continue to be hostile thereto. Yet Netanyahu had the gall to say that the attack on the embassy would not pass without reaction. But he himself had refused to apologize when Israel murdered unarmed peace activists in the high seas and despite this, he is now protesting and making threats, in the aftermath of an incident where no Israeli diplomats were killed. Carrying on with this comparison, we find that many of those who attacked the embassy and assaulted the police, and those who set fire in vehicles, will be tried under the emergency law, while those who murdered the peace activists were exculpated by the Netanyahu government, without trial. I remember when the Arab revolutions of rage started, many American commentators, including Thomas Friedman – a moderate-, and Roger Cohen -a Likudnik even if he denies it-, wrote that Israel had nothing to do with the agenda of the uprisings. However, the youths of Egypt have proven that relations with Israel are at the top of the list of what they want the change to include. Now there are Islamists in power in Libya, and even if Syria itself is in the ‘defiant' camp, the dissidents who are attempting to bring down the regime there include in their ranks Islamist groups that are certainly more belligerent towards Israel than the present government is. Today, ‘defiance' has spread from Syria, Iran and other countries, to Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Israel will ultimately pay the price for its extremist policies, from ruining the peace process, to the blockade on the Gaza Strip, the confiscation of Palestinian lands and illegal settlement building. The only problem the Arabs have with the United States, be they those Arabs in the defiant camp or not, is its support for Israel. Every U.S. administration will pay the price for the lobby's hold on U.S. foreign policy. Barack Obama, despite my faith in his good intentions, has squandered all the good faith his speech in Cairo created. His administration delivered on none of the promises he had pledged, and some Arabs even felt that they are dealing with a third term for George W. Bush. Furthermore, I fear that the U.S. presidential elections next year will also foreclose any change in foreign policy that can appease the Arab public. [email protected]
