Why would Morsi try to divide the Americans, causing tension between the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Embassy in Cairo? The embassy clearly sided with the democratic course based on the January 25 revolution, while the U.S. State Department still perceives the situation in Egypt as being “ambiguous", even after the president made his power grab by means of a “constitutional declaration." The U.S. State Department is still reluctant in calling the spade a spade, despite the one million-man demonstration in Tahrir Square, which has rebelled once again against the attempt to lead the country toward a new dictatorship. The president tried to divide the judges who were united against his hijacking of all the powers, ostensibly to safeguard his sovereign decisions, and sought dissent among the attorneys, syndicates, journalists and demonstrators, but was taken off-guard by the councilors, some of whom seceded from him. Among the Egyptians on whom Morsi's bomb and tear gas fell near the Square, the faces of the January 25 revolution youth disappeared, while those rebelling against the Constitutional Declaration are accusing Morsi of having sold the revolution, and the Americans of collaborating with him to reward him for his mediation and sponsorship of to the truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. In reality, the president who emerged from underneath the cloak of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) is not baffling the Americans alone, he who had surprised them with his inability to resist the enticement resulting from their single act of praise, directed to him by Washington against the backdrop of his action to stop the war on Gaza, to do what he has done. Indeed, Morsi tried to exploit Hamas's victory in the Strip as though it were his own, and lost his sense of direction. Now, all that is left for him to do is follow in the footsteps of Louis XIV. What is even worse is that some fear seeing Morsi overwhelmed by enthusiasm, using his new unchecked sovereign powers and surprising the army by declaring some total liberation war somewhere, without awaiting Cairo's reception of the $5 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). And while it is normal in politics for each authority or ruler to have an opposition or opponents, the miracle achieved by the Egyptian president, who has only been in power for five months, is that he provoked and defied many. This was done for example by the Muslim Brotherhood group when it threatened to take to the streets on Saturday because the Constitutional Declaration “will not be recanted". In the presence of one crowd facing another, the predicament is much greater than a temporary crisis, and the catastrophe is inevitable if the MB is truly convinced that its alliance with the other Islamist movements will allow it to break the will of the street, and the alliance of the rebels in the liberal and civil forces, in order to “smuggle" the constitutional draft. The disaster resides in Morsi' belief that the wave of wrath will pass – as long as the pretext related to the Mubarak holdovers and the accusations of treason are ready for use – and that all that is happening is a mere surge of defiance leaving him with no option but to rise up in defense of his own dignity. Between the president's dignity and the status and the freedom of the Egyptians who do not want another dictator, the Muslim Brotherhood is quickly thwarting its experience in power and its management of the affairs of more than 80 million Egyptians, most of whom have reached the conclusion that the dupery of the MB-affiliated Constituent Assembly will not go by easily. So what is left for Morsi from the goals of the “temporary" and absolute powers until the post-revolution constitution emerges? Were the developments witnessed during the week of the Constitutional Declaration, which was considered an act of forgery and even heresy, not enough for the Egyptian president to realize that with one statement he destroyed all the bridges of trust with the street and the opposition, and that even if he were to recant it – which is highly unlikely – he will not be able to defend the credibility of his promises, especially in regard to the protection of the course of the revolution? Morsi is rebelling for his dignity, status and the MB grip, while most of the Egyptians are rebelling against his revolution. The one million-man demonstration on Tahrir Square is a warning to the MB, at a time when the situation is ambiguous to the Americans and shocking to the Egyptians and those who still have hope that the sun of the Arab spring will one day rise, despite those claiming to be the fathers of the revolution and who are suffocating it with overprotection. The MB was patient for tens of years in the face of its exclusion in Egypt, and within a few months after Morsi's entry into the presidential palace, the unconstitutional declaration brought back to mind the ambiguous days in which the president toppled the generals of the military council with one blow. Today, the MB's general is facing the soldiers of Tahrir Square. So can the once-persecuted persecute in turn and practice oppression? The lessons of the Arabs' spring are clear, except to the Americans whose only card left is the IMF, the projects of small wars and claims of heroism and victory.
