I was a guest on last night’s ABCTV News 24’s The Drum alongside Sue Cato and the Daily Telegraph’s Joe Hilderbrand (video here). One of the main areas of discussion was the Egyptian revolution and just how good it felt. I argued that it was vital for us in the West to understand that Egypt’s…
Showing all posts tagged Egypt
Today’s lesson in US foreign policy (back dictators and say it’s democracy)
Washington Stakeout interviews John McCain and Newt Gingrich on US reaction to the fall of Mubarak. If there’s any need to understand why the US is increasingly loathed across the world, note the words of these supposedly wild old men. McCain: I asked: “Do we owe the Egyptian people an apology for having backed a…
A welcome marriage between liberalism and Islam?
Anthony Shadid writes for the New York Times from Cairo: There is a fear in the West, one rarely echoed here, that Egypt’s revolution could go the way of Iran’s, when radical Islamists ultimately commandeered a movement that began with a far broader base. But the two are very different countries. In Egypt, the uprising…
No peace treaty ever told Egypt to banish Arabs
Ali Abunimah is spot on: On many minds — especially Israeli and American ones — has been the question of whether a new democratic Egyptian government will tear up the 1979 peace treaty with Israel. That of course, is up to the Egyptian people, although the transitional military government confirmed in its fourth statement Egypt’s…
Saluting Green Left Weekly’s 20th anniversary
Such alternative press is vital in an age where the mainstream media largely speaks for corporate interests: One of the despairs of our time is a corporate media that speaks for authority and power, rarely for its readers and viewers. One of the excitements of our time is the means by which we can now…
Afghans and Egyptians both see US backing corrupt thugs
Do we think they don’t care? Dexter Filkins in the New Yorker: On corruption, the American strategy isn’t clear. The American military appears to be succeeding in clearing the Taliban from large swaths of southern Afghanistan. But then what? At some point, the Afghans themselves have to take over—that is, the Afghan government. Without a…
Guess what Israel; Egyptians don’t really care about maintaining Zionism
Haaretz editorial is right: The dramatic change over the border naturally gives rise to fears, but Israel must not interfere in its southern neighbor’s affairs. Egypt has no conflict with Israel and must not be presented as an enemy. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must demonstrate restraint and self-control. His warnings that Egypt could turn into…
What Twitter has done to understanding the Arab earthquake
What a glorious and fascinating study. The inter-connectivity of Tweets on Egypt from the English and Arabic worlds. Kovas Boguta did it (via Mondoweiss). Read on.