America does know when a foreign story really hits home.
Tunisia’s riots barely caused a ripple on the US news channels. Egypt, by contrast , dominated every single hour of Friday's newscast.Obama, Biden, and Clinton made urgent speeches trying to string the words "freedom" and "democracy" in a different fashion each time, leaving it to an army of pundits to interpret whether Washington still supports Mubarak or already does not.
The first headlines were talking excitedly about Twitter and Facebook, as if it were British students organizing to storm the Conservative party headquarters, not the Egyptian unemployed getting together to attack state television.
As the specter of violence became clearer, the voices of US network and cable tv anchors grew progressively more concerned.
The heart of the Arab world. 80 million people. Control of the Suez Canal. So, is democracy winning?
It was painful to watch correspondents from US networks in Cairo trying to explain to their audiences back home that the crowds on the streets are not exactly craving democracy of the Western variety.
Take ABC News' Cairo based Lama Hasan nor NBC News Richard Engel. Both Arabic speakers, both are very well versed in the intricacies of local politics, Both seem to hesitate or skip bringing the following simple truths.
- Mubarak is seen as a US supported strongman . Egypt get 1,5 billion dollars a year in "military assistance" ( cudos for both Hasan and Engel for demonstrating Made in USA tear gas cans that the police are using and admitting that this fact does not exactly help America's matters here) . Egyptian security services actively participated in Bush area
rendition programs – to the great consternation of a great many Egyptians who did not approve of torturing "mujahedins"
- It might be 2011 and not 2003, but the Arab street has not forgotten about the invasion of Iraq and the fact that Mubarak supported it . In those days , unfavorable views of America among the Arabs was hitting 90% – and Mubarak was seen as an accomplice.
- Mubarak runs one of the only two Arabic governments recognizing the state of Israel (the other one is Jordan) . The Arab street hates Israel and attributes many a problem to the Zionist state and hatred towards Israel is omnipresent and universal.
- The best, not to say only, organized political force in Egypt is the Muslim Brotherhood, the long standing but not fully defeated enemy of Mubarak.
- The Gaza Strip, an internationally recognized part of the Palestinian Authority, squeezed between Israel and Egypt and shut down by war and then blockade is doing really well by the standards of the Arab street. Hamas ensured two basic tenets the people aspire for: security as in "safety to walk the streets without being robbed or harassed" and
justice as in "their bureaucrats do not rob people blind."
Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. For the US State Department they might be a " terrorist organization"; for the Arab street they are "efficient managers."
- The Christian question. Unlike any other Arabic country Egypt has a sizable Christian-Coptic population. Copts make up roughly 10% of the population and are generally better off than their Muslim neighbors. There is no love lost. Every year dozens die in clashes, mostly Copts. Churches have been blown up and assaulted by mobs. Police have fought street battles to separate the hating crowds in the past. These days the Egyptian police has other battles to fight.
There have been no reports of any attacks on the Copts so far. But everybody knows it is a strong possibility.
In a nutshell, so far there were a ton of words spoken as to how many Egyptians are dirt poor while the elites can't decide on the size of the next yacht or plane, people want change, they are tired of being mistreated, and how US interests in the region are hanging in the balance.
All true. But other factors and issues that really drives the Egyptian unrest have been darkly addressed as "ideas of the uneducated masses and widespread conspiracy theories."
Seriously? Does it make you feel any better that you patronize both the people you report about and those you report for?
Israelis, by contrast, seem to be under no illusion as to what is going on and are willing to spell it. The Israeli media talk about the Muslim Brotherhood mobilizing its cadres in the poor suburbs of Cairo (a city of 10 million people) and
sending them into action on Friday. An unnamed "cabinet minister" told Time Magazine that Israel, essentially, hopes Mubarak will find a way of quelling the demonstrations, as Egypt is not ready for democracy and popular support will bring Islamists to power."
At least they don't mince their words.
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