Why the US fears Arab democracy

[seafan]

Why the US fears Arab democracy

By Pepe Escobar
February 5, 2011

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To cut to the chase; it's all about oil and Israel. That's the essence of Washington's foreign policy for the past six decades as far as the Middle East, Arabs and the Muslim world at large are concerned. This has implied coddling an array of dictators and assorted autocracies, and sprinkling their countries with military bases. A crucial example - the story on how the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) brought down democracy in Iran in 1953. <1> Geostrategically, the code word for this state of things is "stability".

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The dominant geostrategic status quo in the Middle East, that is that is the Washington/Tel Aviv axis, has hypnotized Western public opinion to accept the myth that Arab democracy = Islamic fundamentalism, disregarding how all attempts of popular rebellion in the Arab world over the past decades have been squashed. The Israeli government goes beyond this equation; for Tel Aviv it's Islamic fundamentalism = terrorism, ergo, Arab democracy = terrorism. Under this framework, Mubarakism is an essential ally more than ever.

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......it was the Jihad Amn-Ad-Dawlah ("The Security of the State Apparatus") - the most sinister of the state security agencies, a counter-terrorism unit with extremely close ties with the CIA, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Mossad - that unleashed its goon squads over the protesters and foreign media alike, funded by the billionaire cronies of Mubarak's son Gamal (who has not fled to London after all).
To add to the perversity, Mubarak then says he's "fed up" and wants to quit but can't because otherwise there will be chaos - the chaos the regime's own goons provoked; meanwhile his number two, Suleiman, blames the Muslim Brotherhood for the "riots".

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As much as Obama went to Cairo to "sell" the case for democracy (and one may say he's succeeded), one may bet that the Washington establishment will do all it can to try to "damage control" really democratic elections in Egypt. The financial markets and Machiavellian politicians (and we're not even considering rabid rightwingers) are almost praying for the Brotherhood to become an alternative reality so they can finally legitimate the concept of an Egyptian military dictatorship forever.

It escapes them that the real actors in Egypt, the urban, middle class masses - the people peacefully protesting in Tahrir square - know very well that fundamentalist Islam is not the solution.

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The Arab street is very much aware how the Mubarak system was bribed to send natural gas to Israel at ridiculous prices; how it enforces the blockade against civilians in Gaza; and how, bribed by the US, it acts as Israel's bouncer. Netanyahu stealing Palestinian land or starving Gaza to death, and Mubarak using billions in US military aid to crush people power - this is all seen by the Arab street as supported by Washington. And then clueless US rightwingers carp on "why do they hate us".

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Israel Frets Over Egyptian Uprising

Lawrence Davidson
Consortiumnews

February 3, 2011

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"Our real fear is of a situation that could develop ... and which has already developed in several countries including Iran itself -- repressive regimes of radical Islam," Netanyahu said on Monday. “In a situation of chaos, an organized Islamist body can seize control of a country. It happened in Iran. It happened in other instances.”

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The Prime Minister’s vision of ayatollahs on the Nile was backed up by Israeli diplomats and journalists who, in a rather frantic way, explained that the U.S. and Europe are acting stupidly in their response to the Egyptian crisis.

According to the Israelis, Mubarak has to be unquestionably supported. Look what happened when you pulled back from the Shah in ‘79. Do you want to make that mistake again? How naive, how weak, how suicidal.

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Israel urges world to curb criticism of Egypt's Mubarak

By Barak Ravid
Haaretz

31.01.11

Israel called on the United States and a number of European countries over the weekend to curb their criticism of President Hosni Mubarak to preserve stability in the region.

Jerusalem seeks to convince its allies that it is in the West's interest to maintain the stability of the Egyptian regime. The diplomatic measures came after statements in Western capitals implying that the United States and European Union supported Mubarak's ouster.

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Obama called on Mubarak to take "concrete steps" toward democratic reforms and to refrain from violence against peaceful protesters, sentiments echoed in a statement Saturday night by the leaders of Britain, France and Germany.

"The Americans and the Europeans are being pulled along by public opinion and aren't considering their genuine interests," one senior Israeli official said. "Even if they are critical of Mubarak they have to make their friends feel that they're not alone. Jordan and Saudi Arabia see the reactions in the West, how everyone is abandoning Mubarak, and this will have very serious implications."

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Barack Obama's Egypt Response Slammed In Israel

By AMY TEIBEL
02/3/11 08:35 AM

JERUSALEM — President Barack Obama's response to the crisis in Egypt is drawing fierce criticism in Israel, where many view the U.S. leader as a political naif whose pressure on a stalwart ally to hand over power is liable to backfire.

Critics – including senior Israeli officials who have shied from saying so publicly – maintain Obama is repeating the same mistakes of predecessors whose calls for human rights and democracy in the Middle East have often backfired by bringing anti-West regimes to power.

Israeli officials, while refraining from open criticism of Obama, have made no secret of their view that shunning Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and pushing for swift elections in Egypt could bring unintended results.

"I don't think the Americans understand yet the disaster they have pushed the Middle East into," said lawmaker Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who until recently was a Cabinet minister and who is a longtime friend of Mubarak.

"If there are elections like the Americans want, I wouldn't be surprised if the Muslim Brotherhood didn't win a majority, it would win half of the seats in parliament," he told Army Radio. "It will be a new Middle East, extremist radical Islam."

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And in, perhaps, the most desperate outcry of resistance to sweeping change in the Middle East:

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The other big question is of course what happens in Israel if the new Arab revolution takes hold.

Time Magazine quotes Benjamin Netanyahu as saying: ‘I’m not sure the time is right for the Arab region to go through the democratic process.’ ----LINK

Pepe Escobar again floods us with truth in his conclusion:

It's fair to imagine a really representative, democratic government in Egypt would inevitably open the Gaza border and de facto liberate hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. And that those Palestinians, fully supported by their neighbors in Egypt, Lebanon and Syria in the fight for their legitimate rights, would turn the "stability" of the region upside down.

So it boils down to the same old song. For bipartisan Washington, there are "good" democracies (those that keep serving US strategic interests) and "bad" democracies which vote "wrong" (such as in Gaza, or in a future Egypt, against US interests).

This is the dirty secret of the "orderly transition" in Egypt - which implies Washington only meekly condemning the bloody Mubarakism wave of repression of protesters and international media. That's considered OK - as long as the military dictatorship remains in place and the glacial status quo is maintained. Moreover, sacrosanct Israel came out swinging praising Mubarak; this also means Tel Aviv will do everything to "veto" Mohamed ElBaradei as an opposition leader.

This, the Day of Departure, will be a momentous day for the entire world.

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[golddigger]

2. Bookmarked to be read and printed. Thank you for this.

[disillusioned73]

3. K&R

:dem:

[raccoon]

4. Rec'd. Here's what grabbed me in the article:

"Orderly transition" may also be regarded as a ghastly euphemism for sitting on the fence - way distinct from an explicit call for democracy. The White House has morphed into a succession of white pretzels trying to salvage the concept. But the fact is that as much as Pharaoh Mubarak is a slave to US foreign policy, US President Barack Obama is boxed in by geopolitical imperatives and enormous corporate interests he cannot even dream of upsetting."

Something that IMO we need to be reminded of at times, no matter who is POTUS.

[seafan]

5. Oil. The Military-Industrial Complex. In essence, the War Machine and its Fuel.

These two entities drive all of it.


Wars and occupations that bring handsome profits to the few, without regard for its pure obscenity against the people.

Oil, to be extracted from the lands of millions of unwilling people, to pour down the cold steel gullets of the Machines used to kill them.

Conquest over governments, installing brutal murderers and torturers to seize and maintain power away from the people.

And the pervasive greed of the profiteers who build more of the War Machines and repress populations with the people's money.




Now we must all rise up to stop it.

[BeFree]

6. We must all rise

I hope before I die, that I see the people rise up and be free.

Thank you, seafan, for this thread. It is an inspiring read.

[sufrommich]

7. More "it's all about Israel" bullshit. Mubarak agrees. nt

[BeFree]

9. Really?

Are you saying the government of Israel doesn't care and is not at all involved?

If the Israeli govt. was involved, what shape of involvement would we see?

I ask, only because you do seem to profess to have all the answers.

[Uncle Joe]

8. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, seafan.:thumbsup:

[WCGreen]

10. My OSU political Science prof back in 1978 was talking about this

in his foreign policy class.

K&R