Egypt

NOVANEWS by crescentandcross     by Philip Giraldi, February 10, 2011   Albert Einstein is often quoted as saying that doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is a definition of insanity. He might have been describing the foreign policy of the United States of America. In the past week we long suffering citizens have seen our government stand by the dictator in Egypt, then call on him to go, and most recently support his staying on while at the same time publicly demanding that some transition start immediately. All of which is not doing the same thing over and over except when one considers that the US Department of State and White House have followed precisely the same dysfunctional pattern when dealing with other client states throughout the Middle E...

NOVANEWS Everything You Need To Know About The $2 Billion That Americans Give To Egypt Each Year But Were Afraid to Ask   How much does the U.S. spend on Egypt? The protests in Egypt have prompted renewed questions about the U.S.’s aid to the country—an issue that the U.S. government has also pledged to reconsider. We’ve taken a step back and tried to answer some basic questions, such as how as much the U.S. has given, who has benefitted, and who gets to decide how its all spent. Egypt gets the most U.S. foreign aid of any country except for Israel. (This doesn’t include the money spent on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.) The amount varies each year and there are many different funding streams, but U.S. foreign assistance to Egypt has averaged just over $2 billion every year since 1979, wh...

NOVANEWS   posted by Allen L Roland     President Obama has been caught like a deer in the headlights by Egypt’s internal cry for freedom and justice whereas empty words and rhetoric will no longer assuage a true people’s revolution that demands change and meaningful reform: Allen L Roland   CAIRO, Feb 9 (Reuters) – ” Egyptians have staged one of their biggest protests yet insisting President Hosni Mubarak step down immediately and ignoring a government plan to transfer power. For many protestors it was the first time they had joined the daily demonstrations in Cairo’s Their Square showing the movement, now in its third week, still is gaining momentum.” The old world order continues to crack under the assault of the Egyptian people’s revolution and the demand for truth and transparency ...

What will become of Israel if Mubarak falls? NOVANEWS The growing possibility of a radically Islamist Egypt has serious Middle East security implications. Amos Harel The Guardian, 9 February 201 The Israeli perspective of the historic events currently under way in Egypt is quite different from those commonly found in western countries. The US and Europe are more likely to support the removal of a government that denies its citizens basic freedoms, while Israel's main concern is that the unrest in Egypt will have serious regional security implications. If Hosni Mubarak's regime collapses it could endanger the peace agreements Israel has with Jordan and Egypt, Israel's main strategic assets after its alliance with Washington. In the longer run, the new reality on its southern bor...

NOVANEWS   See this report from the Financial Times: Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, has given her backing for Omar Suleiman, the Egyptian Vice President, to manage a peaceful transition of power in Cairo, stressing that Washington wants to see the move to a new political system achieved in as “orderly” a manner as possible. Amid signs that senior Egyptian leaders are trying to edge president Hosni Mubarak out of power after mass demonstrations against his regime, Mrs Clinton said on Saturday that political transition should be managed by Mr Suleiman, suggesting that he is now the effective head of the Egyptian government. But it's not just Mubarak and the Americans who want Suleiman holding the reins of power. Read on....

NOVANEWS   February 06, 2011 Fellow Egyptian citizens... we are your sons, your daughters, your brothers and sisters who are protesting in Tahrir square and other squares of Egypt, promise you not to go back to our homes until the demands of your great revolution are realized. Millions have gone out to overthrow the regime, and so the matter goes beyond figures in particular to the whole administration of the Egyptian State, which was transformed from a servant of the people to a master of the them. We have heard the president's disappointing speech. Moreover, really someone who has killed more than 300 youths, kidnapped and injured thousands more is not entitled to brag about past glories. Nor are his followers entitled to talk about the President's dignity, because the dignity, life an...

NOVANEWS   As the Egyptian popular revolt rages on, and may, thanks to the ingenuity and perseverance of the people and the mistakes of the regime, engender a revolution, commentary abounds. One of the oft repeated tropes is that of the unsustainability of oppression. It is echoed both by the most radical commentators and by the White House itself. It is a truism. Here is an example articulation by Shmuel Shermonta-Gertel on Mondoweiss: …a system based on oppression and privilege has a limited shelf-life. Even the most stoic of peoples will eventually rise up and demand their rights and dignity. To ignore this truth in the name of stability and security is like putting out a fire with gasoline. (http://mondoweiss.net/2011/02/israels-egyptian-teachers.html ) To be clear, I’m not picking o...

Issued by: CPGB-ML Issued on: 01 February 2011 In developments of great magnitude, wrote Marx, "twenty years are no more than a day – though later on days may come again in which twenty years are embodied". The current revolutionary struggles in Tunisia and Egypt furnish yet more proof of the correctness of this profound observation. Before the events of recent weeks, both Tunisia and Egypt presented an outward image of calm serenity. Their dictatorial governments felt secure, and the masses gave the appearance of having reconciled themselves to their fate under the suffocating dispensation of each regime. Condition of the people Both regimes were notorious for the application of brutality and medieval torture; for their attempts to crush and destroy physically, morally and...

NOVANEWS   Ancient Egyptians established a lingering centralized government with the king dominating and ruling like God over a highly organized society. By Dr. Ashraf Ezzat  The Great Pyramids Whenever Egypt is mentioned the great pyramids are likely to be referred to in the discourse. The pyramids of Khufu, Khefre and Menkaure stand witness to the power and splendor of the ancient Egyptian old kingdom (2686-2181BC) but what a lot of people are not aware of is the fact that the fall of this once mighty kingdom had been due to a relentless political turmoil during which ancient Egyptians protested over social and economic grievances in what most Egyptologists now view as one of the first political upheavals in history. The eclipse of the royal power came shortly after the reign of King Pe...

NOVANEWS Egyptian Humor Goes Where Its Politics Cannot   A protester holds up a sign referencing a popular joke about President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Feb. 1 during a march to call for Mubarak’s ouster (Photo: MIGUEL MEDINA) By Issandr El Amrani What would happen if you spent 30 years making fun of the same man? What if for the last decade, you had been mocking his imminent death — and yet he continued to stay alive, making all your jokes about his immortality seem a bit too uncomfortably close to the truth? Egyptians, notorious for their subversive political humor, are currently living through this scenario: Hosni Mubarak, their octogenarian president, is entering his fourth decade of rule, holding on to power and to life through sheer force of will. Egyptian joke...