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Friday, April 01, 2011

Mass media's mea culpa over Egypt

Late - too late - the mass media is now admitting just how wrong they got post-Mubarak Egypt.
Just read this article and compare it to what we were told during the revolution:

"Egypt's relations with Israel and the U.S. are likely to become more difficult in the months ahead with an infusion of Arab nationalism and skepticism about Egypt's landmark peace treaty with Israel. Many of those who helped oust President Mubarak, including secular democracy activists and Muslim Brotherhood leaders, say the 32-year-old treaty should be respected for now. But they add that when stability is restored, the pact should be submitted to the Egyptian people for approval, through a new parliament scheduled to be elected in September and then perhaps in a public referendum."

In other words, all the commitments made by the military government are not valid after September and Egypt is quite likely to abrogate or simply stop paying any attention to its treaty commitments. And what is the U.S. government, the Obama Administration, going to do at that point since it is the guarantor of the treaty? Absolutely nothing.

The article continues:

"'There was no real end to the war with Israel, just a truce,'" said Shadi Mohammed, 26, a leader of the movement that helped promote the Tahrir Square demonstrations. Mohammed Maher, a Muslim Brotherhood activist, said that if his group gains influence through the elections, Egypt is likely to pursue closer ties with Gaza, opening border crossings and promoting trade as a way to undermine the Israeli blockade."

Did you notice that? He's a Muslim Brotherhood activist and a leader in the Tahrir Square movement. Only yesterday I received a letter from a New York Times employee--full of curse words and insults, by the way--saying that he spoke to many people in Tahrir Square and none of them said they were Brotherhood supporters. So obviously there weren't any Brotherhood supporters.

Yes, honestly this is the kind of reasoning that often shapes mass media coverage of the Middle East. Sort of like the president's advisor on counterterrorism explaining that Hizballah can't be a terrorist group because it has lawyers among its members.
Read the whole thing.

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1 Comments:

At 7:17 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Last time we checked Israeli military transport had steering wheels and working gears and could be driven forward as well as reverse, westwards as well as eastwards. If only the political echelon is capable of getting its collective head in gear if the clever bunnies of Egyptian Islam decide to make an open farce of their treaty obligations by equipping Hamas.

 

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