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MUBARAK'S EGYPT
America's #2 Arab "Client Regime" in the M E
Why
didn't Egypt demand the release of Marwan Barghouti
for the spy Ariel Sharon wanted so much?
MIDDLEEAST.ORG - MER - Washington - 6
December: When
it comes to oil and money, the #1 American "Client Regime" in the
Middle East has been for some time, and remains today, Saudi
Arabia. With Iraq exploding and Iran targeted, just as
ordered the Saudis are racing at the moment to increase their oil
supplies by about 15%; and as we noted months ago they dutifully did
all they could
behind-the-scenes to work for the Bush/Cheney victory now history.
But when it comes to politics and geostrategic considerations, the
largest Arab country of Egypt and the Mubarak regime is
often the place to which the Americans turn. After all, in
a very real sense, they own it. It's American billions yearly, on
top of all kinds of CIA support and assistance, that keeps the regime
in
place. Indeed it is because of the Americans that the
client-regime
of Hosni Mubarak, along with his long-time foreign affairs guru, Osama
El-Baz, has been able to stay in power since the assassination of Anwar
Sadat by soldiers within the Egyptian military.
Mubarak was also in the reviewing stand that fateful day in 1981 but
escaped alive to rule Egypt as a kind of new-age American protectorate
ever
since. And just like the client-regime police state of
Saudi Arabia was the crucible for Osama Bin Laden, so the client-regime
police state of Egypt was the crucible for Al-Qaeda's #2 Dr. Ayman
Zawahri.
In recent days, doing just what the Americans want him to,
Mubarak's Egypt has dutifully endorsed not only Ariel Sharon's
duplicitous 'Gaza
withdrawal' scheme, but the old Israeli General personally as -- to
quote George Bush -- "a man of peace"!
Moreover Mubarak is cooperating with the Israeli-American plan to now
bring in
Egyptian military forces to guard Gaza's southern border and help
police
the Palestinians into submission. If allowed to
proceed by the Palestinians they can expect European and/or U.N. forces
to be forced on them in the future in the deceptive guise of an
expanded 'roadmap peace plan' to control the West Bank if the new
Palestinian regime isn't up to the job.
In addition this past weekend the Egyptians agreed to release an
important Israeli spy, Azam Azam, whom the
Israelis had been working hard to get ever since 1997. It
was another bonanza for Sharon. But
instead of demanding in return the release of key Palestinian
prisoners, most especially Marwan Barghouti, the Egyptians went along
with the pretense that in return the Israelis were releasing a few
unknown Egyptian students whom the Israelis arrested last year quite
possibly with
this very kind of trade in mind.
This from the front page of The
Washington Times this weekend:
By
Joshua Mitnick
TEL
AVIV -- Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak told Palestinians yesterday
that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon represents the best hope for
peace, a rare note of praise by an Arab leader for an Israeli leader
reviled in much of the Arab world.
"I think if [the Palestinians] can't achieve
progress in the
time of the current [Israeli] prime minister, it will be very difficult
to make any progress in peace," Mr. Mubarak told reporters at the
opening of Egypt's Port Said Harbor, the Associated Press reported.
Mr. Mubarak's remarks came just days after
Egyptian
intelligence chief Omar Suleiman visited Jerusalem to discuss Mr.
Sharon's plan to pull all Israeli settlers out of the Gaza Strip and
parts of the West Bank and to discuss plans for upcoming Palestinian
elections.
The fragile, but warming, ties this year
between the two
countries have proven resilient after being tested in the past two
months.
In October, terrorists bombed Egyptian Red Sea
resorts in the
Sinai Peninsula that are popular with Israelis, killing at least 34
persons.
Then, two weeks ago, three Egyptian soldiers
were killed by
mistake by Israeli tank fire on the border between the Gaza Strip and
Egypt.
That forced a postponement of a previously
scheduled visit by Mr. Suleiman, but it finally took place on Thursday.
"[Mubarak] didn't have to do that,'' said Scott
Lasensky, a
Middle East expert at the United States Institute of Peace, commenting
on the Egyptian president's statement.
"Egypt rarely goes out on a limb to praise an
Israeli
government, or tell the Palestinians what they should or should not do.
They usually leave their admonishments behind close doors."
Israel and Egypt have had chilly relations
since the outbreak
of the Palestinian intifada in September 2000. Within weeks Egypt
recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv and has yet to return a
top-ranking diplomat.
The improvement began earlier this year, as Mr.
Sharon first
introduced an initiative to unilaterally withdraw from the Gaza Strip
and evacuate Jewish settlements there.
Egypt indicated months ago its willingness to
send security
advisers to Gaza to train a new Palestinian police force that would
boost law enforcement after an Israeli withdrawal.
On Thursday, Egypt reportedly agreed to
deploying 750 soldiers
along its border with the Gaza Strip flash-point town of Rafah to block
weapons shipments to Palestinian militants.
With improved prospects for negotiations
between Israel and
the Palestinians after the death of leader Yasser Arafat, Mr. Mubarak's
comment served to "prepare the hearts" of Israelis to Egypt's continued
activism in the peace process, wrote Zvi Barel, an Arab affairs
commentator for Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper.
"These comments contain an important strategic
assumption,
which is that Egypt believes in the willingness of Sharon and in his
ability to carry out the disengagement plan," Mr. Barel wrote. "He
reached the conclusion that Sharon is serious."
In 2002, President Bush was widely criticized
throughout the Arab world for calling Mr. Sharon a "man of peace."
Mr. Mubarak also made an unusual foray
yesterday in the
Palestinian presidential election campaign, helping the candidacy of
Mahmoud Abbas, the chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
The Egyptian president criticized Fatah
militant Marwan
Barghouti for his decision to enter the race from an Israeli prison,
where he is serving two successive life sentences.
The decision, Mr. Mubarak warned, is liable to
fracture the Palestinian public.
"We call on the Palestinian public to preserve
their unity, and
not involve itself in internal disagreements," Mr. Mubarak said.
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