Affluent Egyptians in Cairo Gloat Over Attacks While Eating Big Macs

The Wall Street Journal ^ | September 18, 2001 | YAROSLAV TROFIMOV

[Torie]

CAIRO, Egypt -- As the Bush administration works to draw moderate Arab states into its coalition against terrorism, it must consider the mood at a gleaming McDonald's outlet here on Arab League Street, a cosmopolitan avenue in a well-heeled neighborhood of Cairo. Sandwiched between a Rolex watch store and a BMW car dealership, the restaurant is packed with affluent university students dressed in American garb and aware of the billions of dollars in foreign aid that the U.S. has pumped into Egypt. It's the sort of place where one would expect to find sympathy for the American cause. But listen to what they're saying.

[Torie]

Interesting, and rather sobering, piece.

[dandelion]

"The money we receive from America and the hatred we feel for America are two separate things," he finally says, "and should not be mixed together."

Good. They should not be mixed together any longer. All foreign aid to ANY nation who does not support us 100% should be CANCELED immediately...

[KantianBurke]

Scumbags. Who can blame them though. After 8 years of Bubba they thought we were weak. Time to make them FEAR us again. No more trying to be everyone's best friend foreign policy.

[Liberal Classic]

"It's OK to eat at McDonald's because it is managed by Egyptians," says Ms. Abdallah, the 18-year-old university student. "But in general, I do try to avoid American companies -- because, you know, every Saturday they give money to the Jews."

Okay. On the good side, colleges over there are filling heads full of mush, too.

[JanineC]

Talk about your SPOILED BRATS!!!! They are too full of THEMselves. They have NO CLUE. Makes me sick...

[LenS]

Egypt is irrelevant. They have no major oil assets. So nukes on Cairo, Alexandria, a few other locales and the Aswan Dams and a 5,000 year-old civilization goes away permanently. No loss considering how little Egypt has contributed to humanity in 5,000 years.

[daviddennis]

It sounds to me that they get a highly distorted picture of America and Americans, and this contributes to their vindictive feelings towards us.

How can we make efforts to get out side of the story across more successful? If we could make some of these nice folks realize there's another side, that might help us a great deal.

D

[ScreamingFist]

America has the best friends money can buy. Perhaps we should increase Egyptian Aid to 4 billion a year, they'll like us twice as much.

[Mr.E]

billions of dollars in foreign aid that the U.S. has pumped into Egypt.

THey have no cash? Do they give their OIL away for free?

[Mr.E]

billions of dollars in foreign aid that the U.S. has pumped into Egypt.

THey have no cash? Do they give their OIL away for free?

[Who dat?]

"thousands of innocent people, including many children, women and elderly citizens are being killed every day" in Palestinian territories by U.S.-supplied Israeli jets.

Want to know how to get killed by a U.S.-supplied Israeli jet? Send a suicide bomber into a disco in Israel and kill ~100 kids. Blow up a bus and kill 50+, etc. You get the idea.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Strike Egypt off my list as a travel destination!

[cicero's_son]

Yes, but < piousness > "Islam is not the enemy!"< /piousness >

[ambrose]

This could just as easily have been interviews with American students at U.C. Berkeley...

[afraidfortherepublic]

Their elders feel differently:

Egypt, Syria say back global fight against terror

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Egypt and Syria will work together with the global community to fight terrorism in the wake of last week's devastating attacks in the United States, Egypt's official news agency MENA said on Tuesday.

It said Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had met in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to discuss the situation in the Middle East following the attacks that killed more than 5,000 people.

"...The two leaders affirmed they would cooperate with the world community to confront terrorism in all its forms through a mechanism which is comprehensive and legitimate to ensure seriousness and decisiveness in order to eradicate terrorism as a global phenomenon," MENA said, quoting Information Minister Safwat el-Sherif.

Assad met Mubarak after a trip to Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

The talks came several hours after the Egyptian leader met with Jordan's King Abdullah in Sharm el-Sheikh. Mubarak is also due to meet Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, a regular visitor in Egypt, on Wednesday morning.

Egypt and Jordan are the only two Arab states which have peace treaties with Israel. Egypt, Jordan, Syria and the Palestinians have condemned the attacks in the United States.

The United States has been actively building an international coalition to back its threatened retaliation against the perpetrators of the attacks and those who protect them. Washington has named Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden, who lives in Afghanistan, as the prime suspect.

Egypt, a key regional ally of the United States, has urged Washington to be careful in apportioning blame, and has said it was cooperating with a U.S. investigation into the attacks.

Mubarak, who also urged the United States not to jump to conclusions, has said his country would support "very tough action" in response to the bloodshed.

16:52 09-18-01

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[afraidfortherepublic]

This could just as easily have been interviews with American students at U.C. Berkeley...

Or an argument I had on the telephone with an adult friend in Berkeley.

[hcmama]

Interesting, and rather sobering, piece.

Yes it is. But the PC contingent here on FR is too busy gnashing their teeth over the anti-Arab pogrom that is supposedly taking place on the streets of America. They will be along shorty to lecture us on how the sentiments expressed by these affluent Egyptian students in this ,ahem, "moderate" Arab state, do not accurately reflect the thinking of the average Arab. They will then conclude their sermonette on the virtues of love, peace and tolerance with a diatribe against our support of Israel.

[gusopol3]

Slip some pork sausage into those BigMac buns.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Agree that this is a sobering article, but it is similar to the one posted yesterday about interviews with Oakland and Berkeley students. Gen-X has a lot of dead wood.

[alithia]

Basically we have no allies there and there is no such thing as moderate or reasonable muslims.On the other hand, the wall street journal never misses an opportunity to take a swipe at Greece,even though there are Turks among Bin Ladens men.This is the problem,by giving them aid we are buying the bullets that are killing us.