Posted on 06/10/2002 4:09:25 PM PDT by knighthawk
Anti-US feelings sometimes run high in Egypt
Down a twisting backstreet in the medieval quarter of Cairo, we found Umm Nabil. An Egyptian lady in her late middle age, she sat upon a stool and smiled at those around her.
She had every reason to be happy. Her workshop, a family business passed on from her husband, was flourishing.
Her sons hammered and chipped at strips of metal, beating them into ashtrays and hubble-bubble water pipes.
What she didn't know, until I told her, was that the local government grant for her business came from the United States. She was a living beneficiary of the very country so many Egyptians profess to hate, and I think she was quietly horrified.
In Egypt it works like this. Each year, the US government gives Egypt a grant of around $2bn. Two thirds of it is in military aid, making Egypt one of the most powerful military forces in the Middle East.
But more than $0.5bn a year is in economic aid. Through an organisation called USAid, Washington has been quietly helping to shore up the tottering Egyptian economy.
It funds schools, businesses and a wide range of projects intended to help Egyptians lever themselves up out of their grinding poverty. The US rationale is that a stable, peaceful Egypt can be a force for good in the region.
So Washington is effectively investing in stability.
Subtle influence
Perhaps naively, many Egyptians say they'd rather do without the money. They say they want nothing to do with a country they see as the unflinching backer of Israel.
But America has already penetrated deep beneath the skin of the Arab world in more ways than one. Walk down a street in Jeddah, Beirut or Alexandria and you'll see an array of fast food outlets.
The golden arches are gaining ground in Egypt
Beside the minarets of Riyadh shines the neon glow of Burger King.
These days Kuwaiti students would rather sip cappuccinos in Starbucks than taste the bitter tang of traditional cardamom coffee in a cafe.
Switch on Saudi TV and you get Beverley Hills 90210, rent a video in Cairo and you're offered Rocky IV and Pearl Harbour.
I can think of no more graphic an illustration of this double tug on the hearts and minds of Arabs than the demonstration I went to in Tripoli last year.
The authorities had bused in thousands of young Libyans to the centre of town and handed out anti-western placards.
The organised protest snaked around the ornate boulevards of Gaddafi's capital, railing against the 'injustice' of the Lockerbie verdict. 'Down with America', 'Down with Imperialism' read the banners.
As the procession went past, two Libyan demonstrators asked a colleague of mine, an American, where she was from. When she told them New York, they give her a huge thumbs-up, adding that it was their dream to go and study in America.
The truth is that many young Arabs have a curious love-hate relationship with America. They love its products, hate its policies. They watch its films, eat its food, wear its baseball caps, even go to its universities.
Accusations
But mention US policy in the Middle East and their faces will darken. America, they'll tell you, is biased against Muslims, against Palestinians, against Iraqis, against all Arabs.
This is why the governments of moderate Arab states like Egypt and Jordan find themselves in such an awkward position, each time the tension rises in the Middle East.
Their economies need US aid and the rulers feel strengthened by their strategic alliance with the world's only superpower.
But when Palestinians are getting killed, Arabs in the street want their rulers to cut all ties with Israel and possibly even with Washington. And so it was that we found ourselves recently in the middle of a demonstration outside Cairo University.
A man with a megaphone went round in circles, carried high on someone's shoulders. He cursed Israel, he cursed America, he cursed Britain. His saliva flew in streams over the heads of his fellow students.
But never, I noted, did he curse his own government.
Ranged against the demonstrators were several lines of riot police. Armed with bamboo canes, tear gas and pump-action shotguns, their job was to prevent the demo breaking out onto the main streets of Cairo.
This time the protesters backed down. They were outnumbered and surrounded. Like every other Arab street protest that's flared up since the start of the Palestinian intifada, it looks menacing at close quarters.
But eventually, everyone gets tired and goes home.
Real test to come
Yet Egyptians tell me that the real test for their government has yet to come.
If the violence in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict were to reach a new height and Arabs were to die in their hundreds, then the pressure would be on.
Moderate Arab rulers like President Mubarak, King Abdullah and perhaps the Gulf monarchs too, may have to choose between staying friends with America, and their own survival.
Few of today's rulers have forgotten the fate that befell the Shah of Iran.
Egypt's President Mubarak walks a fine line
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What? That he was hung out to dry by Jimmy & Co.?
If all our policies changed overnight they would still hate us. Key fact: Their culture doesn't produce, ours does.
They have a choice: Adopt Western culture and produce, or cling to Arab culture and live in penury. They choose the latter. Their consolation is righteous indignation, which manifests itself in murderous hate.
I am afraid you are right.
And his successors did not so rule, without our help?
No wonder the progeny of street people hate our policies.
Well, I don't wonder that they hate us, but this rhetoric about our policies I would discount as rationalization and window-dressing. Those who whip up hate for America do so for the same reasons as demagogues everywhere have always done. They're out to get a little power, and when they get it, they reveal their true nature by committing the very atrocities they pretended to abominate.
As PG Wodehouse said, to appreciate it, you have to be on the right end of it.
At least, if you follow the Brazen Rule.
Right end or wrong end Mr. Wodehouse, who knows for sure at the time.
I was right in it.
Great post.
Now, there's a magic word for ya.
And after the Shah was overthrown, the people were still ruled by the iron fist of Islam, and continue to be. Islamic peoples are always ruled by somebody's iron fist. It's all they know. It's all their thuggish cultist religion is capable of manifesting.
So let's stop blaming the Americans. The Muslims were living in misery before the Americans, and they will continue to do so until they secularize.
Some dictators hid behind any convenient facade.
To blame Islam for the lack of freedom in Persia is similar to blaming the Vatican for Al Capone. Or blaming Hebrew religion for Bugsy Siegel.
I like analogies as much as the next guy, but IMHO yours are completely flawed. You don't think Islam is to blame for the Taliban, or for Arafat, or for Ayatollah Khomeni? You think if the Saudi royal family were overthrown by "the Arab street" it would be replaced with a constitutional republic and democratically elected leaders?
If Islam is to blame, how come that badness hasn't erupted universally wherever there is Islam? Hasn't.
As for Saudi, IF the royal family is overthrown, and if it was replaced by "Arab street", the results would no more likely be similar to our form of government any more than has happened in Russia, Bosnia, China, South Africa, Colombia etc etc. Religion regardless.
True, but the Americans manage to do both without mass murder.
Only takes one, two, a dozen to really soil the soup.
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