Daily Alert Archives

Egypt's Revolution Strikes Back

(Times of Israel) Avi Issacharoff - Orit Perlov, who studies social networks in the Arab world at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, explains that three primary groups who were not at the 2011 protests joined the demonstrations this time: "One, young people aged 18-22. Two, Mubarak's people - the National Democratic Party members and its government apparatus....Three, the urban poor....For these people, the revival promised by Morsi never materialized, there is no democracy but theocracy in its place, and everyday problems of electricity, fuel and money intensify the despair." If another presidential election were held today, the Muslim Brotherhood would still have the best chance to win. "The opposition is not unified and the traditional forces are still alive and functioning," said Professor Asher Susser of Tel Aviv University. "The religious motif in Egypt is still there. However, the institution of a strong and sovereign Arab state is disappearing." "What has emerged from the Arab Spring, not only in Egypt, is that the countries that experience a revolution are failed or on the way to failing, with social and economic problems that have no imminent solution. This means that the Middle East will be unstable for an extended period. Citizens' personal security disappears and the central government is weakened." "We tend to focus too much on dangers and less on opportunities," Susser says. "Here Arab weakness can actually help. But beyond that, we are no longer surrounded by strong Arab countries. Our problem in Israel lies ostensibly today in the weakness of the states and not in their strength." "This is almost the complete opposite of what our founding fathers worried about, the fear of existential threats....We shuddered in fear of what the Arab countries will do to us. Now we are afraid of their dissolution."
2013-07-05 00:00:00
Full Article