[Newsweek International] Christopher Dickey and Zvika Krieger - The anniversary of the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat on Oct. 6, 1981, went almost unnoticed. Today, the peace that remains is at best called "cold" - and could be in serious trouble. For Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, president for this last quarter century, peace has become synonymous with political stability and a status quo represented by...himself. In effect, Sadat's heir tells those Egyptians who challenge him - and Americans who criticize him - "Choose: peace or democracy; you can't have both." Israeli historian Michael B. Oren describes the relationship with Cairo as "better than at any time since 1981." The truth is that relations continue to improve at the top, even as they erode from below. Since early 2005, when the Bush administration stepped up pressure on Egypt to democratize, Mubarak has moved dramatically to warm ties with the Israelis. His government has played up political, economic, diplomatic, security, and intelligence cooperation, interceding in one Israeli-Palestinian crisis after another, presenting Egypt as a critical intermediary trying to build a broader peace. The target audience, clearly, is the U.S. This remains essentially peace by decree. The mood among the people is rather different. The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, closely associated with Hamas in the Palestinian territories, is now by far the strongest opposition party in Egypt. Even more surprising to Western democracy advocates is the anti-Israel line touted by Egypt's leftist groups.
2006-10-09 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive