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ARTICLE: "Egypt, Under Stress, Sees U.S. as Pain and Remedy: A plea to promote Palestinian statehood," by Michael Slackman, New York Times, 22 October 2006, p. A3.
Egypt's feeling the weak man of the Middle East, which isn't particularly new. A "rising Islamic movement at home and diminished influence throughout the region" are cited as sources of official angst. So the dream of the effective Palestinian state is pushed as the answer.
And we're told that experts on Egypt see no serious future risk of regime collapse?
Sounds pretty pathetic and illusory to me. Meanwhile the vast majority of the 70 million population live in "deep poverty" and a local poli sci prof says "there is a feeling the ruling team does not have a good vision for dealing with the problems of the country." And we're told the military may or may not go along with Gamal as Hosni's genetic replacement, and that the government is upping its domestic repression as a means to "blunt the rising popularity of the Muslim Brotherhood."
Gamal's big vision breakthroughs? He wants nukes. He wants to be like the Chinese. Oh, and he may change the constitution so that it's okay for only one candidate to appear on the presidential banner, lest some MB candidate emerge.
And somehow a better Palestinian state would fix all this?
This is why planners in the Pentagon worry about Egypt, and that's why I wrote the "Country to Watch" piece in Esquire a bit back.
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