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Category: Egypt

Egypt house votes to expel Israeli envoy

Parliament’s lower chamber approves text which calls on the government “to revise all its relations… with that enemy”.

”]Egypt’s lower house of parliament has called for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador from Cairo and halting of gas
exports.

The vote was taken by a show of hands on a report approved by the Arab affairs committee of the People’s Assembly calling for “the expulsion from Egypt of the Israeli ambassador and the recall of Egypt’s envoy from Tel Aviv”, the official MENA news agency reported on Monday.

According to the text, the MPs have also called for a halt of gas exports to Israel.

“Egypt will never be the friend, partner or ally of the Zionist entity which we consider as the first enemy of Egypt and the Arab nation,” read the text.

It also called on the Egyptian government “to revise all its relations and agreements with that enemy.”

The motion is seen as largely symbolic as only the ruling military council can make such decisions. There was no immediate comment from Israel on the vote.

Egypt and Israel have been bound by a peace treaty since 1979 but ties have strained since Hosni Mubarak was forced to step down as president last year by a popular uprising.

Israel has responded cautiously to the Arab Spring and in January it congratulated Egypt on the inauguration of its first post-revolutionary parliament. It has repeatedly stressed the importance of preserving the treaty between the two countries, and has called on Egypt’s new leadership to publicly state their commitment to the accord.

www.aljazeera.com, 13 Mar 2012

March 18, 2012
Egypt, Turkey use F-16s in joint naval exercise

CAIRO — Egypt and Turkey have concluded a naval combat exercise.

Officials said the exercise, called “Sea of Friendship 2011,” included combat and search-and-rescue operations meant to enhance interoperability.

Egyptian F-16s.

“The Egyptian Navy is highly trained and possesses modern weapons,” Egyptian Navy commander Adm. Mohab Mamish said. “It’s quite capable of protecting Egypt’s coasts and territorial waters.”

Officials said the multi-stage exercise, which concluded on Dec. 29, included live fire, electronic warfare and anti-mining operations. They said the exercise also brought the navies of Egypt and Turkey in anti-piracy simulations that included fighter-jets and helicopters.

Both militaries contributed the U.S.-origin F-16 multi-role fighters.

The Egyptian Air Force also contributed the SH-2G helicopter, upgraded by the U.S. company Kaman Aerospace.

“The Egyptian Navy’s good reputation attracts the world’s militaries to participate with it in joint training programs,” Mamish said.

Officials said this marked one of the most extensive combat exercises by Ankara and Cairo. They said the two militaries would engage in several exercises in 2012.

“We look forward to more joint training,” Turkish Navy commander Adm. Murat Bilgel said.

via Egypt, Turkey use F-16s in joint naval exercise | World Tribune.

January 3, 2012
The economic imperatives of Arab Spring

By Kemal Derviş/Washington/Istanbul

Tunisian families displaying photos of victims watch on TV screens the trial of former Tunisian Director General of National Security Adel Tiouiri, the former commander of the National Guard, Mohamed Lamine Abed and the former director general of the intervention brigade, Jalel Boudriga last week in Tunis. Former Interior Minister Rafik Haj Kacem and his staff are on trial on charges of either ordering or having shot and killed demonstrators during the December 2010 and January 2011 uprising

A year has passed since revolution in Tunisia and protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square toppled ossified authoritarian regimes and ignited a much wider – and still raging – storm in the Arab world. No one can safely predict where these events will eventually take the Arab people and nations. But one thing is certain: there is no turning back. New social and political movements and structures are emerging, power is shifting, and there is hope that democratic processes will strengthen and spread across the Arab world in 2012.

Events in the Arab world in 2011 recall other far-reaching regional transitions, such as in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. There are differences, of course, but the upheavals’ sweeping and contagious nature is strongly similar to that of the revolutions that brought communism to an end in Europe. So, too, is the debate about the relative contributions of political and economic factors to the eventual eruption of popular protest.

While the yearning for dignity, freedom of expression, and real democratic participation was the driving force underlying the Arab revolutions, economic discontent played a vital role, and economic factors will help to determine how the transition in the Arab world unfolds. Here, three fundamental and longer-term challenges are worth bearing in mind.

First, growth will have to be much more inclusive, especially in terms of job creation. The youth employment-to-population ratio was about 27% in the Arab countries in 2008, compared to 53% in East Asia. Moreover, income inequality has widened, with the global phenomenon of increasing concentration of wealth at the top very pronounced in many Arab countries. Top incomes in these countries have resulted largely from political patronage, rather than from innovation and hard work. While Tunisia was an extreme case of a regime furthering the economic interests of a small clique of insiders, the pattern was widespread.

That is why a knee-jerk, simplistic “Washington Consensus” prescription of more liberalisation and privatisation is inappropriate for the Arab world in 2012. There is a clear political need for a growth strategy in which inclusion is the centrepiece, not an afterthought.

Neither the old statist left, nor the rent-seeking, crony-capitalist right had policies to respond to the yearning for inclusion. New political forces in the Arab world, Islam-inspired or social-democratic, will have to propose policies that do not just perpetuate rent-seeking capitalism or reliance on a discredited state bureaucracy. It will be necessary to harness grass-roots dynamism and entrepreneurial potential to achieve social solidarity and equity.

While a truly competitive private sector has to be unleashed, the state must not be weakened but transformed, to become one that is at the service of citizens. Generous but targeted and performance-oriented social transfers, conditional on participation in health and basic education programmes, will have to replace the old, largely untargeted subsidies. Public development finance will have to focus on large-scale access to housing and a people-oriented infrastructure. All of this has to be achieved within a sustainable budget framework, requiring both funds and comprehensive administrative reforms.

Accompanying inclusive growth, the second challenge is skill development, for which a performance-oriented education system must become a top priority. Many Arab countries have spent huge sums on education; the problem is that the return on these investments has been dismal. Arab students, for example, score well below average on international mathematics and science tests. Deep reforms – focused on quality and performance, rather than on enrollment and diplomas – are needed to transform the learning process and unleash the productivity growth that a young labour force requires.

The third challenge, instrumental to meeting the first two, will be to strengthen regional Arab solidarity. Many outsiders underestimate or purposefully minimise the “Arabness” of the Arab world. But the revolutions of 2011 demonstrated that a strong sense of identity, a common language, and much shared history bind Arabs together, despite huge differences in natural-resource endowments, political circumstances, and average per capita incomes. How else can one explain that an act of revolt in Tunisia led to popular revolts from North Africa to the Arabian Peninsula?

One implication of this is that the oil-rich states and leaders cannot expect to remain isolated and protected from the unfolding events. The future of the region is also their future; the transition that started in 2011 unleashed forces that cannot be stopped. But the transition can be more orderly, more peaceful, and less disruptive if states that command immense resources and wealth generously support the poorer countries – and back the reforms that all Arab countries need. Existing institutions with proven track records, such as the Arab Fund, can help, but this requires scaling up their funds dramatically.

Prosperity and peace in the region will depend on thinking big and acting fast. The revolutions of 2011 are a historic opportunity for all Arabs. Making the most of it will require realism, courage, willingness to change, and a readiness to support change, particularly among those who have the greatest means to do so. – Project Syndicate

** Kemal Derviş is Vice-President of the Brookings Institution in Washington and Adviser to the Istanbul Policy Center at Sabanci University. He was Turkey’s Minister of Economic Affairs and is a former Executive Head of the United Nations Development Programme.

via Gulf Times – Qatar’s top-selling English daily newspaper – Opinion.

January 1, 2012
Turkey, Egypt in Joint Naval Exercises

Turkey and Egypt are both concerned over the Iranian threat – and are conducting a joint military exercise to show their solidarity.

By David Lev

Turkish vessel (right) in an exercise U.S. Navy

Egyptian navy ships were on their way to the waters off Turkey Thursday afternoon, where they will rendezvous with Turkish navy vessels for a joint exercise. Egypt’s top naval commander, Muhav Mamish, said in an interview that the the exercise is “not directed against any specific country, and is designed to strengthen ties and exchange information between Turkey and Egypt.” The name of the exercise, Voice of Israel radio reported, was “Sea of Friendship.”

Israeli officials speculated that the exercise was not necessarily aimed at Israel, but against Iran, which has both Turkey and Egypt worried. Turkey, long a rival with Iran for leadership of the Islamic world, is concerned over recent Iranian threats against it. In recent weeks, Iranian officials have threatened Turkey with attack if the U.S. or Israel attempt to attack its nuclear facilities. Iran, the officials said, would attack the NATO missile shield.

A report Sunday, for example, quoted Hussein Ibrahim, the vice president of the Iranian parliamentary national security and foreign policy panel, as saying that “it is Iran’s natural right to target the missile defense shield system in Turkey in case of an attack, and we will definitely resort to that.” Several days earlier, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ aerospace division, said that “should we [Iran] be threatened, we will target NATO’s missile defense shield in Turkey and then hit our next targets.”

Other Iranian officials have made similar statements in recent weeks. On Tuesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu met with his Iranian counterpart Ali Akbar Salehi and questioned him on the statements, but Salehi said that the comments did not represent Iranian policy, but the “personal opinions” of officials.

Meanwhile, say analysts, the Egyptian military is seeking friends outside the Iran/Islamic fundamentalist orbit, considering that the country is likely to be run by those groups in the near future. Thursday was the second day of the second round of voting in Egypt’s first democratic election in decades, and once again, the Islamist parties – the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafist al-Nour party – are said to be doing very well, according to informal polls by Egyptian and foreign media. This round of voting is taking place in areas such as Giza, Luxor and Aswan, which in the past have favored conservative Islamic candidates in local elections. Egyptian military leaders believe that there is a close connection between the Islamists and Iran, and are thus seeking to improve their ties with Turkey, the only other country in the region they believe can take on Iran politically.

via Turkey, Egypt in Joint Naval Exercises – Middle East – News – Israel National News.

December 16, 2011
What Turkey Can Teach Egypt

Can Egypt’s powerful, secular military take a page from Ankara and learn to get along with the country’s new Islamic parties?

BY TOM HUNDLEY | DECEMBER 14, 2011

In this year of upheaval in the Middle East, a barely mentioned story may mark one of the most important developments in the region.

In July, the Turkish army’s top four generals resigned in what critics say was a misbegotten attempt to trigger a national crisis. The generals, led by Chief of Staff Isik Kosaner, seemed to be hoping that their dramatic departure would topple the country’s moderate Islamist government and restore the military’s primacy in Turkish politics.

The story is what didn’t happen next. The generals’ resignation briefly roiled the waters of Turkish politics, but failed to overturn the civilian government. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan quickly reasserted control over the military brass, replacing Kosaner with a general of his own choosing. He then convened a meeting of the Senior Military Council, a high-level assembly usually co-chaired by the prime minister and the chief of staff. This time, however, Erdogan sat alone at the head of the table — sending a clear signal that the civilians were now in charge.

The generals took a reckless gamble with the country’s stability, but fortunately for the Middle East’s largest and most successful democracy, they lost their bet. Instead of the expected crisis, the Turkish nation quietly bid farewell to 88 years of Kemalism — the founding ideal that put Turkey on the path of modernization and secularism — and the notion that the generals always know best.

While vivid scenes of the Arab Spring were becoming YouTube staples across the world, Turkey’s ability to overcome this crisis in civil-military relations carries important implications for the entire region. The parallels are striking and the lessons instructive for Egypt, in particular, especially after the Muslim Brotherhood’s victory in the first round of Egypt’s parliamentary elections.

Both Egypt and Turkey have long histories of domination by their military establishments, which in both cases have been the benefactors of generous U.S. support. Since the founding of the modern Turkish republic in 1923, the army has staged four coups, and up until 1989 all but one of Turkey’s presidents had come from a military background. In Egypt, the military has been in continuous control since 1952, when Gamal Abdel Nasser led a coup against the monarchy.

When the crowds in Cairo’s Tahrir Square demanded the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, himself a former Air Force commander, it was the senior Egyptian military command that told him it was time to go — and then quietly seized power for itself. The so-called Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, headed by Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, promised to step aside once a new civilian leadership had established itself, but now seems intent on retaining the privileges it enjoyed during the Mubarak era.

For Turkey, loosening the generals’ grip has been a long and fraught process. The civilians only began to gain an upper hand with the rise of Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) — an offshoot of a banned, avowedly Islamist party that was nevertheless committed to bringing Turkey into the 21st century. The AKP quickly proved successful at maintaining its pious roots while also being democratic, open to the West, and — as it would turn out — surprisingly good at running the economy.

via What Turkey Can Teach Egypt – By Tom Hundley | Foreign Policy.

December 15, 2011
Joining a Dinner in a Muslim Brotherhood Home

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
CAIRO

If you want to understand the Islamic forces that are gaining strength in Egypt and scaring people here and abroad, let me tell you about my dinner in the home of Muslim Brotherhood activists.

First, meet my hostess: Sondos Asem, a 24-year-old woman who is pretty much the opposite of the stereotypical bearded Brotherhood activist. Sondos is a middle-class graduate of the American University in Cairo, where I studied in the early 1980s (“that’s before I was born,” she said wonderingly, making me feel particularly decrepit).

She speaks perfect English, is writing a master’s thesis on social media, and helps run the Brotherhood’s English-language Twitter feed, @Ikhwanweb.

The Muslim Brotherhood has emerged as the dominant political party in parliamentary voting because of people like Sondos and her family. My interviews with supporters suggest that the Brotherhood is far more complex than the caricature that scares many Americans.

Sondos rails at the Western presumption that the Muslim Brotherhood would oppress women. She notes that her own mother, Manal Abul Hassan, is one of many female Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated candidates running for Parliament.

“It’s a big misconception that the Muslim Brotherhood marginalizes women,” Sondos said. “Fifty percent of the Brotherhood are women.”

I told Sondos that Westerners are fearful partly because they have watched the authorities oppress women in the name of Islam in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran and Afghanistan.

“I don’t think Egypt can ever be compared to Saudi Arabia or Iran or Afghanistan,” she replied. “We, as Egyptians, are religiously very moderate.” A much better model for Egypt, she said, is Turkey, where an Islamic party is presiding over an economic boom.

I asked about female circumcision, also called female genital mutilation, which is inflicted on the overwhelming majority of girls in Egypt. It is particularly common in conservative religious households and, to its credit, the Mubarak government made some effort to stop the practice. Many worry that a more democratic government won’t challenge a practice that has broad support.

“The Muslim Brotherhood is against the brutal practice of female circumcision,” Sondos said bluntly. She insisted that women over all would benefit from Brotherhood policies that focus on the poor: “We believe that a solution of women’s problems in Egyptian society is to solve the real causes, which are illiteracy, poverty and lack of education.”

I asked skeptically about alcohol, peace with Israel, and the veil. Sondos, who wears a hijab, insisted that the Brotherhood wasn’t considering any changes in these areas and that its priority is simply jobs.

“Egyptians are now concerned about economic conditions,” she said. “They want to reform their economic system and to have jobs. They want to eliminate corruption.” Noting that alcohol supports the tourism industry, she added: “I don’t think any upcoming government will focus on banning anything.”

I told her that I would feel more reassured if some of my liberal Egyptian friends were not so wary of the Brotherhood. Some warn that the Brotherhood may be soothing today but that it has a violent and intolerant streak — and is utterly inexperienced in managing a modern economy.

Sondos looked exasperated. “We embrace moderate Islam,” she said. “We are not the ultra-conservatives that people in the West envision.”

I heard similar reassurances from other Brotherhood figures I interviewed, and I’m not sure what to think. But opinions vary, and I’m struck by the optimism I heard in some secular quarters: from Dr. Nawal El Saadawi, an 80-year-old leftist who is a hero of Egyptian feminism, and from Ahmed Zewail, the Egyptian-American scientist who won a Nobel Prize and is passionate about education.

Amr Moussa, a former foreign minister and Arab League secretary general who is a front-runner in the race for president, was similarly optimistic. He told me that whatever unfolds, Egypt will continue to seek good relations with the United States and will unquestionably stand by its peace treaty with Israel.

“You cannot conduct an adventurous foreign policy when you rebuild a country,” he said. “We must have the best of relations with the United States.”

When I raised American concerns that Egypt under the Muslim Brotherhood and the more extremist Salafis might replicate Iran, he was dismissive: “The experience of Iran will not be repeated in Egypt.”

I think he’s right. Revolutions are often messy, and it took Americans seven years from their victory in the American Revolution at Yorktown to get a ratified Constitution. Indonesia, after its 1998 revolution, felt very much like Egypt does today. It endured upheavals from a fundamentalist Islamic current, yet it pulled through.

So a bit of nervousness is fine, but let’s not overdo the hand-wringing — or lose perspective. What’s historic in Egypt today is not so much the rise of any one party as the apparent slow emergence of democracy in the heart of the Arab world.

via Joining a Dinner in a Muslim Brotherhood Home – NYTimes.com.

December 8, 2011