Anak!
Egypt July 2013
Prayers amidst a coup d’état
Predatory States: Operation Condor and Covert War in Latin America
“To fill one’s mouth with water”* is a Hebrew idiom meaning “refusing to comment.” It successfully describes the reaction of the Israeli Administration and the Hebrew media to the ongoing putsch in Egypt.
It was obvious that Israel supports the coup d’état that deposed President Mohamed Morsi, who is closely related to the Muslim Brotherhood. Yet, saying that openly was taboo. Endangering the Seven Seas, they filled their mouths with water.
Thus, while preparing this article, I just browsed the Hebrew media for pictures of the event. Their chit-chat was irrelevant.
I found a good one in the largest paid-newspaper—Yediot Ahronot.** While downloading it, I noticed its strange name. Since I write my articles on Notepad, skipping html-writing software after a fastidious failed attack in 2009, I need to edit the name, or at least to introduce it manually into the articles.
Commercial websites feature machine-generated names. These are long strings of random numbers and letters to avoid duplicate names.
Yet, this picture, reproduced at the top of this page, was different. It shows an Egyptian man and reads “Revolution in Egypt.” The file name was “anak,” which is Hebrew for “giant.” Other images in the article were named anak1, anak2, and so on, creating an alliteration that left no room for considering this a random fluke of their publishing software.
Egypt July 2013
Protests and a coup d’état
State Violence and Genocide in Latin America
In a minimalistic way intended for those understanding its culture, Israel was showing its joy for yet another successful tampering with the Arab World. “Giant! Great 1! Great 2! We were involved!” The Mark of the Beast. Shhhhh! It’s a secret!
Made in the USA
Surprisingly, not even the Egyptians know what happened. Was that a coup d’état by the military? Was the event a legitimate application of unknown constitutional clauses? Was it a military putsch, a popular revolution, or just regular protests that went out of control?
Can a general appear on the television and announce that the President is deposed? Does Colonel General Abdul Fatah al-Sisi, Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces of Egypt, think that Egypt is another South-American banana republic saying Amen to a CIA Operation Condor? Who gave him such illegitimate authority?
Reports were odd even after the event. Morsi supporters claimed that he still was the president while the army announced he was under custody together with Muslim Brotherhood leaders while a Justice was sworn as temporary president. As these lines are written, blood is being spilled on Cairo’s streets after the Friday’s prayers.
Ambiguity predates the putsch. It is closely related to President Morsi himself. He is openly but unofficially related to the Muslim Brotherhood, showing that he is an Islamist seeking for the enactment of traditional values.
Yet, he holds a Ph.D. in materials science from the University of Southern California, hinting that he is pro-American. Was he an Arab-Spring yes-man, chosen by Empire to rule an essential colony because of his Islamist links?
After he assumed power, I watched for clues which Morsi is the dominating one. Hours before his victory was announced, Morsi gave an interview to Iran’s Fars news agency. He declared that he will aim at bettering the relations between the countries, which had not been allies in the last century, in order to “create a balance of pressure in the region.”
Shortly afterwards, Iran praised the election of Morsi, as a “splendid vision of democracy” that marked an “Islamic Awakening” (see Egypt-Iran: an Alliance is Born?). “Bye, bye, America,” is the summary of Morsi’s words.
Another two of the “Giant” pictures published by Yediot Ahronot on July 5, 2013
A Revolution Against a Draft Constitution?
Morsi was President of Egypt for one year and a few days. In this short period, he achieved more than the four presidents that preceded him combined. He issued a decree overruling a court decision to dissolve parliament and created a panel tasked with writing the draft of a new constitution above judicial review.
The resulting protests forced him to soften his decree (ironically, he was accused of having become a dictator for attempting to remove power from military-supported Justices). In December was a popular referendum that approved a draft Constitution.
Morsi’s opponents claimed that the draft fails to guarantee personal freedoms and rights for women and minorities. Amidst protests, the abovementioned general gave an ultimatum to Morsi. After the time expired, the putsch took place.
Are we supposed to accept that a popular revolution backed by the enlightened and ultra-democratic generals took place due to a draft document?
What an astounding democracy Egypt has become overnight!
CIA and Mossad Newest Recruit
Was Morsi the favored candidate of the USA and Israel? If so, they were soon disappointed. Morsi strengthened the Egyptian Army position in The Sinai, allowing military actions unprecedented since the peace agreement with Israel was signed. Israel didn’t like that but accepted the military moves.
The USA wasn’t thrilled about the renewal of diplomatic relations between Iran and Egypt but accepted the event. Morsi was quietly providing other services to the West, mainly a tacit support of the Western attack on Syria.
Openly everybody was smiling. Yet, hidden hands held long knifes.
One of the reasons for Egypt being a strategic country in the Middle East is its sheer size. I don’t mean the geographical parameter. Egypt is large, but most of it is empty desert.
In a small part of it (4% of the territory) surrounding the Nile, live 85 million people in one of the world’s most densely populated spots. In comparison, Bolivia is slightly larger but has barely 10 million denizens.
Egypt is a cultural center of Sunni Islam. Controlling it opens the gates to much of the Arab World. The Arab Hollywood is there.
When there are so many people in such a small place, juggernauting them Libya-style with a thinly-disguised NATO-commando mercenaries is not possible. CIA and Mossad needed a recruit, a super-agent 007, capable of toppling the disappointing puppet from outside the Nile Valley.
Beyond the surprise while downloading the abovementioned image, I got another one. Finding accurate financial data on Egypt was impossible. Western sources claimed that 20% of its population was poor. Other sources put the number at 50%. More Egyptian ambiguity; yet, this one contained the clue, despite forbidding me of providing exact data.
After President Mubarak was removed from power on February 2011, Egypt’s foreign exchange reserves fell from a peak of $36 billion in December 2010 to only $16.3 billion in January 2012.
In the same month, Standard & Poor’s rating agency lowered the Egypt’s credit rating from B+ to B in the long term. This meant that Egypt experienced troubles in getting loans. When Morsi took power, the Western rating agency didn’t improve the rating. As a result, inflation worsened and food prices increased.
In 2013, S&P lowered Egypt’s long-term credit rating from B- to CCC+ and its short-term rating from B to C on worries about the country’s ability to meet its financial targets. This was the coup de grâce that decided Morsi’s fate, the generals were irrelevant.
On June 15, in an attempt to pacify the West, Islamist Morsi called for foreign intervention in Syria, but it was too late. There was no way of stopping the bread-revolution.
“Giant!” Netanyahu was heard whispering. “Anak!” Obama was heard answering.
 Bukra il-mishmishTomorrow the apricot |
“Bukra il-mishmish” is an Egyptian peasant proverb that literally means “tomorrow the apricot,” meaning that today they will not enjoy this luxurious fruit, but maybe tomorrow they will. It is a touching reminder of their poverty and a lifestyle that has not changed much since the days of the pharaohs. “Bukra il-mishmish” they say; “tomorrow freedom,” we answer.
Mr. Tov Roy is one of the frequent contributors for The 4th Media.
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* The best way of understanding Hebrew idioms is to visualize them. Imagine yourself drinking a glass of water, keeping the water in your mouth, and then attempting to answer the annoying question you were just asked…
** It was the featured image of its online version of July 5, 2013. The articles title was “Cairo: People Killed in Gunfire Exchanges between the Army and Mursi’s Supporters.” The English version was entitled “3 Killed in gunfire exchanges in Cairo mass protests.”