We all continue to watch with apprehension and fascination the events unfolding in Egypt
Fascination because we are fellow democrats who honor personal liberty and defend the right of all people to choose their own government, and so we watch and hope and pray that the Egyptian people will manage to free themselves of a government that they feel oppresses them and create one that will be fair and serve their cultural sense of liberty.
Apprehension becauseEgypt Red Sea shores free of enemies so that culture and commerce could thrive. The Red Sea is today no less important. The West's oil passes through it and the Suez Canal controlled by Egypt Israel as a free and independent Jewish state depends on the Red Sea ’s availability for military purposes.
Fascination because we are fellow democrats who honor personal liberty and defend the right of all people to choose their own government, and so we watch and hope and pray that the Egyptian people will manage to free themselves of a government that they feel oppresses them and create one that will be fair and serve their cultural sense of liberty.
Apprehension because
We might add that a relatively stable Middle East depends on Egypt 's balancing position between the Arab world and Israel Egypt , America has placed its bet on the Egyptian army, which receives weapons, equipment, training and money from the United States
If the Army finds a way to calm the demonstrators and ease the government into a compromise, if the Army can convince the world that the compromise will maintain the status quo in the region, if the Army can avoid the natural instinct to form a military regime instead of letting the Egyptian people decide upon the form of their government...if all this happens, the Middle East will remain at least as stable as it is today. No threats from the Saudi King or anyone else concerning regional stability and condemning rioting will matter if the Egyptian Army does not achieve these goals.
The other side of this fundamental equation is the demonstrators themselves. They are middle class, intellectuals, workers, poor - all classes. But, they need a leader, or leaders, and they need to know what they want so that a conversation with the Army can begin. If Mohamed AlBaradei can fill this role, we may begin to see progress. If this does not happen quickly, the situation will degenerate into rioting and civil chaos, the first signs of which we are already witnessing inEgypt
If the Army finds a way to calm the demonstrators and ease the government into a compromise, if the Army can convince the world that the compromise will maintain the status quo in the region, if the Army can avoid the natural instinct to form a military regime instead of letting the Egyptian people decide upon the form of their government...if all this happens, the Middle East will remain at least as stable as it is today. No threats from the Saudi King or anyone else concerning regional stability and condemning rioting will matter if the Egyptian Army does not achieve these goals.
The other side of this fundamental equation is the demonstrators themselves. They are middle class, intellectuals, workers, poor - all classes. But, they need a leader, or leaders, and they need to know what they want so that a conversation with the Army can begin. If Mohamed AlBaradei can fill this role, we may begin to see progress. If this does not happen quickly, the situation will degenerate into rioting and civil chaos, the first signs of which we are already witnessing in
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