Revolution in the Arab World - Observation of a lost soul Blog

foreign policy • revolution in the arab world • 18 days
only partially won and will not rest until Egypt’s governance is out of the
hands of the military.
“A real democratic Egypt is not necessarily the Egypt that the generals
and the United States want to see,” said longtime activist Hossam Hamalawy
on Al Jazeera on Friday night. “I do not trust those generals.”
So far, the ruling Supreme Armed Forces Council seems to be saying all
the right things. In its fourth post-Mubarak communiqué on Saturday, the
council affirmed its commitment to “continue working to transfer power to
a free, democratic civilian authority.”
Many Egyptians are willing to give it the benefit of the doubt for now. “I
don’t think most people would have a problem having an interim military
rule; we have a lot of trust in the Army,” Mohammed Moawad, a 34-year-old
bank employee, told me.
But even Moawad warned that the military will find itself dealing with
another uprising if it drags its feet. “Just as we stood against Mubarak, we’d
stand against them if they tried to hold on to power,” he said.
And yes, what about Israel
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu didn’t do Mubarak any favors over
the last two weeks with his spirited defense of the regime. But Netanyahu’s
concerns reflect a clear anxiety over how a post-Mubarak government that
actually reflects the will of the Egyptian people might deal with the Jewish
state.
Since the start of the revolution on Jan. 25, foreign-policy issues generally
took a back seat to domestic grievances. But there will definitely come
a time when the terms of Egypt’s long-standing “cold peace” with Israel will
come under review.
In the short term, not much should change. Saturday’s military communiqué
contained assurances—seemingly aimed directly at Washington and
Tel Aviv—that “all regional and international agreements” would be honored
during the interim period.
One possible short-term change could involve the handling of Egypt’s
Rafah land-crossing with the Gaza Strip, which Mubarak kept largely
closed. In the aftermath of Mubarak’s resignation, the Gaza-based leadership
of Hamas hailed the achievements of the protesters and put in an early
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