Yet, does this mean that “fundamentalists” will make the region more democratic and liberal? The moral status of these countries will rise — assuming your definition of morality is the Islamists’ interpretation of Islam — and the countries will have “rejuvenation.” Rejuvenation means to grow young again, and these countries will surely be about 1000 years younger for sure.
Here’s my favorite quote on the wonderfulness of the situation in Egypt and it comes from the Guardian, Britain’s left-wing, pro-Islamist, and periodically anti-Semitic newspaper, which is still favored by the intelligentsia there:
Egypt’s presidential election is suddenly a contest of moderates after a decision by the country’s supreme election commission to bar 10 candidates from the race….
So that refers to a nationalist wild man demagogue who was the hero of an Egyptian pop song entitled “I hate Israel” or a Muslim Brotherhood leader dedicated to expelling the West from the Middle East and destroying Israel.
Imagine an Egypt committed to anti-Semitism and to the wiping out Israel; committed to suppressing women and Christians; committed to an irresponsible populist economic approach that will run the county into the ground but keep the people happy with demagoguery and dictatorship.
Oh, by the way, the Egyptians have now said they will not sell natural gas to Israel any more. The pipeline that had been providing 40-50 percent of Israel’s natural gas and has been attacked numerous times by Islamist attackers in Sinai will be closed permanently. The $460 million invested in the pipeline project, mostly by Israeli, is gone forever, plus Israel will have to find a substitute source until its own offshore wells begin to flow.
While this is supposedly a commercial decision, it is obviously a response to public pressure and the sabotage campaign that the Egyptian government doesn’t care enough to stop. The New York Times dishonestly reported that the issue is just a “payment dispute.” Well, let’s see. Natural gas wasn’t delivered most of the time so Israel didn’t pay. Egyptian leaders and media said the gas shouldn’t be sold to an enemy and that to do so was treason. Sounds like a threat to those operating the natural gas industry there. The pipeline was attacked almost a dozen times and put out of commission without a major effort by Egypt’s army to defend this national economic asset. And they also demanded that Israel pay more than had been agreed, thus violating the contract. But by the end of the Times’ article, the problem is made to sound as if it is all Israel’s fault. Just wait until Egypt escalates anti-Israel actions and the Times blames Israel for those as well.
There are two important lessons here. First, any commitment made to Israel by an Arab partner is easily deemed invalid by the latter (and that would include any potential Israel-Palestine peace treaty). The United States may soon have the same experience in Egypt. Second, while a key Egyptian complaint has been that they wanted higher prices, Egypt will now lose the income from the pipeline, make investors reluctant from fear that their deals may also go up in smoke, and the country will be materially worse-off.
Ideology trumps economics because the difference can be made up through ideological zeal, repression, stirring up xenophobic hatred, and foreign adventures. Those are the things coming after a transfer of power is made in Egypt.
A lot of people are astonished that I say Egypt, not Iran, is the big problem that is going to shake up the Middle East this year. Yet Tehran is still a long way from getting nuclear weapons and U.S. policy, along with Europe, is content to let Iran stall for time. In Egypt, the West has no control over the pace of events.
This is a world-class crisis in the making. Since this is the centennial of the Titanic, we could say that Egypt is a rather big iceberg that is about to collide with the smug captains of the West.