Think Globally, Write Locally: Egyptian uprising's influence and impact

Tessa NathFeature Editor Raise your voice, speak your mind — it’s a common theme pushed upon American children from a young age. We are fortunate enough to live in a society where our thoughts, protected by the first amendment, are encouraged and relatively valued.Perhaps it is this spirit that evokes such an approving tone of Egypt’s recent protests and political uprising. As Americans we identify with a scene of people protesting for their rights and fighting desperately to disengage themselves from governmental oppression.America has supported budding democracies for generations — such as West Germany, South Korea, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic — by acknowledging and supporting them diplomatically. However, the negative side to this support is that America is continually sticking its overly confident nose into other people’s politics. We become too focused on forcing our ideas onto other people instead of paying attention to the dangers our allies are facing.The London Daily Telegraph released a story on Jan. 29 confirming the confidential U.S. documents that WikiLeaks, well, leaked. These documents claim that since 2008 the United States government has been secretly backing lead figures behind the uprising for “regime change” in Egypt.Once again Americans — or at least those in charge — are altering world events to suit their “needs.” While it’s nice to vehemently wave the flag of democracy, in this case the U.S. is leaving the already established democracy of Israel to deal with the life-threatening repercussions.Reportedly the U.S. embassy in Cairo sent a young Egyptian dissident to a U.S.-sponsored summit in New York to discuss activism. The London Daily Telegraph reported that upon his “return to Cairo in December 2008, the activist told U.S. diplomats that an alliance of opposition groups had drawn up a plan to overthrow President Hosni Mubarak and install a democratic government in 2011.”If true, this demonstrates how the U.S. had a significant role in the Egyptian uprising. The Muslim Brotherhood, a rising political group in Egypt, also backs this coup d’état. Reporting on the subject is DEBKAfile, an independent website which provides an intelligence and security news service, sporting the motto “We Start Where the Media Stops.”DEBKA reports that “the gunmen of Hamas’ armed wing … opened a second, Palestinian front against the Mubarak regime on orders from Hamas’ parent organization, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.”The Muslim Brotherhood is working hand-in-hand with Hamas, an infamous radical Islamic terrorist group, to support the Egyptian political uprising. Therefore these people behind peace seem to also be the people behind war. Moreover, DEBKA sources report that “Hamas and al Qaeda terrorists are sneaking into Israel from Sinai under cover of the swelling illegal traffic.”With the country of Egypt in civil unrest and disorder, public safety is swelling dangerously out of control. Most Egyptian forces are concentrated in the town of Sharm el-Sheikh and along the eastern bank of the Suez Canal, leaving the Sinai Peninsula, bordering Israel, virtually free to terrorist reign.Hamas has also attacked the gas pipeline that cuts off supplies to Jordan and Israel, helped 22 Hizballah terrorists escape from a jail in Cairo, fired two long-range Iranian-made Grad missiles at the Israeli cities of Beersheba and Netivot and attended the welcoming party for two Iranian warships to pass through the Suez canal.It seems as though while the world watches events in Cairo and the African continental portion of Egypt unfold, forces continue to prepare for an invasion of Israel. We stand with Egypt fighting for democracy, but why don’t we stand with Israel struggling for mere survival? Perhaps it’s that Americans are unaware of the threat to Israel’s very existence, in which case the fault lies largely in the way the American media portrays the situation.Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint U.S. Chiefs of Staff, told Israel that the 1979 peace accord with Egypt is not in jeopardy, despite the evidence to the contrary.Nevertheless, the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO), members of which are mostly Canadians and Americans, are on maximum alert on their base in the northern Sinai. The MFO, established to ensure the 1979 peace treaty was maintained by keeping Egyptian military forces out of the Sinai Peninsula, is evidently not in agreement with Mullen.Western media such as Fox News and CNN neglect to report on the impending attack on Israel. Again America is too caught up in supporting democratic nativity to bother protecting the sole longstanding democracy in the Middle East: Israel.tnath@thesamohi.com