Monday, January 31, 2011

Egypt: Some Permutations

It looks like Egypt is going to be turning away from the Mubarak government over the last few days. What are some of the permutations?

1. The Noose Tightens around Israel. Along with Turkey, Egypt had been one of the few Islamic countries that was in alliance with Israel. Israel's friendship with Turkey went down the drain when a new Islamist government in Turkey proved to have little patience with Netanyahu and the settlement movement. Egypt will probably go the same way.

2. The Gaza Embargo. In particular, the Mubarak government had cooperated with the Israelis in maintaining an embargo of the Gaza Strip. If a new government gets established in Egypt, I imagine that will be one of the first things to go.

3. A New Wave of Repressions. The demonstrations in Egypt are not being greeted with enthusiasm by authoritarian governments in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Iran. Expect new waves of repressions in those countries, especially Iran.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This post shows how little you know of Middle East politics. Egypt and Israel have never been in an "alliance" with each other. Turkey is also not ruled by an "Islamist" government.