Communique Number 4

The role of the Egyptian military command is certainly temporary: but the US/Israel/Saudi Arabia would want to make it permanent and to pick a reliable bribable tool from among them to take over power to preserve the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty and to extend the life of the Sadat-Mubarak regime. That is not possible: the reign of Mubarak-Sadat required a high degree of fear and intimidation in the hand of the regime. That is gone, and for good and the regional situation is such that no resumption of the terror tactics can be possible without a high public price. The reference to the regional and international treaties is now interpreted--rightly--to refer to the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty. The communique--this one--was written by the US for Israel. The role of `Umar Sulayman is not clear in this phase: the opposition will press on change and it is fair to assume that the ruling junta will maintain minimum adherence to the foreign policy of the previous regime. Don't expect u to be invited to Cairo, for example, and even if Abu Al-Ghayt remains as foreign minister, don't expect him to hold hands with Livni. I still believe that the opposition placed wrong trust in the Egyptian military and that they should have assigned a temporary opposition board or body to take charge of he country while preparing for free elections. But the anti-democratic machinations of US/Israel/Saudi Arabia would continue before AND during the parliamentary elections. If Prince Muqrin spent $1 billion in the last parliamentary election in Lebanon, expect him to spend ten times that amount in Egyptian elections. This is why I argue that free elections and capitalism are not compatible in the region.