Friday’s mob attack on the Israeli embassy in Cairo was a new instance of an old rule: Whenever Arabs hit a wall, their first instinct is to unite behind Israel hatred.
The good news, if any: Washington now seems to recognize that Egypt’s quest for “spring” is in trouble.
The mob marched from the now-weekly “freedom” demonstration in Tahrir Square to the nearby Giza district, site of Israel’s embassy. The crowd, including some angry soccer fans, broke down a barrier, entered the building and broke everything in sight, gleefully throwing documents into the street.
After initially staying above the fray, Egyptian security forces fought the crowd, killing two, injuring hundreds and making dozens of arrests.
The Israeli diplomats escaped by the skin of their teeth. Ambassador Yitzhak Levanon, his family and 85 staffers finally were hustled out of the country in a military jet, leaving only a deputy ambassador and two guards behind. (They took refuge inside the US embassy.)
The mob’s grand prize was the hated Israeli flag, there since the two countries signed a peace treaty in 1979. The banner is now gone from atop a building that’s likely to serve as an embassy in name only for a long while.
Friday’s crisis was so grave that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu turned to President Obama, despite their chilly relations. Obama“used every considerable means and influence of the United States to help us,” Netanyahu said Saturday night. “We owe him a special measure of gratitude.”
Netanyahu vowed to return the ambassador to Cairo as soon as safety can be guaranteed, but also acknowledged that Israel has few friends left in the neighborhood. “This alliance between Israel and the United States is especially important in these times of political storms and upheavals in the Middle East,” he said.
Back in Cairo, everyone — politicos, Islamists, army generals and the increasingly restive Tahrir crowd — realizes now that overthrowing a tyrant will not, by itself, guarantee better life for Egyptians. It serves many interests to shift attention to the lowest common denominator.
The Israeli embassy has become a frequent target for would-be Egyptian folk heroes since “Flagman” braved its walls last month, replacing the Star of David banner with an Egyptian flag. (Actually, two young men, Ahmed el Shahat and Moustafa Kamel, now claim to be the “original Flagman.”)
Egypt is a mess. Freedom remains a mirage, and the new Pharaoh, the transitional military government, increasingly looks like the old Pharaoh in its attempts to prevents chaos.
Since February, it has hustled 12,000 or more Egyptians to martial (read: kangaroo) courts, and it is constantly pushing back the date of the presidential election. Even the once all-but-sure conviction in the trial of deposed President Hosni Mubarak looks iffy.
One thing is working: In the name of “justice,” Egypt is ending its 20-year natural-gas trade with Israel. Energy tycoons, accused of allowing Israel to underpay, now face legal action. Of course, the Sinai pipeline is bombed so often that gas exports to Israel and Jordan are down to almost nothing anyway.
Some victory. Gas accounted for nearly all of Egypt’s $355 million exports to Israel in 2010; the cutoff will further strangle Egypt’s intake of hard currency, already fast dwindling with the decline of tourism.
Until now, the received wisdom in international circles was that Egypt, the Arab world’s newest “democracy,” could no longer afford to turn deaf ears to its citizens. Everyone hated Mubarak’s ties with Israel, so Cairo-Jerusalem relations must chill.
Baloney. Israel hatred has been the go-to move in the failing Arab tyrant’s playbook for nearly a century. The outbreak is no sign of democracy or progress; it shows that attempts to improve Egyptians’ lives are failing. Success would be if Egyptians stopped obsessing about stealing foreign flags and started refurbishing the crumbling buildings under them instead.
Friday’s incident is finally ringing alarm bells in the Obama administration. The president sprang to action, which helped to save the lives of Israeli diplomats. It’s time he also employed a bit of “tough love” (previously reserved for Netanyahu only) to help salvage some of Egypt’s dreams.