Egypt’s election results: Palestinians Win & Zionists Lose?

Franklin Lamb

Beirut

Graphics by Alex

The official results of the first round of the historic Egyptian presidential elections, the first ever in Mother Egypt where the results were not known in advance, present an encouraging snapshot of “new democratic Egypt” given that close to 50% of Egypt’s approximately 50 million eligible voters, some standing in line to vote in scorching heat for hours, will not be officially announced until late May.

But it appears, based on exit polls, that the two candidates who will face each other in the June 16-17 final round of voting will be the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammd Mursi (25%) facing Mubarak-era Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq (24%). Both finalists will carry substantial political baggage into Round Two. While Mursi will have the vast Muslim Brotherhood organization getting out the vote for him as well as the support of Islamist parties, his candidacy still faces pervasive voter doubt over having the long outlawed MB control both the Egypt’s Parliament and its presidency, thus effectively eliminating checks and balances to offset its pledge to enact Sharia law and remove Egypt from military rule.

Moreover, Israel and the US will back Mr. Ahmad Shafiq in various ways and he represents Egypt’s military, many of the countries wealthy and powerful voters, the business community, Coptic Christians, (ten percent of the voters) who understandably seek security above all else, and many others who will vote for what they calculate to be the lesser of two evils.

Yet barring surprises such as ex-President Hosni Mubarak being found innocent of all charges on June 2 when the verdict is to be announced in his case, which many lawyers are predicting is exactly what will happen, Mohammad Mursi will very likely prevail in the mid-June run-off and become Egypt’s first democratically elected President.

This will be good for Palestinian refugees in the diaspora, those under Zionist occupation in their own country, and will be welcomed by all who view the Palestinians full Return to their still occupied country and the dismantlement of the last 19^th century colonial enterprise, as a long overdue historical imperative.

The Prime Minister of the Palestinian government in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, declared on Thursday that “The Egyptian presidential election results will have a very positive affect the course and future of the Palestinian cause as well as the role and place of the Muslim people in the world.”

Haniyeh knows that the Muslim Brotherhood, from which Hamas evolved, is highly sophisticated politically and while it tries to avoid attracting condemnation, or worse, upon itself and its allies from Washington and Tel Aviv, the MB intentions regarding Camp David, giveaway gas and other deals with Israel, and diplomatic relations with the occupiers of Palestine are clear. They will all eventually be discarded as will the remaining 19^th century colonial enterprise itself. And the Egyptian people overwhelmingly agree.

Rashad Bayoumy:
"Is it a pre-condition to recognize Israel
in order to govern?"

Speaking with MB representatives in Cairo and Beirut over the past several months, the party’s position expressed to this observer is that the common thread that stitches together all the continuing regional uprisings can be described as a fundamental quest for dignity and the casting off of humiliation either from western imposed despotic regimes or from their illegitimate and aggressive agent, Israel.

Even before the completion of Egypt’s first democratic elections, which long-time election monitor Jimmy Carter has just labeled “very encouraging”there is broad recognition in Egypt that basic dignity demands the return of Palestine and its holy places, not just to the 1.5 billion Muslims and nearly as many Christians worldwide, but to all people of good will.

While no official MB decisions have been published regarding relations with Gaza and occupied Palestine, signs are everywhere from non-enforcement of Mubarak-Israeli-American pressures on Rafa, Gaza, travel and trade prohibitions that full normalization of relations between Egyptians and Palestinians under occupation is imminent.

Rats desert a sinking ship, fools ride

And Israel and its American lobby know it and are preparing.

On Capitol Hill, and among the more than 60 intensively active and well-funded pro-Zionist organizations in the US, a campaign has already begun to neuter the Egyptian voters choice next month as surely as was achieved during the three decades of Mubarak rule.

A couple of examples. AIPAC has launched a campaign to have the Obama administration, during the run-up to the coming election, now barely six months away, demand three things from the Mursi government:

Mr Powell started in Damascus with
a strong and clear message to Syria's
President Bashar al-Assad that
Washington expected change
including an end to Syria's support for
militant Palestinian and Lebanese
groups classified as terrorists.

that is scrap elements of its political program and disassociate itself for “Islamism”,
that it publicly pledge to fight“terrorism” i.e. the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance, and
that it pledge to fully honor the Camp David accords.

When measured against what the MB stands for, and the Egyptian publics pleas to restore Arab and Muslim dignity, these demands are patently absurd.

Yet, empires and their agents do not easily abandon their goals.

Ever in the service of Israel, Elliot Abrams, writing in the Zionist Islamophoic Weekly Standard is proposing an approach that appears as fanciful and misguided as his WMD 2002-3 schemes to get the US to attack Iraq on behalf of Israel or his continuing five year campaign to get the US to bomb Iran for Israel.

Abrams is arguing, apparently seriously, that since the MB will be Egypt’s new government, Israel can still prevail if his advice is followed. Obviously unhappy with the prospect of the Muslim Brotherhood governing Egypt, Abrams does what he is paid to do for Israel, i.e. he paints Pigs hoping they will look like Princesses.

Eliot is publicly blaming the US for not sticking with the Mubarak regime like the Russians are with Syria’s government. He declared “Had Mubarak and the Army played their cards better, Shafik might have been Mubarak's successor without the harmful uprising that Egypt has experienced and Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel with all its blessings would be secure. Now, unless Shafik wins, it is finished but we (Israel?) still have some excellent options.”

Abrams and elements of the Zionist lobby is telling Congress that “srael must support Egypt’s "liberals" meaning, people who believe in democracy, liberty, and the rule of law rather than Islam as the guiding principles of Egypt and that the predicate must be that the electorate believes the MB had a clear chance and failed them.” He continued,“ If Shafik were to win many Egyptians will believe the elections were stolen by the Army and the old regime's machine, and in any event power will be divided between the MB on one side and the Army and president on the other. There will be no clear lesson to learn when conditions in the country then continue to deteriorate given that the previous annual 6.5 billion foreign infusion into Egypt’s economy has reversed to an annual 4 500,00 out flow and tourism in down by 40%.”

Abrams and other spokesmen for AIPAC and the Zionist lobby are arguing that Mubarak’s most recent Prime Minister, Ahmad Shafiq’s victory next month is not necessarily something Israel and the West should favor. Given that the MB is the leading party in parliament and with the Salafists having an Islamist majority there, Abrams claims that this is actually good for Israel since its lobby will organize Congress to push the idea that with the MB controlling both parliament and the presidency is dangerous and , “we can hold them and all Islamists in Egypt absolutely responsible for what happens to Egypt with its myriad problems and thus 100 percent of the responsibility for Egypt's fate will drop on the MB.”

Abrams continues, “If the MB’s Mursi wins and he will, the MB will be in charge--and be forced to deliver. And when they fail, as they will give Israel’s key friends in the international business community, it will be absolutely clear who was to blame and this is good for Israel. What is in Israel’s interest is to support Egypt’s military which it has worked closely with for years and encourage the army to fight with all its tools for its interests”.

Abrams summarizes his thesis in an AIPAC email to donors: “So as far as Israel is concerned, a Mursi victory should not be mourned; given the situation in Egypt, in this election we can assure that the loser will pity the winner. Two cheers for Mursi! Now let’s get to work.”