Storming the Bastille - Egyptian style

This is what Egyptian democracy looks like.

The window into the "Arab Street" mindset calls it ''the foreign policy goals of the Arab spring".

Let me remind you that some intellectual "pundits" thought Israel's muted reluctance to join in the general celebration of "Tahrir Revolution" was a "disgrace" to the Jewish state.

One wonders if, by the same token, German Jews exhibited an absence of proper patriotic-democratic solidarity when Hitler rose to power and restored the trampled post-WWI German honour to its former glory.

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Update: Here is Bibi Netanyahu's address to Israel about these events:

"We will continue to keep the peace with Egypt. This is in the common interest of both countries. We will work toward preventing a further deterioration in our relationship with Turkey. We did not choose this sequence of events. To the extent that the matter depends upon us, we shall act to lower tensions and do everything possible to restore relations."

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Update II: If you thought this lynch mob was comprised of the Muslim Brethren and their supporters only, Abukhalil, (you know, the professor who teaches students about democracy and such at the respectable University of California) has "news" for you:

" I want to mention that many intellectuals and leftist activists also participated in the attack on the Israeli occupation embassy. Famed Egyptian director, Khalid Yusuf, participated in attacking the wall outside the embassy with a hammer. "

Who is Khalid Yusuf, or Khalid Youssef as he is known at wikipedia? He is known to fight "against the values he believes are holding Egyptian society back." In view of his participation in a lynching mob hell-bent on tearing to pieces any of the Israeli personnel they could lay their hands on, one might well wonder what values does Youssef fights for? Chaotic recklessness? Lawlessness? Violence? Revengism? Mass murder? Breaking international treaties? Bad faith?

I see absolutely no reason to disbelieve AbuKhalil. I once linked to Tadros's article in which he said:

"The question, then, is not, how could an Egyptian “liberal” partake in a round of Holocaust revisionism? Rather, it is whether Ahmed Ezz el-Arab and others like him are in fact really liberals. That is, is it possible to be a genuine liberal and an anti-Semite at the same time? Of course not. Egyptian anti-Semitism is the starting point of a political ideology that has dominated the region for more than 60 years ..."

I would say that an "intellectual" who ominously called for those who opposed the revolution to be "questioned for what they did, whether from show business or any other field" can hardly be rewarded by being referred to as a liberal. If he was calling to punish dissenters for disagreeing with him, how different is he from the oppressive regime he revolted against?

But in abuKhalil's universe he is a l "liberal" in the same way that Arab Democracy is a political system whose law enforcement agency stands by and does not lift a finger when the embassy of a country with whom it has signed a peace treaty, and with whom it has commercial contracts, comes under an attack by an inflamed, unruly mob that demolishes the embassy's fence and invades its premises with the intent of lynching the six embassy personnel that remain in the building.

An Egyptian, An Israeli and An Angry Arab-American

The Egyptian:

"The question, then, is not, how could an Egyptian “liberal” partake in a round of Holocaust revisionism? Rather, it is whether Ahmed Ezz el-Arab and others like him are in fact really liberals. That is, is it possible to be a genuine liberal and an anti-Semite at the same time? Of course not. Egyptian anti-Semitism is the starting point of a political ideology that has dominated the region for more than 60 years and shaped how politics are conducted. Jew hatred and the accompanying conspiracy theories serve as a way of explaining the world that not only builds up hatred, but also crushes any serious attempt at examining the region’s true ills. Until Arab officials, journalists, and academics—encouraged by their Western counterparts—start to reconsider not only the roots of their anti-Semitic discourse but also its ugly fruit, there’s little chance of liberalism carrying the day in the region. After all, liberalism needs real liberals. "

The Israeli:

"Many people are discovering that the Israeli-Palestinian problem is not as central as it was depicted, and it is certainly clear today that it is not the heart of the Middle East conflict. On the contrary, in the eyes of more and more Arabs Israel appears indeed like a model worthy of discussion –its democracy, the way it has successfully integrated East and West, its highly developed civil society.This process is beneficial for Israel. Now it has better chances in the region, without the incitement of decades past as a tool of dictatorship in the hands of dictators. This process is also beneficial for Arab societies, which are developing self awareness; societies that are finally able to look at themselves internally. There will not be another central axis on which the whole Arab world will be able to lean. But there will be endless true and stable axes – even more than the old illusion that is breaking up now. "

The Angry Arab:

"For the fourth or fifth time, the gas pipe line to Israel has been bombed. I received word about this latest one from one of the leading figures of the Egyptian uprising. He was ecstatic and told me that they laughed for one hour yesterday when they received the news. And then Egyptians (and other Arabs) were joking about it all night long with various comical hash tags. Wait: I am not supposed to write on this because Thomas Friedman reassured Zionists that the Egyptian uprising has no foreign policy goals."

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To me it appears that the Angry Arab and the Egyptian journalist agree on the basics, that anti-Israel sentiment animates the populism of the Arab "spring". AA is couldn't be any more pleased about the tales of violent sabotage, and sign of the vivid animosity against Israel that he can find in Egypt after Tahrir. The Egyptian journalist rues the treason of the so-called "liberal" classes for maintaining exactly the kinds of antisemitic/anti-Zionist postures, which he cannot compromise with their talk about democratic reforms, freedom, law, order and civil society. The Israeli journalist seems to want to look at the Egyptian's understanding as though it were representative of the mood in the Arab Street, and center his analysis around that.

Having asked the same question. I listen to Samuel Tadros when he asks, plainly: " ... is it possible to be a genuine liberal and an anti-Semite at the same time? Of course not."