Egypt remains in turmoil after its president decreed last
Thursday that he was no longer subject to the laws of his country—giving
himself power over the judiciary and other branches of government.
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi made his lunge for power shortly
after helping to broker a fragile ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and
Hamas, the extremist offshoot of his own Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim
Brotherhood’s
agenda
includes imposing Sharia (Islamic law), curbing the rights of women and
religious minorities, abandoning Egypt’s 1979 peace treaty with Israel,
and advancing Islamist causes around the world.
Reuters reports that about
370 people
have been injured in clashes between protesters and police since Morsi
issued his decree last Thursday. The president is meeting with judges
today, supposedly on an agreement to amend his decree, but protesters
say they want to see it reversed completely.
Morsi has set Egypt on a
troubling new foreign policy course
since coming to power in June. His government has distanced itself from
Washington while cozying up to China, improving relations with Iran,
and violating its peace treaty with Israel.
He has escalated Egypt’s cooperation with Hamas, the Palestinian
branch of the Muslim Brotherhood that controls Gaza and remains
adamantly committed to Israel’s destruction. Morsi’s Islamist-dominated
government has cracked down on Egypt’s media and has announced that
Egyptian journalists will be put on trial for “insults” to the
president. Morsi’s government is systematically clamping down on
Egyptians’ political, social, and cultural freedoms. Yet the Obama
Administration naively continues to court it as a partner.
Morsi may calculate that his help in administering Band-Aids to the
festering Israeli-Palestinian conflict will make the United States and
others who give aid to Egypt think twice before trying to reverse his
power grab.
The Obama Administration was working on an
aid package
to Egypt that includes forgiving approximately $1 billion of Egypt’s
debt to the United States. This is in addition to about $1.5 billion in
annual U.S. foreign aid.
When protesters tore down the American flag at the U.S. embassy in
Cairo on September 11, Morsi’s public reaction was nonchalant. Instead
of immediately denouncing the attack and taking action to upgrade
security around the embassy—as Libyan and Yemeni leaders have done after
similar events—Morsi waited a day before casually issuing a mild rebuke
to the rioters via Facebook.
The Obama Administration should leverage U.S. aid
to pressure
the Egyptian leader to respect the rule of law, abide by the decisions
of Egypt’s courts, and abandon his drive for absolute power. Morsi has
exploited external crises in the past to advance his own ambitions. In
August, he used a Sinai terrorist attack that killed Egyptian soldiers
as
a pretext to purge the Egyptian army of its top Mubarak-era holdovers. Now he has done the same with the judiciary.
Egypt’s judiciary also has pushed back against Morsi’s power grab.
The Supreme Council of the Judiciary denounced Morsi’s unilateral
assertion of power over the judiciary as “an unprecedented attack on
judicial independence.” The Judges Club, an association of judges made
up of many appointees by the Mubarak regime, called for a strike by
courts across Egypt.
But the judges alone will not be enough to reverse Morsi’s power
grab. The key vote will be wielded by the armed forces. Morsi appears
confident that he can count on support from key military leaders, whom
he hand-picked
after purging the top ranks of Mubarak loyalists in August.
While the army’s ultimate verdict on Morsi’s power grab is not yet
apparent, Egypt’s investors voted with their wallets and withdrew their
money from Egypt’s
stock market, which plunged almost 10 percent on Sunday.
The big losers here are the Egyptian people. Their aspirations for
freedom and democracy will likely get lost in the shuffle as Egypt’s
“Arab Spring” descends into an Islamist winter. But the United States
and its allies—particularly Israel—will also find their national
interests undermined by the anti-Western drive of Morsi’s Muslim
Brotherhood.
Quick Hits:
- Nearly 200 countries start more talks on global warming today in Qatar.
- This week, the Supreme Court will decide whether to rule on same-sex marriage.
- The U.S. government spends “an average of $1.5 billion in tax
dollars per year devoted to getting out the message for various
departments and policies,” reports the Washington Guardian.
- Led by Breaking Dawn Part 2, Skyfall, and Lincoln, the box office had its best Thanksgiving ever, reports Deadline Hollywood.
- Did you shop on Black Friday? What about today’s Cyber Monday deals? Unfortunately, a lot of these items are still overpriced thanks to tariffs.
