The famous Arab Spring began a few years ago from an unfortunate, misguided man immolating himself in the street to shock the government of Tunisia. It was the iceberg’s tip. North African society rose up in rage and for regime change, still ongoing. It was up-arms against tyranny all across North Africa, resulting in an Islamist voting triumph in Cairo. Egypt in a landslide vote named a new extremist president to govern the country.
This lasted for about five minutes, then General Abdul Fatah Al-Sissi, resident at the Pentagon for training in how to manage volatile events, flew home to the rescue. Armed with all the discreet backing required, he landed in Cairo, dismantling every raison d’etre for the new, militant Islamist government to exist.
Urban Egyptians had plenty of zeal, not enough guns and zero political education. Islamist fanaticism from the most extreme teaching morphed into impermanent, screaming street warfare, done by a large populace who only knew one side of complex Arab history from the madrassah schools which taught little boys how to wage jihad (holy war).
Their great enemy as usual was the United States plus our allies, though we sent NO troops to Cairo, which was becoming a flash point for a potential shooting war. Much was at stake. The General knew his job, dethroned fanatics from power and formed a stable government. Those who know Al-Sissi have observed him to be a cool head, a force of sanity in the volatile Middle East. Calmer, non-fanatical leadership will determine Egypt’s future.
The steely nerve forged in his US military training restored order along the Nile. Politics are emotional, but Egypt, thousands of years old, is atypical among its neighbors. Few Egyptians chose martyrdom.
Today, Egypt retains its boundaries from millennia past. It is a sizable country, now quieter, and its leaders wish to keep it that way, refusing to admit Gaza refugees except in secret, in common with Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Dubai, and nearby Muslim countries, even though Jordan has a Palestinian queen.
Each of them has learned harsh lessons from the Gaza debacle in which families on all sides of the war have been shattered. Wherever Hamas burrows in, along with Hezbollah, Isis, Taliban and other multinational bad actors, they practice for a larger war: the mega-Jihad. “Death to the Infidels!”
Better not drink the poison tea. Hamas and its ilk will not act on their hosts’ behalf, having no concern for food, shelter or medical care when reprisal comes. They will rape, kill, torture and not stop until whole lands are laid waste to desert or fanatics alone are in power. In Gaza, Hamas is on the back foot, but will surface again. Nowhere in the Mideast is a western democracy; some simply wait for the next upheaval.
Over 30,000 are dead in Gaza from Israel’s retaliation, and like an infestation of locusts, Hamas remains, collecting international fans, a landless horde that loves the gun but has few other skills. Terrorism is a career choice, offering comrades and the hideous thrills of raping and killing people. Safe and secure in Lebanon and western enclaves, its leaders plot each take-over.
Looking at what’s happening on college campuses here now, let’s not allow the next takeover to be us
Linda Berry is a Northsider.
