Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Tunisia, Lebanon and Egypt: Western Hypocrisy Exposed

In the last couple of weeks, the world witness new governments being formed - in Lebanon and (impending) in Tunisia.  Now the Tunisian phenomenon seems to be spreading to nearby Egypt.  Is Tunisia the first card in the dominoes to fall?  This is indeed a unique moment - a defining one - for the Middle East which has for so long being governed by autocrats and backed by the West.
1.  Reactions from the West to the toppling of the Tunisian dictator, Ben Ali, have been ambivalent.  While They said they 'welcome democracy' they also warned against descent to turmoil.  
2.  In fact, it had been the West which was the source of all evils in the Middle East.  Ben Ali, and Habib Bourgiba before him, could not have survived for long without support from the West.
3.  Now it is the turn of Mubarak, another puppet  of the West, to face the music.  His survival is crucial to Western policies in the Middle East, and indeed to the fate of Israel.
4.  The reaction from the US to events in Egypt is that the Egyptian government should implement reforms in order to satisfy the protesters.
5.  What the protesters are demanding is that Mubarak step down.  A reformed Mubarak, if indeed possible, seems to fall short of this demand.
6.  Thirty years of Mubarak's iron-fist rule is too much for the Egyptians who deserve better government, but the US thinks differently:  Mubarak is still needed ... to fend off the Islamists.
7.  The latter objective has been the main reason the West supports authoritarian and corrupt regimes of the Middle East  - besides the interest of Israel and possibly oil.
8.  When Lebanon's new prime minister, a Sunni as required by the constitution, receives the blessings of Hezbollah, the US issued a veiled threat that justice must be upheld (in the murder of Rafik Hariri which the West would like ti implicate Hezbollah) and that Lebabon should be free from 'foreign interventions' (read Syrian and Iranian.)
9.  The bloody role of Israel in Lebanon as in the 1982 Sabra and Shatilla massacres and the 2008 destructive war are never mentioned.
10.  That Hezbollah is a reaction of the Lebanese people to Israeli aggression - and the only effective toll against it - is conveniently ignored by the West.

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