Egypt's Democrats Feel Betrayed

Bret Stephens
Wall Street Journal
30 May 2006

This month, in Cairo, pro-democracy activists such as 39-year-old Ahmed Salah of the Egyptian Movement for Change and dozens of his colleagues were beaten, arrested, and detained - ostensibly for congregating publicly in groups larger than five. Ayman Nour, the imprisoned liberal politician who ran second to Mubarak in last September's rigged presidential election, lost his final appeal against a five-year prison sentence on forgery charges. Speak to opposition figures in Egypt and the sense of American betrayal is palpable.

According to Gameela Ismail, a prominent journalist and Nour's wife, the culprit here is Gamal Mubarak, who despite avowals to the contrary is setting himself up as his father's successor. She also notes that despite the billions the U.S. provides Egypt, the Mubarak regime continues to stoke anti-American sentiment in its press campaigns against Nour. "They call my husband, 'Nour, the spy of the U.S.'" The regime needs to destroy liberal opponents such as Nour so that Hosni Mubarak, and eventually his son, can present themselves to the U.S. as the only viable bulwark against the Muslim Brotherhood. The regime and the Brotherhood depend on one another to exclude any decent middle way.