‘From the Gulf to the Ocean’: The Middle East is Changing (Ramzy Baroud)

Ramzy Baroud -- World News Trust

Feb. 17, 2011 -- Now that the Egyptian people have finally wrestled their freedom from the hands of a very stubborn regime, accolades to the revolution are pouring in from all directions. Even those who initially sided with Hosni Mubarak’s regime, or favored a neutral position, have now changed their tune.

"Arabs celebrate from the Gulf to the Ocean," proclaimed a headline on Al Jazeera TV. The phrase "from the Gulf to the Ocean" is not a haphazard geographical reference, but very much a geopolitical one. Ever since former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat defied the will of the Arab collective and chose a self-serving (and according to popular Arab opinion, disgraceful) exit for his country from what was until then the "Arab-Israeli conflict," the above phrase functioned only as an empty slogan. Saddat’s signing of the Camp David treaty in 1979 had effectively marginalized the most committed Arab country from a conflict that was previously defined by Egypt’s involvement. It thus left Israel’s weaker Arab foes as easy targets for uneven wars, and in a perpetual state of defeat and humiliation.

Mubarak’s importance to Israel and the United States stemmed from the fact that he guarded Israeli gains for the pitiful price of $1.8 billion a year. Most of this went to fulfill military contracts, upgrade military hardware and subsidize U.S. military expertise aimed at "modernizing" the Egyptian army. Israel, of course, was given almost double that amount and was promised, through a separate agreement with the United States, a military edge against its foes, Egypt included.

But Mubarak gained much more than hard cash. His greatest gains were related to U.S. foreign policy in the region. While the United Statesviolated the sovereignty of various Arab countries, Mubarak’s regime was left largely unscathed. Free from any effective resistance at home, and any serious criticism from abroad, members of Egypt’s ruling National Democratic Party used the lack of accountability to accumulate unprecedented wealth, at the expense of 40 percent of Egypt’s 84 million people who lived below the poverty line. The ruling party had indeed become a club for millionaires. The barely existing middle class shrunk even further, the working class lived with the dream of finding employment elsewhere, and the underclass -- millions of whom lived in "random" neighborhoods, and often large graveyards -- subsisted in a most humiliating existence.

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