News Brief: Israel backs Mubarak regime as protests in Egypt continue

Israel backs Mubarak regime as protests in Egypt continue
“In a bid to preserve stability in Egypt,” Israel is calling to the U.S. and Europe to push back on its criticism of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Haaretz is reporting that the Israeli foreign ministry issued an order to its ambassadors in the U.S., Canada, China, Russia and several European countries to “stress…the importance of Egypt’s stability.” Meanwhile, the opposition movement in Egypt is calling for a million-person-march on Tuesday in order to topple the Egyptian president as people continue to camp out overnight in Tahrir Square in central Cairo in defiance of a government curfew. In addition, Al Jazeera has just announced that six of its journalists in Cairo have been arrested by the Egyptian military, though no other details are yet available. The network’s reporters in Cairo say that they’ve seen police returning to the streets after having been absent since Friday. “We are waiting for the minister of interior to announce in what form they are going to come back into the streets and why they disappeared after Friday prayers, on the ‘second day of rage,'” said one Al Jazeera correspondent. “The absence of police has given looters a free rein, forcing ordinary citizens to set up neighborhood patrols. Many people are wondering where the police disappeared to.”

• Mubarak instructs new PM to start talks with opposition parties.
• Clinton convenes mass meeting of U.S. ambassadors.
• Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood mutes its religious message for protests.
• World stock markets fall on Egypt turmoil.
• U.S. cautiously prepares for post-Mubarak era.
• Choppers hover above Cairo on 7th day of protests.

Daily Snapshot

Turkish Muslims burn a picture of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on January 30, 2011 during a protest against his regime in front of the Egyptian consulate in Istanbul. Embattled President Hosni Mubarak called out the army and tasked them specifically with helping police quell deadly protests in which around 50 people have been killed ( BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images).

Arguments & Analysis
‘Obama’s Mideast moment of truth’ (Peter Beinart, The Daily Beast)
The ongoing protests in Egypt and the revelations from the leaked Palestine Papers last week show a region quickly “spinning out of America’s control”. But that is not a bad thing, and its time the Obama administration embrace a change to the decades-old U.S. security paradigm in the region. Bottom line: “Middle Eastern tyrannies aren’t falling the way George W. Bush predicted. America isn’t the hammer; if anything, we’re the anvil. But Bush’s argument that Middle Eastern democracy could help drain the ideological swamp in which al Qaeda grew may yet be proved true. Osama bin Laden has never looked more irrelevant than he does this week, as tens of thousands march across the Middle East not for jihad, but for democracy, electricity, and a decent job. It’s a time for hope, not fear. America can survive having less control, as long as the Arab people have more.”

‘Army will craft a post-Mubarak era’ (Bassman Kodmani, Financial Times)
“Egypt’s army has an intricate economic portfolio, and thus a strong interest in maintaining the status quo. However it also sees itself as the guardian of the interests of the Egyptian state. It may now be developing a new vision of how the state’s interests ought to be preserved – one that need not include Mr Mubarak….Now the handling of the situation by the army is what matters. So far, a small group of four or five security chiefs form an inner circle around the president. Formally they come under his command, but in the past few years of his illness and absences they have been increasingly in charge. It is clear now that Mr Mubarak is not in a position to prevail over them.”

‘An Open Letter to President Barack Obama’ (Multiple authors)
An open letter to the President has been issued by scores of academics in the U.S., urging for the Obama administration to publicly advocate for a break with the Mubarak regime which it has supported for 30 years. Beyond advocating for the end of Mubarak, the letter also makes a more general call for U.S. policy in the region: “There is another lesson from this crisis, a lesson not for the Egyptian government but for our own. In order for the United States to stand with the Egyptian people it must approach Egypt through a framework of shared values and hopes, not the prism of geostrategy. On Friday you rightly said that “suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away.” For that reason we urge your administration to seize this chance, turn away from the policies that brought us here, and embark on a new course toward peace, democracy and prosperity for the people of the Middle East. And we call on you to undertake a comprehensive review of US foreign policy on the major grievances voiced by the democratic opposition in Egypt and all other societies of the region.”