My own response is: "The Theory of Evolution." During my senior year at Zagazig High School, Sharkia, Egypt, I was, as a science major, one of 20 national contestants in that theory. Studying late at night, aided by the light of a kerosene lamp at our village family home, I plowed through 4 books in English on that theory. It was a very absorbing task, but it taught me a life-long lesson: evolve or perish. It is a principle based on "the survival of the fittest."
Here is my take on the evolution of President El-Sisi, which may also be anchored on what our British professors taught us at that great high school: "Circumstances Alter Cases."
El-Sisi rightly rode the crest of mass popular anger at the horrible year of Islamist rule in Egypt (June 2012-July 2013). Yes the Muslim Brotherhood of the now deposed President Morsi, a fellow Sharkawi for whom I voted in 2012, believed in "One Man, One Vote!!" But once in power, that principle became, for all intents and purposes: "One Man, One Vote, One Time." Their contract with the voters proved to be a sham.
How does the abject failure of Islamist rule in Egypt relate to the evolution of El-Sisi's political though as the 7th president of modern Egypt? (He is #7 after Nasser, Sadat, Mubarak, Tantawi: (through SCAF); Morsi, Mansour). Look at what is happening now in Gaza (Hamas v. Israel). During the Islamist regime, Hamas revelled in earning $450 millions annually by invading Sinai through 1500 tunnels. That was the biggest smuggling operation in modern history. Arms, drugs, terrorists, cars, and house-hold equipment flowed unabashedly. Egypt's army, police and other personnel including large battalions of Border Guards (Silah Al-Hodoud) suffered the humiliation of Morsi's orders not to interfere with Hamas illegal operations.
Then suddenly, on July 3, 2013, the hands of these nationalist forces were freed to defend Sinai from Hamasawi attempts to transfer rocketing Israel from Gaza to Sinai. The tsunami of Egypt's defensive measures in Sinai crippled Hamas financially and led to a no-content unity Palestinian government between Abbas and Hamas. And with the heinous crimes of murdering young Israelis and a Palestinian youth, which transformed the conflict from a territorial conflict into an ethnic and religious conflict, Egyptian Sinai stood by, minding its own peace from terrorist aggression. The Rafah Crossing remained closed, except for limited purposes of Palestinian pilgrimage to Mecca.
With the daily uneven duel between Hamas, through rockets, and Israel through daily bombardment of nearly anything that moves, El-Sisi ordered the reopening of the Rafah Crossing to allow injured Palestinians to be properly treated in a specially reserved hospital at El-Arish. The evolutionary thinking of El-Sisi and his team made humanitarianism towards besieged Gazans trump their anger at Hamasawi murderous intervention in Egypt's internal affairs. That intervention was aided by Qatar and other outside mischief makers.
As to ISIS, the new phantom so-called Islamic Caliphate based in Mousul, Iraq, and Al-Rakkah, Syria, there could be no more articulated hostility toward that fictitous entity than that of Egypt's secularist community. Al-Azhar has declared in August, 2011, that Islam does not admit of a State based solely on religion; the Coptic Church watches in horror as Christians in Iraqi and Syrian ISIS-controlled territories are being murdered or chased out of their ancestral lands; and the Gulf States, new and valuable allies of the new Egypt, feel the jitters of an approaching Sunni-Shii war of devastation.
While Iraqi Prime Minister Al-Maliki is fighting for his political life, and for the territorial integrity of Iraq, El-Sisi while condemning the dangers of militant Islam, welcomed Al-Maliki's call of July 8 for broadening the web of relationships between Cairo and Baghdad. Attacking ISIS and nodding respectfully toward Iraq as a unitary State are clear manifestations of El-Sisi's approach toward this burning issue. In summary, it is a bold attempt to carve out an atmosphere of moderation from the howling winds of an Arab region which is being territorially redrawn.
From all indicators, El-Sisi had evolved beyond a total focus on Egypt, to a focus on Egypt as a serious player in the Arab homeland. For Al-Maliki's call to El-Sisi for "relationships of complimentarity" between the land of the Nile and the land of the Two Rivers, was not born out of thin air. Prior to that, El-Sisi had declared on July 6 at a meeting with Egyptian editors-in-chief that "a plebiscite for the independence of Iraqi Kurdistan would be a catastrophe." No such political backing for the territorial integrity of Arab States -all Arab States - has been voiced with the exception of a reference made to it by Saudi Arabia.
In between the dates of July 6 and July 8, there was the 10th of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan (July 7). Since the 1973 war between Egypt and Israel (Egypt calls it the 10th of Ramadan War; Israel calls it the Yom Kippur War), that day is observed in Egypt as a national day (Day of the Crossing -crossing the Suez Canal to liberate Sinai).
In his speech to the nation, El-Sisi called for national support of the huge effort to rebuild the economy. An essential aspect of that effort is the doing away with the subsidies on petrol, gas, electricity, and other items of national consumption. This is a very hot potato in Egyptian politics. The poor and the middle classes depend on these subsidies to make ends meet. It caused "the bread riots" in February 1977 in Egypt under Sadat. Yet El-Sisi was fearless in declaring that those unpopular measures must stand.
Various heads of Egyptian political parties praised that move which reflected a basic principle: Leaders must lead. The head of the Congress Party (Al-Motamar), Omar Semedah, said: "El-Sisi is the first president who tells the public that it should shoulder its economic recovery responsibilities." A leader of the Wafd Party, Issam Sheeha, welcomed El-Sisi redirection of nationalist fever to national acceptance of shouldering the common burden. Even Al-Noor Party, the political arm of the Salafi movement, stated through its spokesman Sharif Taha: "We applaud his candor, his transparency." As to the Front of National Salvation (Al-Inqaz Al-Watani), its leader, Amre Ali, was by far the most effusive: "El-Sisi has delivered a declaration which, by the standards of Egyptian presidential statements, is very rare."
Another evolutionary trend was manifest in El-Sisi's blunt criticism of the incarceration and the sentencing of the three Al Jazeera reporters. He had previously declared that he would not interfere in judicial rulings. Now he declares: "The sentences had negative consequences," and that he preferred "that the journalists be deported rather than put on trial." I see in this an El-Sisi's edging towards a pardon.
How about the Nile water question? It has stirred deep anxiety on the part of Egypt (and the Sudan) whose share of the Nile waters through the Blue Nile has been fixed by a 1929 treaty. That was at a time prior to the emergence of Ethiopia (the Blue Nile descends from Lake Tana, Ethiopian territory), of the Sudan, and of Egypt from under Italian and British colonialism. While Ethiopia proceeds at present with the construction of the Grand Renaissance Dam at the upper reaches of the Blue Nile, both Cairo and Khardoum have been fretting over the possible reduction of their pre-independence share of that precious water.
Under Morsi, an intemperate call went out from a meeting over which he had presided. It was a call for the use of force against Ethiopia. The whole world heard it, because the microphones at that unfortunate war-like conclave were left open. Addis Ababa countered with the legitimate argument of self-defence, and Egypt, even if the Islamists had gone ahead with their stupid threats, had never won in mountain warfare. No win in 1830 in the war in Greece for the Ottoman Sultan during the reign of Muhammad Ali; no win in Yemen in 1962-1967 during the go-go years of Nasser. And the Islamists forgot or ignored the possibility for employing diplomacy through the Coptic Church, a twin historic institution of the Ethiopian Church.
Then the Islamist President Morsi was pushed aside, and General El-Sisi, in a land slide, won the presidency in June 2014. While Morsi, the civilian, saw the water issue through the foggy prism of war, General (new President) El-Sisi saw it through the prism of diplomacy. With Egypt's return to the fold of the African Union at the June African Summit at Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, El-Sisi saw the golden chance of repairing the frayed feelings of Ethiopia, a co-founder with Egypt of the Organization of African Unity.
Now, following an amicable meeting between El-Sisi and Ethiopia's Prime Minister, Hailemarian Desalegn, an agreement was announced by Egypt's Foreign Minister, Sameh Shoukry, and his Ethiopian counterpart Tedros Adhanom. Its main points included cooperation between the two sister States, and the establishment of regional projects for developing financial resources to meet the growing demand for water. Neat!! A welcome evolution from the use of vinegar to the use of honey!!
Indeed, Darwin said it best: "Survival is for the fittest." Now even the map of Egypt is changing through redrawing provincial boundaries. From 27 Egyptian provinces, the boundaries, as recently declared by Adel Labeeb, Minister for Local Development, may delineate an increase to up to 33 provinces. The new Governors shall be evaluated on the basis of direct interaction with the Egyptian citizen. This is the essence of evolving the meaning of "local rule."
These steps towards rejuvenation did not fail to impact the traditional sources of the tourism industry. Both, Germany and Italy, main sources of thousands of tourists to Egypt, are moving towards full nullification of their advisories to their nationals to avoid visiting Egypt. This is huge!!
Tourism accounts for 20% of Egypt's foreign currency earnings. This explains the genuine alarm of its Ministry of Tourism. In 2013, income from tourism dwindled by 40% as compared to 2012 (from $10 billion to $5.9 billion). Italy alone had sent to Egypt in 2004 one million tourists.
So why shouldn't the Sphinx, hearing about the resumption of the flood of visitors gawking at his feet (I mean paws) be smiling in anticipation? Is it possible that lime stone, of which the Sphinx is made, be also subject to the forces of evolution? The Sphinx has never revealed its inner secrets!!
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