This Egyptian mythology becomes more intriguing as some Egyptian opinion-makers claim that Hillary and Obama "conspired with the Brothers against Egypt." This is a direct quote from a message from a senior former Egyptian Ambassador.
I cannot falsely claim that I am neutral in my assessment of Trump as a post-modern thug, or of the Brotherhood, as a dangerous vehicle of terrorism in the name of Islam. Neutrality in either case would constitute, for me at least, giving my brain and my reasoning a holiday.
Having dealt in my previous blog postings with fascist Donald, my focus in this writing is on the fraudulent assumptions that the Brotherhood had so far held sway in official Washington, D.C. This myth of affinity is nothing more than Brotherhood's propaganda which the unwary Egyptian media and thinkers have come to take seriously.
Never wishing to lecture, except in my classrooms in New York City, as this would be a false self-elevation. I only wish here to share thoughts and observations gained from my close proximity to the American political environment. This proximity is continually enriched by my daily research and writing, as well as by my interactions with a steady stream of thought updating from my own students and interns.
New knowledge is my daily business. Old assumptions are my daily feeding of the trash bins. This has been impressed upon me since my senior year in my beloved high school in Egypt (Zagazig High School) where, in the science section, I nationally competed for the prize in the Darwin theory of evolution. Evolve or perish. I choose the former.
This month of November 2016 marks the fourth abysmal anniversary of former Egyptian President, Mohamed Morsi, declaring himself to be above the law. That declaration of November 2012 marked the rise of Brotherhood fascism subverting the democratic goals of post-Mubarak Egypt.
It also mercifully marked the beginning of the end of Islamist rule in the country of 100 million Arabs, nearly one third of the Arab nation. The demise of that dark rule was also by a popular uprising in June 2013 whose success had to be guaranteed by the might of the Egyptian armed forces. Case closed!!
America's grumbling about those developments, ignorantly calling the June 30 Revolution a military coup, was never due to the influence of the Brotherhood in America. It was due to America's sticking to the false measurement of "every opposition is a form of democratic expression." Not so!!
For the "right to self-determination," a right derived from sovereignty which resides in the populace, implies the right to determine what form of democracy it chooses. There is no global consensus as to what democracy is, or how it should be practiced.
Case in point: Has the choice of Trump as President-elect come about through what should be considered "democracy?" No!! It is a result of the Electoral College, an anachronism in the US Constitution intended to keep the mobs away from having their votes directly counted. My vote for Hillary who got the majority of popular votes (63 million to 58 million) did not register. Swallowed in the bowels of a perennial quirk in American democracy.
There is another anomaly in America's early support for the Brotherhood in Egypt. That support, now vanished, was manifested by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meeting in Cairo and elsewhere with Brotherhood representatives. That was not to assist in the political aggrandizement of the Brotherhood's Guidance Bureau in Egypt. It was to serve national American interests in the largest Arab country.
Those American efforts are legitimate pursuit of national American interests. This is what national sovereignty is all about. There is no love or hate in international relations. There are only national interests. When they converge with foreign national interest, we call this convergence "alliance."
Alliances are not marriages. They are temporary liaison affairs which may sour at any moment. That notion is perennial, the relations with other nations are changeable. The lessons of Darwinian evolution.
This is why outside intervention in national affairs is the riskiest form of relationship. Good fences (they are called borders) make for good neighbors. And that good neighbor might be far away, but brought closer by mutual interests. Another reason why the Brotherhood had failed in Egypt, and ended up marked as "terrorist." In its terrorist acts in Egypt, it kept on looking for support from beyond national borders.
An organization which calls for foreign intervention through diplomacy, arms, funds, or propaganda, is a traitor organization. That is why the most odious and stupid charge that Trump addressed to Obama was to call him "traitor." There has never been any scintilla of proof on that. On the reverse side, it was billionaire Trump who openly encouraged Russia to intervene in the American elections. Through hacking into the emails of the Democratic National Convention. Now Trump (the traitor by these obvious measurements) shall become President over the nation which he had deceived.
Add to the falsehood of the Brotherhood claims of amity with the Democratic party, and its treacherous attempt to subvert Egyptian sovereignty through soliciting foreign intervention, another dangerous falsehood. That is the unfounded claims by the same Egyptian source or sources that "the lady (meaning Hillary) is the worst." And that she and Obama "conspired ...against Egypt and other Arab countries." Mere words without the requisite backing of proof.
My disparaging such reasoning is not based on my being an attorney -searching for proof before I open my mouth. Attorneys do not have that dangerous luxury. It is based on my having taught political science before I taught law.
And my political science background has kept me a willing ally of national sovereignty. Our world is made up of the nation-States. The United Nations is an inter-state system, not an inter-nation system. Even in Islamic jurisprudence, I teach that Islam did not create a State. It created an "Umma" (a community). What holds a State together is its internal strength.
Thus a State that complains of "conspiracy" is in fact a weak State that blames its misfortunes on others. Competition about national interests is not conspiracy. So when my Egyptian respondents cry about what they erroneously see as an Obama/Clinton conspiracy on Egypt, they in fact convey lack of awareness that the New Egypt is no longer buffeted by outside conspiracies. Not even in its anti-terrorist struggle against the Sinai hit and run criminal marauders.
Where is my proof? Egypt of the present is rapidly transitioning to "The Strong State." That transition is even recognized by crazy Trump. One of his main surrogates, Rudolph Giuliani, former Mayor of New York City, and the author of the foreword to my 1999 book entitled "Government Ethics and Law Enforcement" admitted to this publicly.
Asked on November 13 about Trump's envisaged ban on Muslims, Giuliani, who might be considered for a high post in the Trump administration, his response was a testimony to the effects on America of "the Strong State." In effect, he specifically cited Egypt as an example of the Arab State with which a Trump administration can vet (scrutinize in advance) applicants for immigration to the U.S. Why?: "Because El-Sisi government, a strong ally, has done a good job at combating the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt."
Where in his response do you find the value, any value, of the Brotherhood megaphones in Times Square, New York, or Washington, D.C.? Gone with the wind. In fact where in that early recognition of Trumpian recognition of Egypt as a Strong State is the effect of all the trash that American non-governmental organizations are heaping on Cairo for human rights abuses? None!! Why?
These NGOs are valuable to an interventionist America. They are its cat paws. The Obama administration has reduced their credibility. This is due to the Obama doctrine of "leading from behind." It also reflects America's pivoting away from the Middle East and shifting those resources to Asia and to trade.
Those claiming that the Muslim Brotherhood is Washington's darling should learn an essential new fact about America and the world, especially the Middle East. That is that the American center is no longer the federal government. The center now is defused among 50 states, calling themselves the United States of America. By the Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, powers not given by the Constitution to the federal government belong automatically to the States. (The Supremacy Clause).
And as they say, "the proof is in the pudding." Trump won the presidency by vilifying Washington, D.C., and gambling on his support from the State legislatures, fashioned, through gerrymandering, vote suppression, and the strongest voter ID requirements. All of which are non-democratic methods.
But it worked for him, and for the entire Republican party which now has Republican governors in 38 states, majorities in the two houses of Congress, and now the Oval Office. The party of Lincoln is now owned by Trump, the man who ferociously attacked Hillary, the Yale Law graduate, and cuddled Sarah Palin who could hardly know how to read the U.S. Constitution.
A point of convergence between Cairo of today and Washington of Trump is the emphasis on "jobs and the economy." For the opposition in Egypt claims that more than 25% of Egyptians are below the poverty line, so does the opposition to Obama claiming that 40 million America children go to bed hungry. Bill Clinton, a southern governor from Arkansas, won the presidency twice largely on the slogan: "It is the Economy Stupid."
No wonder that the chief operating officer of a major American bank (Pharos Investments) spoke optimistically about Egypt which has been approved to receive $12 Billion as a loan from the International Monetary Fund. Mr. Angus Blair, reflecting the attitude of fellow bankers about the New Egypt's floating its national currency, said: "They are pleased that there is new thinking which is what Egypt needs."
Please, Mr. Banker, say this to the doom and gloom sayers in Egypt. Tell them to leave Cairo and go visit the country side. This is where Egypt's pulse is. Even a weak pulse is a sign of life. A life of a new rebirth of the Strong State, now recovering from 60 years of military dictatorship.
The New Egypt should rid itself of the stale thoughts of the past. Replacing those thoughts and resultant mythology by facts that matter. Together with a convalescing economy and a strong army, ensuring non-porous borders, Egypt needs opinion-makers trained in connecting the dots.
They say that camels walk faster at the sound of the flute. Let Egyptian writers play their flutes to help that caravan move forward across even non-chartered deserts.
Opinion-makers in America expect trouble in Trump America. Describing Trump's victory, one of them, David Remnick of the New Yorker magazine, characterized it as "an American tragedy." Then went on to call it "an event that will likely cast the country into a period of economic, political and social uncertainty that we cannot yet imagine."
Uncertainty about America does not augur well for the rest of the world. In fact, within 96 hours of his victory, Trump, on TV, proved that his ultra-right bluster during the campaign threatens to become policy.
In that TV interview he: affirmed that the wall between America and Mexico shall be built, from 2 million to 3 million illegal immigrants shall be the first installment of deportees, and looking menacingly through the cameras, he sternly ordered the anti-Trump demonstrators "Stop It."
He is already proving those who are writing to me that "his bark is more threatening than his bite," or that "the lady would have been much worse than him" are dreamers.
With internal instability being ushered to the American streets, countries like Egypt should, as of now, double their efforts to rebuild themselves from within. It has always been my belief and advocacy that national deliverance happens from within, and that planning on the basis of reliance on help from beyond the border is a national gamble.
Even Emperor Donald J. Trump has admonished States relying on American defense: "Go Defend Yourselves Or Pay Us."
Observing our world of today, it doesn't take much thoughtfulness to conclude that the world is pivoting to the right. From America to Europe, both west and east, to Russia to India to Japan, the right is ascending. From globalism, our world is, in many ways, returning to tribalism.
That is why the sovereign response at the national level is the Strong State. Alliances between strong states, whose national interests intersect, shall last as long as that intersection lasts.
For the Arab people, following the settlement of their national upheavals, their future as a regional grouping shall only be served by the fulfillment of an old dream: the formation of the United Arab States (UAS). Not a union, but a federation where the internally sovereign State shall go on, with the sinews of foreign affairs and defence are in the hand of a federal council.
This is the Swiss model of cantons, adjusted by the American constitutional model of supremacy for the individual State where powers are not allocated to the federal council. Is this an Arab mythology? Maybe. But it is more logical than the present do nothing League of Arab States where the future of some of its members is being shaped by non-Arab States.
For a United Arab States, the Arabs have the fabric. But so far, neither the will nor the tailor!!
To those who write to me saying that Hillary would have been worse for America than Trump, I say: You don't understand America. Comparing Hillary to Trump, is like equating between experience and demagoguery.
What has occurred in America on November 8, 2016, has been described as "an epic mistake" (Paul Krugman, Nobel Laureate in economics). Within 24 hours of that characterization, Trump appointed Stephen Bannon as his Chief White House Strategist and senior counselor. Bannon, the chief editor of Breitbart News, is the guru of white supremacists, the propagator of Islamophobia, and a man who made of hate an industry.
By such indicators, Trump is not embarking upon healing America's wounds. He is launching a reign of racial, ethnic and religious hatreds, thus raising the specter of civil strife.
For now, rage has overcome sanity, and ignorance is about to overwhelm recognizable norms of governance. As the least politically experienced president-elect in modern American history, Trump is especially known for his "I alone can fix it." A most pretentious bombast.
A number of Arab leaders are scampering today to befriend Trump. Trying to get to his boat by climbing over the edges. To them, I offer the following:
- Remember that that boat has a hole in its bottom. Allowing the waters of Islamophobia, racism, war mongering, and the Trump family business, to rush through it;
- Remember that, under a Trump administration, "America First," "deals are people," and sudden changes of mind, are Donald's political persona;
- Remember that Trump's history reflects no lasting loyalties;
- Remember that, by all means, a changed America might still offer opportunities for an Arab renaissance subservient to no outsider.
- Remember that under the U.S. Constitution, the federal government is one of enumerated (i.e. limited) powers. The States, and by extension, the cities, are where most of the powers reside. New York City, for example, has already defied Trump on immigration. Its police is not federal. Nor is its educational system. Nor is its voter ID system.
Because of the American Thanksgiving holiday, there shall be no blog posting issued next week.
