Will the fire in the Israeli embassy spread to the whole region?

The Israeli embassy in Cairo was in flames on 8 September. Furious demonstrators had broken down the protective wall surrounding the building and had set fire. The Israeli ambassador left the country as a precaution.

The military police sealed off the area and were controlling the situation.

Unlike the country’s previous governments, the majority of the Egyptian people reject the normalisation of political relations with Israel. Also, there have been several incidents recently that have ignited ordinary people’s fury, from unilateral business contracts at the expense of Egyptian tax-payers (e.g. the sale of Egyptian gas to Israel at way below world market prices, which has continued since the revolution), to the death of five Egyptian soldiers at the frontier in Sinai, which has been declared an accident and has not had any diplomatic consequences.

Nevertheless, the question remains of how a mob of upset people could attack the Israeli embassy and tear down a strong high wall in a narrow street that could be easily closed on both sides by two tanks or lorries, and that is strongly guarded day and night by several riot police lorries on standby.

In every mob there are some people willing to go to extremes, who could misuse group dynamics for their own agendas. The majority of the demonstrators in Tahrir Square had very clear demands pertaining to internal politics and the future of the country. They were concerned with the elections or with the arrested representatives of the old Mubarak regime.

One should distinguish these demonstrations very clearly from the violent attacks on the embassy. Incidents like this stem from a clear agenda, spearheaded by someone ready to stir up the masses in his specific interest.

The question is who is going to profit from the recent events?

The media scream, the whole world suddenly looks upon Egypt again. Those events can be wonderfully useful to a specific agenda.

Now, the military could safely play its muscles in order to control the masses. Demonstrations could be restricted, without any reproach to the military concerning democratic rights, because now, security is the main argument. This argument had been also applied in the last years in America or Germany, in order to legally restrict citizens’ rights.

Egypt’s image of a land full of unrest allows for sanctions against the people and their revolutionary demands. The fire in the Israeli embassy will probably not turn into a bushfire, but it might suffocate the democratic beginnings in the bud.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Gabriele Habashi works as a therapist and journalist in Hamburg and Cairo.
* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.