Mubarak and Us

A Hi, what's on your mind today?

Q Well, like, a while ago you were telling me about the U.S. and King Hussein, and it got me to thinking

A Congratulations, Humphrey!

Q For goshsakes, are you going to start that again? You said your New Year's resolution would be to quit making those sorts of gags

A Who says they're gags? Anyway, that was back in December, so for a whole month I haven't

Q But we haven't seen each other since December!

A Woops—good point. Sorry, Humph, I'll try to do better next year. So what can I do for you now?

Q Tell me about President Mubarak. Why is he less friendly to the U.S. than Sadat was?

A Whoa, there. A lot depends on what you mean by "friendly." Many Egyptians felt that Sadat was too friendly with the U.S.—too dependent, while giving the Americans much more than he was getting from them. That's not usually considered the perfect recipe for friendship.

Q So Mubarak is a U.S. friend?

A I'd say Mubarak is friendlier to us than it may be in his long-term interest to be. I guess that makes him pretty friendly.

Q Why mightn't it be in Mubarak's interest to have us as a friend?

A Because it's important for Mubarak to dispel the notion that Egypt's Camp David treaty with Israel—negotiated in partnership with the U.S.—was just a sellout of the Palestinians, through which Sadat got back Sinai by allowing Israel, in exchange, to nail down permanent possession of the West Bank and Gaza.

Q Why should he care that much? He got Sinai back and

A Because the Egyptian people care. Sure, they were happy to get Sinai back. But they were unhappy over the accusations of a sellout and over being ostracized in the Arab world—all of which they thought was unjustified, although a little wishful thinking may have entered into that feeling. As time has gone by, however, Egyptians have watched the Israelis take advantage of the treaty not only to settle the West Bank but to bomb Baghdad, annex Golan and invade Lebanon. All this has been a positive embarrassment to all Arabs who are friends of the U.S., and has caused many Egyptians to have doubts and guilt feelings about Camp David.

Q But Mubarak is doing something about it, isn't he? He's withdrawn his ambassador from Tel Aviv, slowed down trade and tourism with Israel

A C'mon, friend, that's not going to make the Israelis even skip a step. The only country that can do anything meaningful to demonstrate that Camp David was not a sellout of the Palestinians is Mubarak's friend, the United States. And so far the U.S. has failed in this endeavor. If the U.S. fails altogether, Egyptians will blame not just the U.S. but Mubarak for having been too much of a pal of the Americans.

Q But Mubarak inherited the Camp David treaty from Sadat, didn't he?

A That's true. But remember that Mubarak was vice-president of Egypt at the time the treaty was signed. Also, he has continued to support the treaty since taking office, and by doing that he has taken upon himself the burden of responsibility for its consequences.

Q So what would happen if the Israelis kept running out of control and the Egyptian people blamed it all on the U.S. and Mubarak?

A Your guess is as good as mine

Q That's only the second time you've ever said that!

A But when you combine frustration over the Israelis with frustration over economic problems, you have a lethal mixture.

Q But jeepers, shouldn't the U.S. at least get some credit from the Egyptians for the economic help? I mean, there's 4 really big aid programs

A You can't really expect that. You see, to the Egyptian man-in-the-street, peace and prosperity have been regarded as one package. He had thought that when peace finally came, as a result of Camp David, good times would be sure to follow. But even though a pseudo-peace finally did come, he hasn't experienced even a pseudo-prosperity. The U.S. aid program, big as it is, isn't big enough to make more than a dent in Egypt's problems of poverty and overcrowding. As far as the average Egyptian is concerned, it hasn't done much of anything to change the way in which he lives—and most Egyptians haven't even heard of it.

Q So can we say that the way things are going, the partnership with the U.S. is bringing Egyptians neither a peace they can live with nor a prosperous economy they can live in?

A Huh?

Q I said

A I heard you, but I can't believe you made that up. Did you read that somewhere?

Q No—but I know I will soon!