The Crisis in the Middle East

By Charlotte Z.

We all heard about the historic crisis that took place in Egypt a few months ago. The riots in Egypt forced their leader of the last 30 years, Hosni Mubarak, to step down. Although the rioting has ceased in Egypt, many other countries, such as Libya, Syria and Bahrain are revolting against their own leaders. The Egyptians have always hated the dictatorship, but it took them 30 years to finally protest for democracy. They were inspired to protest because of their anger over rising taxes, by the fact that Mubarak wanted his son to succeed him, and finally, the man who set himself on fire in Tunisia moved them. Then, a young girl made a YouTube video telling Egypt that she was going to hold a rally against the government, and she asked others to join her. 

The pro-democracy Egyptians were not satisfied when Hosni Mubarak decided he would resign in September, because they wanted him to step down immediately. On the other hand, western nations hoped Mubarak would stay in power because they were afraid of losing an important ally. The country most concerned was Israel. Mubarak was corrupt, but under his power he maintained the 1978 peace treaty with Israel. It is vital that Egypt keep their peace treaty with Israel. Thomas Friedman from the New York Times interviewed a man from Tel Aviv who said, “Well, everything we thought for the last 30 years is no longer relevant.” I fear that people in the Muslim Brotherhood who will not want to negotiate with the United States or Israel will replace him and his empty cabinet once an election is held. Also, Egypt is the Arab country that gets the most aid from the United States because of the peace treaty, but I don’t think that the Egyptian people realized this as they rallied in the streets. If they decide to cancel the peace treaty with Israel, it means that the United States may stop sending as much aid to Egypt. On the other hand, I think that if Mubarak had stayed longer, as he had said, Egypt would have resorted to bloodshed and violence. 

I am glad that the Egyptian government didn’t turn to the violent means that Libyan leadership did.  I think that the situation in Egypt is too complicated to just decide whether or not we wanted Mubarak to stay or go. I think that if there were someone moderate poised to lead, I would have fully wanted Mubarak to go. Unfortunately, it is unclear who will lead.

I am interested to see what is going to happen in the future, now that Mubarak has stepped down. Since Mubarak stepped down, it seems as though nothing has changed in Egypt. I wonder who is going to take over as president, whether or not Egypt will become a democracy, what party will fill the empty cabinet seats, and what effect it is going to have on relations with Israel. 

I hope that the rest of the Middle East will move towards peaceful democracies, and I am interested to see how these changes will affect the rest of the world.