Foreign media responses to the "Arab Spring" and to U.S. responses
Al-Qaeda hails "Tsunami of change" in Middle East from Al Arabiya News. Pictured is Yemeni-U.S. cleric Anwar al-Awlaki who said in the 5th edition of al-Qaeda's e- magazine for Western Muslims "Inspire" that "the revolutions are good news for Islamic extremists and said the removal of anti-Islamist autocrats meant Islamic fighters and scholars were now freer to discuss and organize."
"He said the revolts had broken "the barriers of fear" among Muslims whose "defeatism" under tyranny had deepened after Algeria's crushing of an Islamist uprising in the 1990s.”
“The cleric said it did not matter what sort of government succeeded Arab autocracts, as these were unlikely to be as repressive. Imagining that only a Taliban-style regime would benefit al-Qaeda was "a too short term way" of looking at events.”
“"We do not know yet what the outcome would be (in any given country), and we do not have to. The outcome doesn't have to be an Islamic government for us to consider what is occurring to be a step in the right direction," he said.”
Read more: http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/03/30/143549.html
"He said the revolts had broken "the barriers of fear" among Muslims whose "defeatism" under tyranny had deepened after Algeria's crushing of an Islamist uprising in the 1990s.”
“The cleric said it did not matter what sort of government succeeded Arab autocracts, as these were unlikely to be as repressive. Imagining that only a Taliban-style regime would benefit al-Qaeda was "a too short term way" of looking at events.”
“"We do not know yet what the outcome would be (in any given country), and we do not have to. The outcome doesn't have to be an Islamic government for us to consider what is occurring to be a step in the right direction," he said.”
Read more: http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/03/30/143549.html
"Tahrir Square decided to take Egypt’s foreign policy in its own hands, expelling the Israeli Ambassador and breaking into the embassy, leaving the Egyptian regime humiliated.”
“Is this the end of Egyptian-Israeli ties? Both Israel and Egypt have stressed that the peace treaty between the two countries is still in place, and Egypt is not only obligated to uphold it, but it will take the necessary steps to create the conditions needed to allow the Israeli Embassy’s staff to operate fully and safely.”
and casual reference, later identified as hugely different, but still thrown in the article, to the Iran 79 stuff: "Egypt, the symbol of national revolution, was reminiscent on Friday of a different revolution, one that took place in Iran in 1979, when thousands of students took over the American Embassy and held American diplomats hostage for 444 days."
Read more: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/arab-spring-succeeded-it-s-egypt-that-failed-1.383599
“Is this the end of Egyptian-Israeli ties? Both Israel and Egypt have stressed that the peace treaty between the two countries is still in place, and Egypt is not only obligated to uphold it, but it will take the necessary steps to create the conditions needed to allow the Israeli Embassy’s staff to operate fully and safely.”
and casual reference, later identified as hugely different, but still thrown in the article, to the Iran 79 stuff: "Egypt, the symbol of national revolution, was reminiscent on Friday of a different revolution, one that took place in Iran in 1979, when thousands of students took over the American Embassy and held American diplomats hostage for 444 days."
Read more: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/arab-spring-succeeded-it-s-egypt-that-failed-1.383599
"The dubbing of the uprisings in the Arab world by western governments and media as an "Arab Spring" (it is said that the American journal Foreign Policy coined the term first) was not simply an arbitrary or even seasonal choice of nomenclature, but rather a US strategy of controlling their aims and goals."
"These demands are also the source of major concern for the US. While the US and its client regimes may be forced to institute measures of representativity and accountability, these can be manipulated, as they are in the West itself, to ensure that the elite and the new professional and managerial classes always remain in charge, which cannot be said for the social justice agenda, which requires actual redistribution of material wealth and cannot be as easily manipulated."
"Hence, unlike the rest of the Arab world where the US and its West European allies quickly moved from sponsoring the dictators to sponsoring the counter-revolutions to restore them or a similar regime in their stead (Yemen) and then later moved to establish a new alliance with the victorious Islamists (in Egypt and Tunisia), they opted to support the uprisings in Libya and Syria and take them over rapidly to ensure an outcome that serves their interests (France, Italy and the United Kingdom secure the oil while the US hopes to move its AFRICOM military command headquarters from Stuttgart to Libya once the dust settles)."
"The uprisings have raised great economic expectations on the part of the majority of Tunisians and Egyptians (not to mention other Arabs across the region) who languish in utter poverty thanks to neoliberal economics, and who are no longer shy in pressing their economic agenda to centrestage.
The battle of the seasons is on; while the Americans are pressing on for an American Spring in the Arab world that will only be experienced as another American-sponsored Summer drought for the majority of the people of the region, the Arab peoples are working to transform the recent uprisings into nothing short of a cold American Winter."
Read more: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/08/201282972539153865.html
"These demands are also the source of major concern for the US. While the US and its client regimes may be forced to institute measures of representativity and accountability, these can be manipulated, as they are in the West itself, to ensure that the elite and the new professional and managerial classes always remain in charge, which cannot be said for the social justice agenda, which requires actual redistribution of material wealth and cannot be as easily manipulated."
"Hence, unlike the rest of the Arab world where the US and its West European allies quickly moved from sponsoring the dictators to sponsoring the counter-revolutions to restore them or a similar regime in their stead (Yemen) and then later moved to establish a new alliance with the victorious Islamists (in Egypt and Tunisia), they opted to support the uprisings in Libya and Syria and take them over rapidly to ensure an outcome that serves their interests (France, Italy and the United Kingdom secure the oil while the US hopes to move its AFRICOM military command headquarters from Stuttgart to Libya once the dust settles)."
"The uprisings have raised great economic expectations on the part of the majority of Tunisians and Egyptians (not to mention other Arabs across the region) who languish in utter poverty thanks to neoliberal economics, and who are no longer shy in pressing their economic agenda to centrestage.
The battle of the seasons is on; while the Americans are pressing on for an American Spring in the Arab world that will only be experienced as another American-sponsored Summer drought for the majority of the people of the region, the Arab peoples are working to transform the recent uprisings into nothing short of a cold American Winter."
Read more: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/08/201282972539153865.html