[ALOCHONA] Good One - Saudi Arabia and Egypt

High Class bullshitting!!! hahaha

 

House of Saud propaganda

Here is a funny one:  "Egyptians have a perceived notion that they once had a vital role in the political say of the Arab and Middle East's affairs" .  Perceived?  The entire era of Nasser was a figment of our imagination, and in reality it was the polygamous royal princes who were leading the Arab masses during that era?   So what is NOT perceived? That prince Bandar and Prince Khalid bin Sultan inspire the Arab youth?

Posted by As'ad AbuKhalil at 11:45 AM

http://angryarab.blogspot.com/

 

Saudi Arabia and Egypt: Is it a battle for leadership?

By ABDULRAHMAN AL-ZUHAYYAN

Published: Apr 28, 2012

http://arabnews.com/opinion/columns/article619803.ece?service=print

 

Egyptians have a perceived notion that they once had a vital role in the political say of the Arab and Middle East's affairs, and this role was diminished or even completely lost to the emerging political and economic influence of the Arabian Gulf countries (GCC), specifically, Saudi Arabia.

 

While in reality, Egypt never had that alleged role, it is only a perception. However, a perception is reality that drives that unexplainable behavior of Egyptians toward Saudi government and its people. Egyptians claim that President Gamal Abdel Nasser made that political glory and was lost to Gulf countries because of oil. But oil in Saudi Arabia was discovered in the early 1940s before Gamal become president of Egypt in 1953.

 

Egypt was under a combined rule of Mohammad Ali royal family and British rule for centuries which was ended by the Free Officers Movement in 1953. Gamal and his officers ascended to power, with Gamal as a president. Egyptian historians mark Gamal's reign as the heydays of Egypt's vital role in this region.

 

Any country in the world cannot have a viable political role in its geographical sphere without possessing the primary elements of power (e. g., military, economy, knowledge and culture, research and technology, natural resources, population, and geography). Egypt, on the contrary, had almost all elements of weakness. It had agricultural-based economy, had no technological and knowledge-based industry, had almost 90 percent illiteracy rate among its population, and, of course, never had a superpower military capability.

 

The only power Egypt once has had is the "soft power," specifically the propaganda machine and translated literary production in the areas of humanities and social sciences. Again, Egypt lost their soft power to Gulf countries either in the fields of media or literary production, particularly to Saudi Arabia (MBC, Al Arabiya, and other media outlets), Qatar (Al Jazeera), and United Arab Emirates.

 

However, Egyptians, then, used their powerful propaganda machine effectively (Arab Voice and other radio stations, as well as film production), presenting the Egyptian society as a progressive and promoting president Gamal as the undisputed leader of the Middle East, especially in the eyes of Egyptian masses. This loud mouthpiece aggrandized Gamal, and he in turn internalized the role of the only Arab leader in the Middle East, making speeches on radio and television with a strut tone and sometimes belittling Arab leaders.

 

Gamal's condescending behavior appealed to the majority of Egyptians, and they likewise internalized the role as if they were subjects of a superpower nation. This national pride was picked up early by Israel and it decided to crush it. In 1976, Israel made a surprise attack on Egyptian fighter aircraft while they were on the ground or in their bunkers, and that led Gamal to declare his resignation on national television.

 

What remained from Gamal's era in the conscious of most Egyptians is that Egypt is a superpower country like the United States, or even Israel. It is a self-deceiving perception of power, or aspired power that has no foundation whatsoever on the ground.

 

While Egypt is seeking to be a superpower in the Middle East, it presently has a military capability that is equivalent to Saudi Arabia's militarily capability or United Arab Emirates with a variable degree, and Egypt economically is equivalent to Tunisia, Morocco, or Oman. Thus, Egypt cannot grow more than a middle-size country.

 

On the other hand, oil was discovered in Saudi Arabia in the early 1940s and commercial production started in 1945, and that was way before Gamal ascended to power in Egypt. Obviously, oil facilitated the primary elements of power, and right from the start Saudi Arabia was pulling the strings in the Middle East, and evidently all Egyptian presidents, from Gamal Abdel Nasser up to the current Egyptian administration, visited Riyadh to discuss major political matters concerning the Middle East.

 

Despite the fact that Saudi Arabia has the primary elements of power to exert an influence in its geographical sphere, including Egypt, this country is not interested in appearing as a leader of the Middle East for its practical reasons, and did not challenge Egypt for this alleged leadership. Egypt, however, deserted its alleged vital role in the politics of the Middle East, and it is, still, vacant.

 

Dr. Abdulrahman Al-Zuhayyan is a Saudi academician based in Riyadh.

 

 

 

Egypt Versus Saudi Arabia: New Rules

By As'ad AbuKhalil - Mon, 2012-04-30 20:39- Angry Corner

https://english.al-akhbar.com/blogs/angry-corner/egypt-versus-saudi-arabia-new-rules

 

For months during the Egyptian uprising, Thomas Friedman assured his (Zionist) readers that the Egyptian uprising has no foreign policy goals whatsoever. He probably was trying to allay the fears of Israelis. (Only recently, Thomas Friedman sneakily switched positions and said that the only issue that matters in the next presidential election in Egypt will be foreign policy and the state of relations with Israel).

 

Yet, it was obvious for all those who followed the Egyptian uprising and its slogans that the Egyptian youth have many foreign policy goals and that they will press for a shift in Egyptian foreign policy. In fact, one of the most oft-repeated slogans in Cairo against Mubarak and his deputy, Omar Sulayman, was that both were "agents of the Americans."

 

But the new foreign policy of Egypt – which will take shape over the period of democratization, however long that takes – will also change Egypt's foreign policies to Arab countries and the role of Egypt in the region.

 

The Egyptian people have many reasons to be angry with Saudi Arabia's government. Here are some reasons:

 

Many Saudi princes favor spending vacations in Egypt and there have been many (suppressed by Mubarak) stories about corruption and thuggery and misconduct by Saudi princes and their entourage.

 

The Egyptian people have noticed that the Saudi royal family and Israel were the biggest champions of Mubarak until the last hour of his rule. Egyptians have also noticed that Saudi Arabia offered to shelter Mubarak during the revolution and have pressured SCAF to sabotage his trial.

 

Egyptians have heard for years about stories of mistreatment of Egyptians in Saudi Arabia. Mubarak (like most Arab republican leaders) was receiving cash payments from Gulf rulers and would use his dictatorial rule to suppress any unfavorable stories about the Saudi royal family and its repression. Furthermore, the Saudi injustice system applies only to poor Arabs and Muslims, and many of those rules have been applied to Egyptian workers in Saudi Arabia.

 

Saudi Arabia has enjoyed favorable press coverage in Egypt for far too long, brought to it by Saudi payments to corrupt Mubarak's protégés in the Egyptian media.

 

Egyptians have known that Saudi Arabia's government has been complicit with the ruling military council to sabotage the revolutionary process in Egypt.

 

Egyptians, like other Arabs, have noticed the growing signs of an alliance between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

 

Egyptians often harken back to the years when Egypt (under Nasser) lead the Arab world and even the Muslim world and the developing world. The decline of Egypt's regional role has coincided with the rise of the Saudi era.

 

Saudi Arabian media was very hostile toward the Egyptian uprising. Al-Arabiya (the news station of King Fahd's brother-in-law) advocated openly against Egyptian protesters. Randa Abou el-Azm, its Cairo chief correspondent, was chasing down protesters before the fall of Mubarak and appeared to harass them, and she was known as a propagandist for the Mubarak regime.

 

The Egyptian uprising made slogans about dignity, nationalism, and the individual more popular. Many Egyptians have resented the Saudi use of cash payments to achieve their goals in Egypt and elsewhere.

 

This crisis won't go away and the Egyptian uprising won't achieve its goals in one month or two. Its victory is not inevitable especially when the US/Israel, and the Arab royal order are conspiring against it. This will be a long process but the rules of the games have changed. And those rules won't favor the arch supporters of Mubarak, especially the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia.

 

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