Civil war threatens in Egypt

Analysis: The threat of civil war appears all too real in Egypt amid economic, social and political crisis.

By Zvi Mazel, JPOST

For the Muslim Brotherhood, the long awaited dream come true is turning into a nightmare. Having survived 80 years of persecution to achieve power democratically, they suddenly find themselves the focus of widespread popular hatred.

Never have Egyptians been in such dire economic traits.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, however, is not about to give up and make way for new presidential elections. The Brotherhood will spare no effort to stay in power.

Such is the depth of the economic, social and political crisis that the threat of civil war appears all too real.

Most commentators believe the army won’t let things go that far and will step in; however the road back to recovery and a civilian regime accepted by all will be long and arduous.

Civil disobedience is rampant.

In Port Said the police have disappeared from the streets and the army called in to maintain law and order. Indeed here and there people are petitioning the courts to appoint popular Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to rule Egypt in Morsi’s stead. They know it won’t happen but are trying to make a point. Demonstrations calling for getting rid of Morsi and of the Brotherhood are held on a daily basis in Cairo and in cities all over the country. They are met by militant groups of the Brotherhood. Dozens have died and thousands were wounded in the resulting clashes though both sides are trying not to let the violence escalate.

The economy is in shambles.

In a remarkable and enduring show of unity, non-Islamic opposition parties under the banner of the National Salvation Front are boycotting the regime until their demands – canceling the Islamic constitution and setting up a consensus government until new elections are held – are met.

The Muslim Brotherhood who had won a sweeping victory in the first free parliamentary elections and got their candidate elected president have bitterly disappointed the people who had put their faith in them.

Nothing has been done to improve their lot. Upon taking office Morsi had promised – and failed – to take care of five burning issues within a hundred days: growing insecurity, monster traffic jams in the capital, lack of fuel and cooking gas, lack of subsidized bread, and the mounting piles of refuse in the streets.

The president’s high-handed attempt to take over all legislative powers and grant himself full immunity provoked such an outcry that he had to back down. He sacked the prosecutor-general and appointed a new one – only to have his decision overthrown by the Cairo Court of Cassation last week, throwing the judicial system into disarray.

It seems that such unwise and unpopular moves were taken without prior consultations with his advisers and that in fact it was the Supreme Guidance Bureau of the Brotherhood which had urged Morsi to do so. In other words, the president is acting as a proxy for the movement.

Dissatisfaction is now evident everywhere. Elections held in students’ union throughout the country saw Brotherhood candidates defeated by independent candidates. Worse, elections to the key Journalists’ Syndicate saw the victory of Diaa Rashwan, head of Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic studies and bitter opponent of the Brotherhood.

In other words the movement is losing both the youth and the elites.

Yet the regime plods on as if unaware of the fact that times have changed and that people are no longer afraid to take to the streets to fight for the future of their country.

On the contrary, Morsi is hard at work appointing as many of his men as he can everywhere, from national to regional and local positions supervising everything from public order to food distribution – such as it is – under his direct orders.

Clearly, he is here to stay.

Army no longer refusing Islamic candidates

In a new and startling development, he is now turning to the army. For the first time since Nasser ruled, the army academy is no longer refusing Islamic candidates.

Then of course there is the legislation. The lower house of parliament has been disbanded by the courts because of widespread electoral fraud, so Morsi gave temporary legislative powers to the upper house “Shura council.”

These powers were supposed to be used for urgent legislation; however taking advantage of the solid Islamic majority – 80 percent Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists – Morsi is pushing through laws organizing the next elections, restraining the right to strike and to demonstrate; in the wings are stringent laws regulating NGOs – including a special provision legalizing the Brotherhood – a movement banned by Nasser. This was needed because the advisory board of the High Administrative Court had declared the movement illegal and recommended that it be disbanded.

Within two days of the ruling a new law had been drafted and is now awaiting the verdict of the High Constitutional Court. The problem is that the Brotherhood has since its inception refused to divulge the list of its members and the origin of its funds – two requirements for registering a movement.

While feminist organizations are demonstrating against repeated violence against women and fatwas encouraging such violence, the Brotherhood posted on its official website a condemnation of the recent UN resolution on the rights of women “because it is in violation of the Shari’a.”

Currency shortage threatens petrol, food imports

Strangely enough, while the level of violence in the streets is steadily rising, the president has nothing to say.

It is as if the Brotherhood had adopted the motto “least said, soonest mended” and had decided to keep a low profile in the hope of seeing the protests die a natural death as protesters get tired or lose hope.

Yet there is no sign of it happening anytime soon. In the wake of the last round of violence around the Brotherhood’s Cairo headquarters, Morsi did warn that if “hooliganism” did not stop, harsh measures would be taken. His warning only added fuel to the fire, resulting in new clashes and more wounded.

In the meantime, currency reserves are bleeding, there may be soon not enough money to pay for imports of petrol and basic food supplies.

Subsidizing these items accounts for 25 percent of the country’s budget. Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Libya did extend substantial help, but it all went to subsidies and imports. None of the long overdue economic reforms have been launched. Without these reforms the International Monetary Fund is withholding the $4.8 billion loan Egypt desperately needs; there is also the small problem of the interest to be paid; Islamic circles are vehemently opposing any form of interest, which they said is prohibited by Shari’a law.

Unless and until a solution is found, Western countries will not lend any money to Egypt.

Power failures are getting more frequent, queues for petrol and cooking gas longer and food is scarce.

Investors have fled, tourists are scared. Hunger riots may not be far off. Yet the Brotherhood surges blindly on, not ready to let go of the golden prize achieved after nearly a century. And so the standoff goes on between the regime and the opposition, while quicksand threatens to engulf them all.

The writer, a fellow of The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, is a former ambassador to Romania, Egypt and Sweden.

April 2, 2013 | 90 Comments »

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50 Comments / 90 Comments

  2. @ yamit82:
    i didn’t know if you wanted to let it be known in israpundit that you commented there, that’s why i used the other name here. The girl is pretty sick, she is like a raw nerve, anything you say to her she gets defensive, especially about Israel. Typical lefty activist stuff.

  4. Felix Quigley Said:

    These lies about Lenin and Trotsky are carried on into the present by political ignorami like Yamit82 who tries to cover his reactionary bankruptcy by usurping the name Yamit82 as if he were not part of the problem of the expulsión of the Jews from Sinai by Begin

    So far everything I have ever written about you commies and your god trotsky was never refuted by you other than to defame and slander me as a liar and ignoramus. Those are the classic methods of ignorant idiots who cannot argue successfully the merits of their positions.

    Now how in hell do you suppose I contributed to the expulsion from Yamit? Like most antisemites you are blaming the victim for being victimized.

  5. Which name you mean? your screen name in Israpundit or the one that i put in bold a few comments above? And i understand you mean not to use in the DT, correct?

    I am asking so as to understand what i shouldn’t do (which i wouldn’t do, goes without saying).

  7. @ Felix Quigley:

    The position of Yamit82 and for reactionaries like him is that since Jews were driven out by the Jihad ages ago it matters nothing to him.

    The content of this is that Jews in Israel today who have escaped the Jihad are safe in Israel.

    let me translate this.

    1. only Jews count in his universe, the rest of the world can go to hell or blazes and

    Partially correct. My position is Jews first. Jewish interests first, solving Jewish problems first, and dealing with any existential threats to Jews and Israel first. “If I am not for myself, who will be” Pirkei Avot

    2. that Israel can be an island separated from the world and that Israel as such an island can be safe. In fact Yamit82 has continually referred to the Samson Option, which as I understand his mind in this regard is all out full scale Nuclear War on many fronts, and I say many fronts necessarily because there are many fronts, and that this is the ONLY policy when you bring his politics right down to basics

    For the first time in the history of the Jewish people we have the power to not only destroy completely any enemy but the power to destroy the world. In 2003, Martin van Creveld, a professor of military history at Israel’s Hebrew University was quoted in David Hirst’s “The Gun and the Olive Branch” (2003) as saying:

    “We possess several hundred atomic warheads and rockets and can launch them at targets in all directions, perhaps even at Rome. Most European capitals are targets for our air force. Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: ‘Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother.’ I consider it all hopeless at this point. We shall have to try to prevent things from coming to that, if at all possible. Our armed forces, however, are not the thirtieth strongest in the world, but rather the second or third. This was written and quoted before our 5 nuke armed submarines came on line giving Israel not only second strike capabilities but an offensive capability able to target accurately any point on the globe with multiple nukes.

    Since this astute quotation was made, Israel has increased her offensive and defensive capabilities like adding 5 nuke armed submarines giving us total global reach to any point on the globe and a second strike capability and option. The Jericho 3 has been added range and payload to the Jerischo 2 giving Israel extended IBM capabilities.
    Israel instead of relying on Nukes to deter aggression it seems obvious, that if Iran or another country actually threatens our survival with their own nukes and threats that our nukes no longer deter. Nor have they in any war since 1967. Apparently no one believes we would ever deploy and use them. Therefore they are not a real deterrent. We can change that perception by changing our whole military doctrine by relying mainly on our offensive nuke capabilities while increasing our stocks and improving our delivery systems.
    Israel and Samson. Biblical Insights on Israeli Strategy in the Nuclear Age.
    Louis Rene Beres

  9. Felix Quigley Said:

    only Jews count in his universe, the rest of the world can go to hell or blazes

    Are you saying that Israel should help the syrian rebels who want to kill the jews or that israel should aid Assads side who want to kill the jews? Or are you sayng that one side wants to kill the jews less than the other side and that Israel should help that side?

    It might be that the deposition of Syria has to tdo with the weakening and/or deposition of the ayatollahs. In this case Israel would likely have been told that if they want to see Iran deposed then they must not hinder the current plan of action designed to lead there.

    RE deposing of Assad by the west: what is the reason you see for this deposition?

  12. RaymondF

    You should follow this up if you are really serious about Israel and the Jews. One way is to google this “fall of Mubarak israpundit”

    This is a definitive moment in history of such moment that in all my future discussions with anybody I will seek to find out their political position at that moment.

    Although, to the mechanical or dogmatic thinker it is like a riddle. How can one ever support a person like Mubarak who was a dictator and who followed in the Antisemitism of Nasser, more or less? I have argued that it was necessary. There was a person then called BlandOatMeal and I argued with him and he then came to see my point but he was the only one to come out in public to argue that line. So the line can be argued for. It is not hopeless. Others who came close to my line were Caroline Glick, Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller.

  14. Dean Said:

    Yes, and where are Western women’s groups, campus student groups, union spokespeople, the UN, the churches, the EU and others to speak out against the growing misogyny, intolerance, violence, and true Apartheid that the Muslim Brotherhood champion?

    You cannot abuse liberal and progress women enough,they love it, badge of honor. Proof that men are no good and one has suffered at their hands.

  18. The situation in all of these Arab countries is now an absolute tragedy.

    The position of Yamit82 and for reactionaries like him is that since Jews were driven out by the Jihad ages ago it matters nothing to him.

    The content of this is that Jews in Israel today who have escaped the Jihad are safe in Israel.

    let me translate this.

    1. only Jews count in his universe, the rest of the world can go to hell or blazes and

    2. that Israel can be an island separated from the world and that Israel as such an island can be safe. In fact Yamit82 has continually referred to the Samson Option, which as I understand his mind in this regard is all out full scale Nuclear War on many fronts, and I say many fronts necessarily because there are many fronts, and that this is the ONLY policy when you bring his politics right down to basics

    Out of this comes the one “great” policy of this so called modern Zionism, which is isolationism.

    In fact by opting out of writing Gil White is also pursuing a type of isolationism.

    people have a strong habit of taking positions and then conveniently forgetting about those positions and since Israpundit operates a kind of clique existence then these previous positions are not challenged and are allowed to lie asleep as it were, but that can never be, because every single action in politics has an effect.

    In many ways Mubarak was the key issue or the touchstone. The events of january 2011 cannot ever be swept under the carpet.

    One of the central tenets of Trotskyism is that you do not surrender a position to the enemy. By saying that it was none of our business as jews what happened to Mubarak that we take an abstentionist position.

    But taking an abstentionist position was to directly aid the Muslim Brotherhood to come to power.

    You can see immediately that that position taken then by many was to aid the Muslim Brotherhood and strangely as is now well known to aid the political strategy of the US and EU power elites.
    The whole political history of Trotskyism is filled with this same struggle, do not surrender to the enemy a position which makes the enemy stronger.

    The whole history of Trotskyism is proactive in this regard, the whole history of modern Judaism is passive in this regard.

    One of the biggest examples of this was the Judaic tradition in October 1917 who took a position of opting out of the socialist revolution, of throwing scorn and doubt onto the socialist revolution of 1917, carried on into the present by the lies in this regard of jewish writers like Alan Dershowitz.

    However history states that the Holocaust of the Jews was about to start in Moscow 1917 and if the Bolsheviks had not taken power then the Pogrom as never seen before would have started under the Czarists and the Whites, supported by guess who Britain and America among others.

    These lies about Lenin and Trotsky are carried on into the present by political ignorami like Yamit82 who tries to cover his reactionary bankruptcy by usurping the name Yamit82 as if he were not part of the problem of the expulsión of the Jews from Sinai by Begin

  19. Thereactionary talking shop of Israpundit continues unabated.

    Consider this:

    The Muslim Brotherhood organization is now all over the Muslim world. It controls vast amounts of resources and has an enormous membership. It is highly disciplined. And tremendously influential. As the Economist explains: “The Muslim Brotherhood…, founded in Egypt in 1928, has been an important incubator of Islamist movements, and has survived decades of repression.” In the recent political upheaval “its highly disciplined youth movement proved crucial to the protests that overthrew [former Egyptian president] Mr [Hosni] Mubarak.”[1]

    from Francisco Gil White

    Unfortunately Gil White is writing no more

    The people on this Israpundit forum should go back and should look carefully at what they were writing in January 2011. They should say what they were writing then and go on to say how or if they have changed their minds.

    Just remember that you have to be right at the time and politics does not offer second chances

  21. Here’s to our Middle East Arab and Muslim friends: May you fight one another to the bitter end for the truth as you see it. You need to kill each other off and let Allah sort y’all out. Keep on keepin’ on!

  22. Eric R. Said:

    The real culprit was the old USSR, which had invested billions in Egypt; and even threatened to nuke Israel if it did not stop its advance.

    A hollow threat. In 1973, the Americans prevented Israel from annihilating the Egyptian Third Army. Was it because of the Soviet nuclear threat? I don’t buy it. The USSR did not threaten the US in 1973. It wasn’t even clear if the Soviets had really shipped nuclear warheads to Egypt. Such a transfer would have run contrary to the Soviet doctrine: Russians never exported nuclear weapons into other conflicts, and removed missiles from Cuba when conflict loomed.

    The Russians also kept decidedly low profile in the war, even staging the expulsion of Soviet military personnel by Sadat. Soviet reinforcements for Egypt were a response to the American help to Israel. It seems that America and Russia escalated their support for their clients based on their perceptions of the other side’s intentions.

    Besides, a detrimental armistice was imposed on Israel after the immediate nuclear threat had dissipated.

    America cared very little about the possibility of nuclear confrontation between Pakistan and Soviet-backed India. It is easy to twist the arms of subservient Israeli politicians, but seems not to be so with the Pakistanis, koreans, Japanese or any other country, just Israel.

  24. @ Canadian Otter: I think I read once that the Sauds make a lot of deals orally. It struck me that the Sauds could have manipulated the price of oil in conjunction with various US officials in their private capacity and pay them literally millions under the table. There is apparently also a decades long habit of US officials going to work for the Sauds after their govt stints. I would think that the ability of the Sauds to do things without transparency is an enormous asset and worth billions of dollars to political decision makers who operate in tandem with them. personally, I never bought the riginal conspiracy theories re 911 until it occurred to me that it is just logical that the private relationships between the Sauds and the US officials(in succession) would be unlikely to go into hiatus. It is obvious, especially now, that the Sauds can control a massive empire of mercenaries with their $$$ and especially the global muslim charity network. these jihadis would not be moving all over the world unless their was funding; and now we can see in plain sight, without being hidden anymore, how it is done right now in real time with Libya and Syria.

  25. @ Canadian Otter:

    Obama’s bow to the king

    This doesn’t bother me since I believe Ovomit an anti-Semite embraces Islam and bows to these characters.

    Bush Junior’s holding hands and exchanging tender glances with the king

    I had some respect for the respect for Bush but found this upsetting. The Saudis of all people like the rest of the Arabs treat their citizens like crap especially their women. They can shove their titles where the sun doesn’t shine. One of the worst of human rights violators.

    If foreigners didn’t help them extract oil they would still be roaming the desert on their camels looking for an oasis.

    Bottom line they hate us and Israel.

    We need to get off Arab oil dependency.

  26. @ Bernard Ross:
    Thanks for the summary. As I was reading it I was also thinking that the Saudis must have a trove of highly embarrasing secret information about US government international operations, and individuals within the govt, past and present. The way the US govt shows such deference to a bunch of fanatics with royal titles seems to indicate that they’d rather be on good terms with them. Obama’s bow to the king and Bush Junior’s holding hands and exchanging tender glances with the king, all that may have had more than personal motivations.

  28. yamit82 Said:

    Two Arab moderates sign agreements against Israel!!!

    I think that we are going to see an increasing relationship between Jordan and the PA or pal “state”. In the 1980’s a confederation of the 2 was discussed and it was decided that it may only occur after a Pal state. Perhaps the faux state will lead in that direction. there apparently has been some high level recent discussion along those lines and that it suggests that such a confed can bypass some of the sticking points in the “peace process” e.g. refugees,viable state, possibly even Jerusalem(as Jordan already has a form of supervision/sovereignty over religious sites) and security because Jordan already has security agreements with Israel. A confed might also allow Israel to keep more land because viability is less an issue. The confed like the “state” allows for the saving of “face”. Perhaps it will begin as informal arrangements such as what is going on between egypt/hamas with Qatari supervision. Just a thought.

  29. Canadian Otter Said:

    One has to wonder what else is going on.

    the US partnered with the Sauds and the Pakistan INI in the 1980’s to send jihad mercenaries to fight the soviets in Afghanistan. It is increasingly apparent that the exact same thing has been going on with regard to, at least, Libya and Syria. the Benghazi situation was the link and Stevens was coordinating with Turkey and saudi for the selection of jihadis and flow of arms from libya to the next arena in syria. One cover story was that he was trying to prevent arms getting to syria :). The biggest question, when you begin to connect all the dots, and realize how incredibly advantageous it has been for the sauds and the US to work together over the years where the sauds can do all the work that would be illegal for the US govt. is: If the US is involved now, ostensibly, in an alliance with Saudi/Qatar/Al Aqaeda/ salafis/jihadis in Syria and was dong the same with their forerunners in the 1980’s: is it really believable that in between the US and Al Qaeda were enemies in opposition and the saud/US/jihadi relationship was in hiatus?
    Recently according to world tribune the sauds are banning saudi citizens from joining jihadis in syria. My wager is that they want to distance themselves from the obvious link which was too up front in 911. It is also said that the CIA aided a saudi price(bandar or bin talal) to make massive arms purchases in croatia recently for the Jihadis and that the US is training jihadis in jordan. The distancing of the west from the FSA may be real but it may also be a red herring, because the other players, sauds, etc, can take it from here. I think the debkafile assertion of the saudi/Qatari split is a red herring too, I think it is like a good cop bad cop routine to obfuscate the extent of the cooperation.

  30. Bernard Ross Said:

    If it wasn’t for the americans, Israel would be now running the suez canal. They crossed the suez in the 73 war on their way to cairo but the US, as usual, called for a cease fire.

    The real culprit was the old USSR, which had invested billions in Egypt; and even threatened to nuke Israel if it did not stop its advance.

  32. Eric R. Said:

    They are doing just that – and I might add with Chinese, and not American, help.

    If it wasn’t for the americans, Israel would be now running the suez canal. They crossed the suez in the 73 war on their way to cairo but the US, as usual, called for a cease fire. Hopefullty, one day, that opportunity will return and be seized.

  33. Notsocommon Said:

    Incidentally, Israel should be urgently building a container-carrying rail line and a pipeline from Eilat to the Mediterranean in order to benefit from replacing the Suez canal once Egypt collapses.

    They are doing just that – and I might add with Chinese, and not American, help.

  39. @ yamit82:
    NYC Police may be doing their jobs, but the US government has granted special privileges to the Saudis.

    “The Obama Administration is making it easier for Saudis to get through security at airports. In fact, now they will be allowed to bypass custom authorities due to an agreement quietly signed between U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and the Saudi government. After the September 11 terrorist attacks, Saudi Arabia acknowledged 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi citizens.”
    http://cnsnews.com/node/654228

    Children, the disabled, the elderly, they are all groped and humiliated by airport security. But not the Saudis.
    Saudi diplomats were also spirited out of the US within hours of the 9/11 attack, while all other air traffic was grounded. One has to wonder what else is going on.

  41. Further on Bennett (my talkback #6) – he speaks like a college boy in the United States. Let’s be nice to Israeli Arabs, he says, let’s stop discriminating, let give them more and better jobs. Let’s stop Jewish racism against Arabs. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/166698

    Really? It seems to me that it’s the other way around. It’s the Arabs who discriminate against Jews. Their towns in Israel are Judenrein. I know what happens to Jews who try to rent a place there. And in mixed towns they harass and attack Jews to drive them out. They attack Jews at every opportunity, no matter what age, just because they’re Jews. Their racist ideology matches that of the PA and Gaza Arabs, only that they are not as vociferous. They are just waiting for the time when they can take over the country and make it Judenrein. ~~~~~ Instead of expressing so much concern for the Arabs Bennett should be endorsing policies that protect Jews and their land. ~~~ Bennett’s imported politically correct views ignore the local historical context and the daily threats suffered by Jews in Israel. ~~~ Bennett should be promoting policies that protect the lives and safety of Jews, and Jewish land from Arab takeover in the north, the Negev and Jerusalem. ~~~ And giving Arabs under 40 financial incentives to resettle abroad with their families. Cheaper in the long run than having to police them, incarcerate them, or pay them social benefits.

  44. I’m rather skeptical on this writer’s take on things: “Having survived 80 years of persecution to achieve power democratically”. Persecution? It’s a neo-nazi mercenary group sponsored by outside powers, not a ‘persecuted’ grass-roots movement.

    As far as the ‘democratically’ part goes, it would not have obtained power without the US government acting on its behalf. I tend to notice that when the US government is putting its nazi-puppets into place, US media *always* insists that it came about via ‘democratic elections’.

    Everything else he writes about is a logical reaction to the infliction of these MB puppets.

  45. Brought to you by the Obama administration.

    Wow, there should be a Nobel Prize of some kind for this kind of diligent meddling – The Stirring-The-Pot Prize?

    On another note, Naftali Bennet – unlike the PM – seems to be developing a good detector for popular sentiment.

    Bennett: “We don’t bow our heads before Turks. We lower our heads before no one, including Turks and Egyptians.”
    http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/166696

    Not bad. Let’s hope he stays consistent. Does that include the USA and the EU?

  47. “While feminist organizations are demonstrating against repeated violence against women and fatwas encouraging such violence, the Brotherhood posted on its official website a condemnation of the recent UN resolution on the rights of women “because it is in violation of the Shari’a.””

    Yes, and where are Western women’s groups, campus student groups, union spokespeople, the UN, the churches, the EU and others to speak out against the growing misogyny, intolerance, violence, and true Apartheid that the Muslim Brotherhood champion?

    The leftist groups, like Obama, must be down on their hands and knees with microscopes occupied in their task of looking for any signs that Israelis might be adding additions on to their kitchens or bathrooms!

    The hypocrisy of the left is criminal. I agree with the previous posts and hope that countries which have made life for everyone else bloody miserable, in good times and bad, continue to experience in-fighting so they have no time to turn their hateful gazes and attention towards the West with bloodthirsty smiles.

  48. The ideal form of government for any Muslim country is open ended civil war. Let Syria show the way and hopefully an all out Shia-Sunni hot war will break out throughout the Muslim world. The busiest they are trying to scrap by and survive, the least harm they can cause to the infidels beyond their borders. Maybe the Arab Spring will really end up being a spring of joy for those who know that the Muslim world deserves some of the misfortune that Muslims dream non-stop to inflict on civilized nations. And all this accomplished without us having to lift a finger against Muslims nor soil ourselves again fighting back. Spring indeed! Incidentally, Israel should be urgently building a container-carrying rail line and a pipeline from Eilat to the Mediterranean in order to benefit from replacing the Suez canal once Egypt collapses.