The sixth year of the Egyptian Nakba is drawing to a close

If 6 June 1967 represents an overwhelming military defeat for Egypt and the Arab nation as a whole, following which we lost land, grace and dignity, the Nakba of 30 June 2013 was the greatest and most terrible defeat in every sense. We lost the land, the homeland, identity, national unity, Egypt’s status and the democratic transition, and we also lost hope that we would become a significant nation which would join the world’s civilised people and restore the glory of our forefathers.

On that sad day, the evil forces represented by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the Zionist strongholds in the Arab world, were used as the centre of counterrevolutions where all the conspiracies against the Arab people and military coups in the region are plotted, the last of which was the failed coup in Ethiopia. They conspired against the Egyptian people and managed to bury the first democratic experience in Egypt in its early stages. These forces took away the Egyptian dream and turned it into a nightmare in case the people became “infected” by democracy and the winds of change would overthrow their own fragile thrones. The evil forces spent hundreds of billions of dollars in order to overthrow the first democratically-elected Egyptian president, chosen in a poll noted for its integrity, something unique in Arab history. Furthermore, there is no doubt that the 2013 military coup was carried out under US instructions.

The Egyptian revolution was unpleasant for Zionist leaders, including the Arab Zionists. Apart from the fact that they want the Zionist entity of Israel to remain “the only democracy in the Middle East”, they also fear the awakening of the Arab people and the overthrow of their rulers, the Zionist stooges and guardians of the occupying state. Palestine remains in the heart of every free Arab.

Several leading Israelis, the most prominent of them being former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, said that they would never allow the establishment of an Islamic government in neighbouring Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood’s victories and great efforts made in the war of 1948, which almost led to the defeat of the nascent state of Israel, are still in the collective memory in Tel Aviv, and will stay there as long as the movement has a presence and strength on the ground. Barak demanded that the US should deal with President Mohamed Morsi the way it dealt with all former Sunni Muslim Presidents that it had abandoned, and called for Washington to support coup leader Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi.

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Ehud Barak had played a major role in promoting the coup in the West with his friend Mohamed ElBaradei, who admitted in a press interview afterwards that he had been trying for six months to persuade Western countries of the need to end Morsi’s rule. Perhaps what the Coptic MP, the Church representative in the Revolution Parliament and one of the main heroes of the 30 June coup, Emad Gad, wrote in Al-Watan is the best testimony against Zionist officials: “Israel had played an important role in supporting the 30 June revolution [sic]. The delegations sent by Netanyahu exerted great pressure on members of Congress to adopt objective visions towards events in Egypt.” This is testimony from Egyptian officials on the Zionist role in what they call the 30 June revolution, through which they actually condemn their own revolution and admit that it was made by Zionists.

Nevertheless, we cannot exempt the elites from criticism, especially those who participated in the 25 January 2011 revolution and were among its icons, for conspiring against the revolution and cooperating with its enemies simply because their political adversary came to power. They turned against the democracy that they had called for and agreed to be the means by which the military could take over by providing the coup with a civilian fig leaf.

After being overlooked for roles in the democratic government, and losing any hope of ever getting any, this decadent group started screaming against what they called a “fascist regime”. This elite is still stubborn and vanity makes it hate the Islamists’ rise to government, and want to exclude them from the political scene whilst also calling on its members to cooperate. The honest and impeccable January Revolution cannot in any way be compared with the degrading act of 30 June, which remains tarnished by dollars and riyals, and drowned in the blood of innocents. It is an opportunistic and corrupt elite that was the reason for the setback of the revolution, the calamity of Egypt and the dreadful state into which the country has fallen.

The sixth anniversary of the Egyptian Nakba comes in the absence of the symbol of electoral legitimacy, the martyred President Mohamed Morsi, who was betrayed when alive by the one whom he trusted, and again when he was killed. It is as if Al-Sisi wanted to terminate him physically and psychologically in the same month, because the presence of the deposed President haunted him while he was alive, and will continue to do so now that he is dead. Despite being “elected” twice, touring the whole world and having the doors of presidential palaces opened for him, everyone knows that Al-Sisi is a coup leader who came to power thanks to the force of arms, turned against the legitimate President of the Republic and took the position from him. He will continue to feel insecure and unstable, even after adjusting the constitution and militarising it to serve his own interests. He has filled prisons with thousands of detainees, young and old alike; suppressed freedoms and shut mouths; controlled all media outlets; and tightened his grip so that nobody will be able to take a stand, speak out and take action.

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There are no real forces left on the ground to confront this tyrant; all of the patriots have been thrown in prison, and national forces have been fragmented into different groups at home and abroad. The people were liberated by the glorious January Revolution, but are now fearful thanks to the oppression of the fascist coup regime. The regime has taken the opportunity to increase the prices of basic necessities safe in the knowledge that there will be no real reaction on the ground and anger will remain bottled up. The regime does not realise that Egyptians suppress their anger and are patient. One day, though, when they have had enough and can’t bear it any more, their tormentors will have to pay the price and the tables will be turned. That is what history has taught us.

The quality of life promised by the regime is nothing but a deception, like that of the Devil. Al-Sisi’s endearments towards the people turned to slaps in the face. The poor grew poorer and the middle class, which is the foundation of all societies, looks to have faded away, merging with the less well off. Viral gloating on social media about the Egyptian football team losing a match at the Africa Cup of Nations hosted by Egypt suggests that the middle class no longer feel that state institutions belong to them; they are the property of the new pharaoh, to whom all things are attributed. The football defeat came after an increase in fuel prices for the fifth time. The regime chose the timing of the price hike, thinking that people would be busy with the match and celebrating victory. It forgot that the wind doesn’t always blow the way that sailors wish.

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This is the new Egypt that Al-Sisi promised when he said, “You will see that Egypt will remain as big as the world, not the mother of the world.” Now Egypt has just two classes: the hard working poor class which represent the great proportion of Egyptian people, and the rich and greedy class, the parasites who plunder the wealth of the country and make the rest of the people serve them. These rich people are the only ones benefiting from the coup regime and its backers. They live and work behind high walls so that they are away from the eyes and scrutiny of the poor people who envy them.

This is the situation in Egypt six years after the coup, and no one knows what the future will bring. God may turn the tables, for everything is under His control, but most people are not aware.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.