The Gospel According to Ole Geo - Part I

The changes yesterday in Egypt brought up a lot of feelings within me, some of which I'll try to share today.

I'm cautiously optimistic that the Egyptian "Revolution" will achieve at least in the range of 50-75% of its expressed aims. If it succeeds there will be an "Arab" country which respects both its religious minorities (such as 10% Coptic Christians) as well as its Moslem normal folks who vary from being religious to not-so religious. It will also be a country which deals with its own economic ills and seeks for the first time to help its people, rather than those who have benefited from its cronyism.

It also could well become an influential country as Turkey already is which no longer is ruled over by U.S. and Israeli policies, respecting Jews, but Not supporting the continued preventing of a lasting peace as it has done for many years.

The Wiki Leaks - related to Israel and the Middle East have shown both the sham that the Israeli leadership (and the U.S. leadership) want peace and that governments such as Egypt and Jordan have tacitly supported the status quo.

Previously the Palestinians have been a "shared threat". Israel will lose "power" if there is a growing, prospering independent Palestine (though economically in the long run it might gain from increased trade - replacing the "plantation" domination that exists now).

Governments such as Egypt's have previously been threatened by a potential Palestinian State because it would suggest another way, besides the despotic leadership model in the Middle East. This should change and hopefully make things much better.

I don't want to naively think that all will go smoothly or easily, but I hope that things will work out and get better. Hopefully we will see the end of an era where the U.S. gave roughly a billion dollars a year to Egypt who then "spent" that billion on U.S. military hardware and similar.

Thanks!