Daily View: Protests in Egypt
"Listening to the protesters, one gets the feeling that they have not been deterred by the severity of the beatings; rather, their resolve has been hardened. In an unprecedented show of civil disobedience and open revolt, young Egyptians have clearly and forcibly delivered a message that is still resonating in the Middle East and North Africa: Authoritarian rule in the region is over."
the implications are huge for the West and Israel as the US decides whether it will be able to trust a new regime's foreign policy:
"America faces the same fundamental dilemma that the former power Britain failed to resolve in the decades leading up to the Suez Crisis. Do you trust 80 million Egyptians to determine their own foreign policy, in this most vital of regions? It takes a braver superpower than Britain to say yes."
The executive director of the Arab Reform Initiative that the post-Mubarak era may mean Egyptians are no longer caught between military rule and the Muslim Brotherhood:
"Leaders in Cairo and Washington worry about Islamists taking over. Yet it seems the Brotherhood was as surprised by the uprising as the government and opposition, while its leadership has been slow to read the new politics of Egypt. They have been reluctant to fall in behind the social movements that have mushroomed across the country, and are now divided over strategy. Their younger members are also frustrated with the movement's ageing leaders - a picture that replicates exactly the structure of the regime they seek to overturn. A weakened, fractured Brotherhood should present no mortal threat to Egypt's future.
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"Egyptians now expect the announcement of a democratic transition process that will put an end to their political conundrum of having to put up with military rule to prevent the advent of the Muslim Brothers. They have yet to find out whether the voice of the 'street' is strong enough to prevent the establishment from successfully concocting a managed scenario."
Syndicated columnist among other papers that Egypt's history will prevent democracy:
"The sclerotic regime of Hosni Mubarak insists the only alternative to its misrule is an Islamist takeover. But the Mubarak government has created a self-fulfilling prophecy, leaving no political space for moderate movements to develop. Elections are rigged, and fake charges are cooked up to throw moderate political opponents in jail."
The director of research at Freedom House :
"The fact that countries like El Salvador, South Korea and Romania overcame legacies of repression and poverty to attain democratic governance suggests that it would be a serious mistake to write off prospects for the Arab world. But if their revolutions are to succeed, Arab democrats must prevail over both a powerful legacy of autocracy and those forces aligned with the autocrats - the very people who are hoping for the status quo's survival - as well as religious extremists, who likewise disdain a democratic path."
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