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Various statements, articles before the 2011 Egyptian protests

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Can Mubarak weather a perfect storm? Holed up under the belle époque domes of his presidential palace this week, ailing Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak would not have heard the crowds chanting his name on the streets of Cairo, Alexandria, Fayoum and other major cities across the country.

Can Mubarak weather a perfect storm?

Which is just as well, as their words were enough to send a chill down the spine of any Arab autocrat fighting to maintain his grip over a nation increasingly reluctant to afford those at the top of the political tree any kind of credibility. "Ya Mubarak, Ya Sahyoni" ("Mubarak the Zionist") sang the protesters, as anger over Israel's deadly assault on the Gaza aid flotilla gathered momentum. "Down with the siege, down with Mubarak. " Only last month the Israeli newspaper Haaretz was describing the relationship between Mubarak and Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu as a "wonderful friendship" and claiming that Bibi felt closer to the 82-year-old Egyptian than to any other world statesman. Recent history is on their side.

Prayer for the health of the rais - Haaretz Daily Newspaper. Will the Obama administration enable more of Hosni Mubarak's aut. WHILE THE Obama administration was occupied with hosting a difficult ally -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai -- on Tuesday, another problematic friend took a big step toward perpetuating his corrupt and crumbling autocracy. Egyptian ruler Hosni Mubarak, who celebrated his 82nd birthday last week, arranged for his rubber-stamp parliament to extend, for another two years, the emergency law under which he has ruled since October 1981. In so doing, he flouted an emerging mass movement that has called for the law's lifting, so that elections for parliament and president scheduled for the next 18 months can be genuinely democratic.

He also violated the repeated pledges that he and his ruling party have made to end the emergency regime, dating back to 2005. Last but not least, Mr. Mubarak took advantage of the policy of the Obama administration, which has chosen to soft-pedal the cause of democracy and human rights in Egypt and across the Middle East. The result is that Mr. Michele Dunne and Robert Kagan - Obama needs to support Egyptian. When President Obama called for a "new beginning" in U.S. relations with the Muslim world a year ago, he picked Cairo as the setting for his speech.

Michele Dunne and Robert Kagan - Obama needs to support Egyptian

It was a provocative choice, the capital of a close ally of the United States but also of the three-decades-old autocracy of Hosni Mubarak. When Obama declared his commitment to "governments that reflect the will of the people" and said that leaders "must maintain your power through consent, not coercion," Egyptians thought they heard a not-so-subtle reference to their aging leader. One enthusiastic Egyptian shouted, "Barack Obama, we love you! " -- the only such interjection during the address. A year later, Egyptians are scratching their heads about why Obama came to Cairo.