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Egypt's Revolt and the American Model

(Wall Street Journal) Ed Husain - Despite the fashionable tendency among U.S. political elites to talk down American standing in the Middle East, America remains hugely attractive across the Middle East. The Arab revolutionaries did not look to China or Russia for a model of government. They looked to four-year presidential terms, inspired directly by American democracy. At bookshops across Egypt I find bestselling guidebooks on how to pass entrance tests for American universities. Across the Arab world, satellite dishes face west. Hollywood films, McDonald's, Starbucks, jeans, baseball caps, Facebook and Twitter are the widespread norm. Even those Egyptians who shout anti-American claptrap - the Muslim Brotherhood and their Salafi cousins - crave meetings and photo-ops with visiting American politicians, such as Sen. John Kerry recently. They seek an American stamp of approval that bestows legitimacy, modernity, and association with global power. In the many meetings I have had with members of the Muslim Brotherhood and other Middle Eastern Islamists over the past year, they show animosity toward the U.S. only with regard to Israel. There is no stamina for war with Israel, but this generation of Arabs won't recognize Israel as a Jewish state. The writer is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
2012-01-27 00:00:00
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