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[JPost] Far from abating, mass demonstrations against Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and the regime of the Moslem Brüderbund are intensifying to the extent that there is now real potential for a new revolution.Though the president was elected through free elections, every day he loses a bit more of his legitimacy.
He is confronted today by a large coalition of non-Islamist parties belonging to all opposition forces. The Left, the Nasserists and the Liberals are now coordinating their action through a common National Salvation Front headed by former UN nuclear watchdog head Mohamed ElBaradei
Egyptian law scholar and Iranian catspaw. He was head of the IAEA from December 1997 to November 2009. At some point during his tenure he was purchased by the Iranians. ElBaradei and the IAEA were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for something in 2005. After stepping down from his IAEA position ElBaradei attempted to horn in on the 2011 Egyptian protests which culminated in the collapse of the Mubarak regime. ElBaradei served on the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group, a lefty NGO that is bankrolled by the Carnegie Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as George Soros' Open Society Institute. Soros himself serves as a member of the organization's Executive Committee.
, assisted by a number of important leaders such as former MP Hamdeen Sabahi and former Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
head Jerry Lewis doppelgänger Amr Moussa.
... who was head of the Arab League for approximately two normal lifespans, accomplishing nothing that was obvious to the casual observer ...
This week, in a new and major blow for the regime, nongovernmental media joined the fray: Independent newspapers, papers belonging to political parties and a number of television channels are now openly opposing the president.
Several presidential assistants resigned.
This is no longer a transient phenomenon that Morsi -- who is well aware of the fact that he received barely 25 percent of the vote in the first round of the presidential election -- can afford to ignore. He is facing a massive popular uprising very similar to what happened in the first days of the revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
two years ago.
In fact, this week, by having his government issue a decree calling on the army to help police and security forces ensure the protection of the referendum on the constitution, Morsi essentially admitted that he had lost his legitimacy and had to rely on the army to keep his seat and implement his program. To that end, the army was tasked with protecting civil institutions and granted extraordinary powers, such as the right to arrest civilians and bring them to justice.
In theory, those powers are limited in time and will expire with the conclusion of the referendum and the publication of the results. Nevertheless, this is a return to the infamous emergency laws of the previous regime that were canceled by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. By letting the army intervene in internal affairs, the regime is acknowledging that it is no longer in control and cannot rely on the civilian institutions in charge of keeping law and order -- such as the police, security forces and judiciary.