The Egyptian Puppet State

"Gaza Wants to Eat"

By SAM HUSSEINI
CounterPunch

"......I began talking to the riot police. In my broken Arabic: "Gaza wants to eat." And then through a French translator: "These people want to get supplies to Gaza. The Egyptian government is stopping them, why?"

A commander came by, told the woman who was translating for me to stop talking to them. Of course, he doesn't want his men to fully appreciate how the Egyptian state appears to be doing the bidding of Israel. I tried to get him to answer if he really has a government. One of the apparent demands that the Egyptian government on the convoy led by Galloway is that he get permission from Israel.

What does Israel have to do with it?

Egypt has a border with Gaza. If Egypt is a nation state, it should be able to do what it wants with its border. But it is saying that what it does is dependent on Israel. So Egypt is a puppet state, not a nation state.

When the commander went away, most of the soldiers looked dolefully upon me, one pointed to his eye and his heart -- after looking in either direction to make sure none of the commanders could see him.

I think a larger opportunity may be here. It's one thing for a few hundred, or maybe a thousand people from the US and France and such to protest in Cairo. But if Egyptians know what their government is doing and feel safe protesting, will they join us? This is one more reason why the cause of Palestine linked globally to the cause of human freedom, and perhaps how the cause of human freedom is linked to solidarity.

Sharing this, maybe I can sleep for an hour or two."