Egyptian Parliament votes Israel out as Moslem Brotherhood opens door to IMF austerity

The newly elected Egyptian Parliament has passed a measure to halt natural gas exports to Israel and to expel Israel’s Ambassador in Cairo. A Parliamentary report describes Israel as Egypt’s number one enemy.

Moreover, Egypt’s new Islamic-majority parliament has decided to vote on ending aid from the United States, which, it says, has no respect for the country’s sovereignty.
The MPs made the decision in the People’s Assembly on Sunday, reacting to the March 1 departure from the country of six US defendants in a case of 43 workers of unlicensed NGOs, which are accused of illegally using foreign funds to fuel unrest in Egypt.
Press TV talked with Webster Tarpley, an author and historian from Washington, to further explore the issue.
The video also provides the insights of two other guests, Ayman Salama, with the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, and Hani al-Basous who is a professor at the Islamic University of Gaza.
The following is a rough transcript of the interview.



Press TV: Dr. Tarpley, the question is the decision or the motion has been put forward by the MPs in Egypt, but right now we know that there is veto power from the military rulers.
So basically how will this motion affect Egypt’s future ties with Tel Aviv?
Do you think that it is going to take time yet as long as the military rulership at least is still in power?
Webster G. Tarpley: Well, the gesture is certainly understandable in the sense that the Israelis have been carrying out this brutal bombing campaign in Gaza that killed as far as we can see from here 25 people or more.
There is a complete silence and indifference of the international community or what Hillary Clinton calls the international community when Syria defends itself against foreign death squads, they scream to high heaven, but when Israel does the same thing in the occupied territories, there is very little response.
So the idea is to cut off the gas and to tell the Israeli ambassador to leave and I am sure that expresses the great rage and anger of the Egyptian masses.
But on the other hand, it is not like it did have any effect because the foreign policy is still in the hands of the SCAF, that is to say Tantawi, Enan and these other Generals that notoriously work with the United States.
I would also point to the problem in the parliament now. You’ve got at least a relative majority in the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood and they are facing a big political crisis.
What did they do about the International Monetary Fund? The government right now, the Ganzouri government that they want to overthrow, is negotiating a 3.2 billion dollar loan with the International Monetary Fund and the public word is that the conditions are not that bad, but I think in reality the conditions are pretty bad.
And there is a great deal of resentment and hatred in Egypt because people remember the neoliberal economic reforms of the 1990s and of the past decade that were imposed by the International Monetary Fund.
So imperialism has many faces.
Press TV: Dr. Tarpley, we know the case of the Americans involved with the NGO’s and then they were accused of fomenting unrest.
Now the military rulers were accused of giving in on the pressure from America to release those American detainees.
Basically, how valid do you think are these allegations of both Israeli involvement and the American involvement in trying to create violence and unrest in Egypt?
Do you think that they are doing that to protect their interests?
Webster G. Tarpley: Well, certainly the National Endowment for Democracy is simply a machine for interfering in the political affairs of other countries and this applies to the National Democratic Institute which was once headed by Madeleine Albright who thought that 1.5 million deaths in Iraq was a reasonable price to pay for what she called democracy and the International Republican Institute.
In many ways, the NED and these two faces that it has represents a kind of privatization of the old post war, cold war, CIA, right?
This was done under [Ronald] Reagan, starting in the 1980s, that those functions were focused there. So I do not really see how any sovereign country can tolerate the presence of these organizations and claim to have independent politics.
We are seeing the same thing in Russia with the White Revolution so-called, now a failure, but attempted by people who were in constant contact with the National Endowment for Democracy.
But if there is one thing that again I would like to pay attention to: it is this question of the International Monetary Fund because Israel and the US, these are known quantities, but the resistance of the Muslim Brotherhood group in the parliament in Egypt against the IMF seems to be very low.
And this will lead ultimately to tremendous problems because with the IMF, the first loan may have reasonable conditions; it is like a dope pusher who gives the first dose even for free, but once you are in that web of debt, then you do not get out of it and it is a fateful decision.
I think the people in the Egyptian parliament ought to read that recent book: the Confessions of an Economic Hit man, because that is pretty much how the IMF gets you into the net and that is happening right now and I think it is a tragic waste of the potential that is there.
Press TV: Dr. Tarpley, the question is are America and Israel getting isolated because of this? And is Egypt now not anymore dependant on the aid and on the political ties with Washington and Israel?
Webster G. Tarpley: Well, the problem is you can drive the devil out through the front door but he comes back in through the window and these gestures are certainly completely understandable and generally fine.
But when you get the International Monetary Fund coming in, Egypt will very soon go through the experience of every other country in the world which is when you get the IMF, you do not have sovereignty; your sovereignty is gone and you can assert yourself against the US and the Israelis.
The International Monetary Fund is as dangerous and, as I say in this case, more dangerous, if the freedom and justice party, the Muslim Brotherhood, if they decide to increase regressive taxes, like a value-added tax and do nothing for the average Egyptian worker, then it is a failure.