Stop US aid now, to Israel, Egypt, or any other nation -- period.
***** When NPR correspondent Deborah Amos was in Cairo filming for "The View from Cairo" she stopped by American University, a venerable institution of higher education. Earlier this year students from American University took to the streets in protest. To gauge the feelings of youth on the relationship between Islam and the West Amos talked to both Egtptian and American students - some of their responses are below.
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Q (Deborah Amos): How are you feeling about the United States these days?
MOHAMED My feelings about the United States these days have not changed much, because I was not very happy with the American foreign policy ever since I was a teenager. So, I don't see a structural difference. I only see a difference in magnitude and way of applying the policy rather than a shift in a policy.
MALE STUDENT I think that they take advantage of being powerful and controlling resources or something like that to force their opinion. I think it's a bit unjust, but as I told you before the interview I have nothing against them but I just hope that they, you know, try to make it more just. Try to consider what they're doing.
Q: Why do you think that students here are angry at the United States because of what Israel is doing? We're not there. We're not guiding them. We're not advising them in any way.
AHMED Yeah, but if you count the number of vetoes that the United States have used in favor of Israel, this is like a direct contribution to the Israeli actions. The United States makes it very clear that the United States is very concerned about Israel's security and it will not accept any harm done to Israel....
I think the main reason is that Israel fits within the United States' view of its strategic interests in the area. The strategic part is that Israel has been such a convenient entity since its creation for the West. Because of Israel, you can have borders among the Arab countries.
Q: Are you mad not just for the last 2 years but for long-term American policy?
SOLAVA Actually I think the word "mad" is wrong, but I have been a lot more critical. "Mad" is just an expression of feelings in response of certain events, but being critical means that I am actually very against or opposed to the hypocritic nature of the American foreign policy.
Because if you see American decision-makers or Presidents, for example, talking about human rights, talking about democracies in their American discourse, I ... would expect them to come or to see whatever happened in Jenin ... to see whatever is happening to the Iraqi children, and in their own policies then to consider human rights or to consider the democratic transitions and support, while most of the American policies are in support of authoritarian regimes.
So this hypocritic nature or that you see that on the one hand they are using certain values whenever they want to use them and whenever it serves their interests, and when they have to actually act in support of these values, they do not do it unless it is, again, in support of their own interests within the region.
Q: Do you want the alliance between the United States and Egypt to change?
MOHAMED Yes, definitely to change. I am not happy with having a very positive and strong bond with the United States. And it's not just because of Palestine. I mean, the problems with the United States goes all over the world. Latin America, Africa, Middle East - you have a number of examples of the U.S. interfering directly in the affairs of other countries.
Q: But there's a lot of foreign aid at stake!
MOHAMED Israel is a democracy; therefore we're helping it; the United States claims. Egypt is not a democracy. Egypt is a very oppressive regime; the Mubarak regime is very oppressive. And it's being bailed out by the United States.
And I just wish they leave us alone to correct ourselves.... Even if it stops aid I think we need to have our own way of improving ourselves or let's at least have a feedback system by which Mubarak cannot be bailed out by U.S. money.
SOLAVA Yeah, I would like to support Mohamed on, on this....I'm not happy about the idea that we get wheat as aid from the United States this cannot make us develop our - or try to get our own wheat. We've been living without the United States till the beginning of the '70s, and I don't believe that we won't be able to survive without it.
I'm not against having relations with the United States - of course I would like to welcome that - but having this dependent kind of relation puts limits on even our foreign policy decisions....
<http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/egypt.html> ***** -- Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>