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Egypt also partnered with Washington and Israel by enforcing Gaza's siege. Moreover, it did it for internal security reasons because of the Muslim Brotherhood's alleged ties to Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, and Hamas.
Anatomy of Mubarak's Dictatorship
Since the 1970s, Egypt shifted from defying Western imperialism to becoming a reliable strategic partner. Sadat hastened a trend already underway called "infitah," or open-door policy, to attract foreign capital by loosening currency controls, creating tax-free investment zones, and privatizing state industries. Political changes followed, including rapprochement with America to resolve conflict with Israel and remove the threat of war.
At the time, Egypt's crumbling infrastructure, fragile transportation and telecommunications networks, as well as fear of re-nationalizations deterred foreign investments. As a result, relaxed import controls facilitated flooding Egypt's market with luxury goods for the rich, not economic growth that deteriorated instead, mostly harming its workers and poor.
In November 1977, Sadat extended peace overtures to Israel in Jerusalem. A year later, Camp David followed, establishing full diplomatic and economic relations as well as getting Egypt expelled from the Arab League (AL), its headquarters moved from Cairo to Tunis. In 1989, Egypt was readmitted. In 1990, AL's headquarters returned to Cairo.
Sadat hoped economic growth would follow as well as US aid. His October 1981 assassination elevated former air force commander/deputy defense minister/air chief marshall/vice president Mubarak to power, replacing him. From then until now, he served reliably as a US puppet, profiting handsomely from the relationship, besides what he gained from other high positions.
He allied with America's 1991 Gulf War, collaborating again in 2003 by giving Pentagon forces priority Suez Canal access and unrestricted use of Egypt's airspace. At the time, David Welch, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs called America's partnership with Egypt "a cornerstone of our foreign policy in the Middle East." It leveraged its relationship to secure other regional allies. In return, Mubarak and Egypt's ruling class profited handsomely at the expense of their deeply impoverished people, the spark, along with extreme repression, that erupted in protests.
In her February 4 Foreign Policy article titled, "Anatomy of a Dictatorship: Hosni Mubarak," Elizabeth Dickinson said millions of Egyptians forced him not to run again for office, but demand more. "The president, they charged, was an autocrat, a repressor, and a tired leader. He had to go....Mubarak's Egypt," in fact, "is a textbook police state. For 30 years, anger and frustration brewed among his subjects, bottled up and sealed with fear."
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