In response to Dennis Ross’s August 20th Washington post article on Egypt

Dennis Ross’s August 20th article on Egypt and its elected president is unfair and distorts reality.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dennis-ross-egypts-new-leaders-must-accept-reality/2012/08/19/46e60810-e8ad-11e1-936a-b801f1abab19_story.html

Instead of helping American readers understand reality in Egypt, Ross is launching a classical attack by pro Israel lobby on Egypt, its new democracy and president.

Ross is using same old strategies and distortions, which may not be useful or constructive in the era of the Arab spring and youth revolutions.

Basically, Dennis Ross is trying to say that the Muslim Brotherhood is the one in charge in Egypt, it is untrustworthy, it might annoy Israel, and the US should waive the big stick now and very high.

Ross does not want to waste time or opportunity and wants to make sure that the American stick is already and waived as high as possible and hitting.
 

To achieve that Ross is distorting reality and denying American public opportunity to see it.

For example, Ross does not tell his readers is that Morsi is now the first elected president by Egyptian people ever and people need time to build their own democracy and institutions after living decades under dictatorship.

Ross does not tell his readers that Morsi has a diverse team and many are not MB members, including his vice president, and his about to announce a more diverse team of presidential advisors.

Ross does not tell his readers that Neither Morsi, his team, or the MB are fully in charge in Egypt because many of the most influential political and economic institutions in the country are still controlled by Mubarak loyalists and this will be the case for years to come.

Ross does not tell his readers that Netanyahu has driven his own president (Obama) and most Arab and international leaders nuts because of his unwillingness to negotiate and ever expanding settlement policy and that at this moment no one in the Middle East really knows what does Netanyahu’s peace plan looks like if any.

Ross does not tell his readers that all pro revolution groups in Egypt lack political experience and knowledge and need help and time to learn and grow.

Finally, Ross does not tell his readers that America has a great opportunity to really work with the Egyptian people, reach out to them and improve relations.

Alaa Bayoumi