Opinion: ElBaradei is Best Prospect to Lead Egypt

The State Journal-Register - There was panic in the voice on my telephone. “All prisons are empty. The criminals have broken out. They are roaming the city and looting. All police have been told to stay home. This is frightening. We don’t know what to do.” On the phone was a longtime friend in Cairo, Egypt.

I had nothing to offer except an optimistic prediction that the massive protests can lead to constructive changes in Egypt’s relationship with the United States, Arab states, as well as with Israel. If, as I predicted, it produces a major step toward democracy and civil liberty, its impact may be regionwide, an advance in human rights seldom matched in recent Arab history.

Hosni Mubarak’s decision against seeking re-election will not suffice. Egyptians want him out now. One of the reasons for the current uprising in Egypt is the vast gulf between perceptions among the governed, most of whom are deeply sympathetic with the plight of Palestinians under harsh Israeli rule, and the pro-Israel official policies toward Palestinians carried out by Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak regime at the behest of Washington. For example, U.S. pressure led him to help Israel impose the cruel blockade of Palestinians in Gaza....
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