World View: Mohamed Morsi's Replacement in Egypt May Be 'Better' for Israel

World View: Mohamed Morsi's Replacement in Egypt May Be 'Better' for Israel

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

  • RSS feeds are reinstated
  • Egypt’s opposing camps plan large rival protests on Sunday
  • Political drama over appointment of ElBaradei as Egypt’s PM
  • Mohamed Morsi’s replacement in Egypt may be ‘better’ for Israel
  • Bond yields rising worldwide

RSS feeds are reinstated

Ever since the GenerationalDynamics.com web site suffered a majorattack in March (apparently though not certainly by Chinese hackers),I’ve been using the time I had available to focus on content, whichmeant that some features of the web site remained unavailable. I’vebeen restoring these features one at a time, as time allowed, and I’mpleased to announce that the RSS feeds have finally been restored. Iapologize for the long delay. The new links to the RSS feeds are onthe home page. They are as follows:
Generational Dynamics: Web Log News Feed
Generational Dynamics: Analysis News Feed
Generational Dynamics: Forum News Feed

Egypt’s opposing camps plan large rival protests on Sunday

Mohammed ElBaradei, who was appointed Egypt's PM on Saturday, and then fired (AP)
Mohammed ElBaradei, who was appointed Egypt’s PM on Saturday, and then fired (AP)

The two opposing camps of protesters — the one cheering the coup thatled to the ouster of president Mohamed Morsi, versus the one bitterlyangry about the coup and demanding Morsi’s reinstatement — areplanning rival demonstrations on Sunday.

The coalition supporting Morsi’s reinstatement is led by the MuslimBrotherhood and is called the National Alliance in Support ofLegitimacy, and is calling for mass rallies to “Protect theRevolution.” When this coalition uses the term “legitimacy,” itrefers to the election of Morsi as president in a legitimate election.

The “Tamarod” or “Rebel” anti-Morsi campaign is also calling forSunday protests to defend what they call “popular legitimacy.”For them, “legitimacy” refers to the demands of millions ofEgyptian citizens.Al-Ahram (Cairo) and Al-Jazeera

Political drama over appointment of ElBaradei as Egypt’s PM

There was a fair amount of political drama on Saturday, when it wasannounced that Mohamed ElBaradei would be sworn in as Egypt’s newprime minister. ElBaradei is well known internationally for his workas former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, for which hewon a Nobel peace prize. In Egypt’s political context he’s considereda liberal. He was very popular in Egypt for supporting the overthrowof Hosni Mubarak, but he disappointed his followers because of hisapparent disinterest in following up politically.

So a lot of people were questioning why he accepted an appointment asPM on Saturday, given his previous disinterest. However, hisappointment as PM was withdrawn a few hours later when the al-Nourparty threatened to withdraw from the governing coalition. Theal-Nour party is far more conservative than the more moderate MuslimBrotherhood, but they’ve joined the liberals and secularists inopposing the Muslim Brotherhood’s rise to power. However, theappointment of ElBaradei was too much for them, and ElBaradei’sappointment was doomed. Whatever the circumstances, this portendsmajor divisions in the mixed coalition of Egyptian activists andpoliticians who supported the army’s ouster of Mohamed Morsi. Al-Ahram (Cairo) and Toronto Star

Mohamed Morsi’s replacement in Egypt may be ‘better’ for Israel

Israel is officially silent about the events in Egypt, but someofficials are applauding the ouster of Egypt’s president MohamedMorsi. Israel has good relations with Egypt’s army, and there is amutual dependence to prevent terrorist attacks in Sinai, near borderbetween Egypt and Israel. However, Israel’s relations with Morsi havebeen much more difficult than the relations with the army. DuringMorsi’s year in power, there have been some worrying developments.Morsi has refused to allow top Israeli officials into Egypt, has notappointed an ambassador to Israel, and has refused to allow Israel torebuild its embassy in Cairo after the former embassy was destroyingduring riots. Israeli officials are hoping that a new Egyptian regimewill be more friendly with Israel than the last one. Israel National News and AFP

Bond yields rising worldwide

A couple of days ago, I reportedthat eurozone finance ministers were beginning to panic because bondyields for Portugal and Spain have been spiking since the beginning ofMay, indicating the investors are selling Portuguese and Spanishbonds, and refusing to lend more money to those two countries. Well,it turns out that bond yields are rising for a number of Europeancountries, and also for U.S. Treasuries. This may mean nothing, or itmay mean something. But if it means something, then here’s what thatsomething could be: It could be that large over-leveraged investorshave been losing money in the stock market, and are being forced toraise cash quickly to cover their debt margins, and so they’re sellingtheir most liquid asset, government bonds, which pushes bond pricesdown and yields up. If that’s true, then it could be an early sign ofa bigger selloff in stock markets in the weeks to come.

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