Celebrating Egypt - fireworks in Beirut, Gaza and Tunisia... Even some good words from a former Israeli cabinet minister

there's no historical precedent... i've said before, i've been waiting for something like this all my life...

Celebrations erupted across the Middle East on Friday after Hosni Mubarak stepped down as Egypt's president. From Beirut to Gaza, people rushed into the streets, handing out candy, setting off fireworks and shooting in the air.

Even in Israel, which had watched the Egyptian protesters' uprising against Mubarak with concern, a former Cabinet minister said Mubarak did the right thing. "The street won. There was nothing that could be done. It's good that he did what he did," former Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who knew Mubarak well, told Israel TV's Channel 10.

Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel, and there are fears the 1979 accord could now be challenged.

Moments after Egypt's Vice President Omar Suleiman made the announcement of Mubarak's resignation, fireworks lit up the sky over Beirut. Celebratory gunfire rang out in the Shiite-dominated areas in south Lebanon and in southern Beirut.

On Al-Manar TV, the station run by the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah faction, Egyptian anchor Amr Nassef, who was once imprisoned in Egypt for alleged ties to Islamists, cried emotionally on the air and said: "Allahu Akbar (God is great), the Pharaoh is dead. Am I dreaming? I'm afraid to be dreaming."

In Tunisia, where a successful uprising expelled a longtime leader only weeks earlier, cries of joy and the thundering honking of horns greeted the announcement. "God delivered our Egyptian brothers from this dictator," said Yacoub Youssef, one of those celebrating in the capital of Tunis.

[...]

In the Gaza Strip, ruled by the Islamic militant Hamas, thousands rushed into the streets in jubilation. Gunmen fired in the air and women handed out candy. "God bless Egypt, it's a day of joy and God willing all corrupt leaders in the world will fall," said Radwa Abu Ali, 55, one of the women distributing sweets.

yes, god willing, all the corrupt leaders in the world will fall...

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Power to the people of Egypt...!

tahrir square is exploding with joy...!



after 30 years, it took the combined will of the egyptian people 18 days to topple the regime... god bless them... i'm in awe of their courage and pray for better days for them, their country and, indeed, for all of us...

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MUBARAK STEPS DOWN...!!

egyptian army tanks guarding the presidential palace in cairo with their gun barrels pointed at the protesters just turned them aside... is that symbolic or what...?

suleiman is making a statement right now... watch al jazeera here...

he just announced that mubarak has stepped down and handed over control of the country to the army council...

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Mubarak keeps givin' the same speech

it's the same speech he gave two weeks ago and i have the same reaction i did then...



what an arrogant asshole...

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The Egyptian Supreme Military Council just issued a statement [UPDATE] [UPDATE II]

there's quite a lot of room for interpretation, but it sounds like the military announced that the protesters demands are going to be met... the people in tahrir square are pretty energized and the rumors are flying...

watch al jazeera here...

[UPDATE]

Egypt's Mubarak to step down
Sources tell NBC News that Vice President Suleiman to take over as leader

the bad news...?

Vice President Omar Suleiman will take over

yes, that's BAD NEWS...

[UPDATE II]

mubarak to address the nation...

Hosni Mubarak to address Egypt; protesters are told demands will be met

A general tells protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square that their demands will be met, and the military says it is taking the 'necessary measures to protect the nation and support the legitimate demands of the people.' Protesters have been adamant that Hosni Mubarak step down.

please don't let the interim government be headed by suleiman...

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More people in Tahrir Square than ever before

watch al jazeera live feed here...

meanwhile, mubarak, israel and the u.s. are still angling to keep the status quo...

mubarak remains defiant...

Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians have poured into Cairo's Tahrir Square for the latest protest calling for Hosni Mubarak's government to step down.

The BBC's Jim Muir, in the Egyptian capital, says it is the biggest demonstration since the protests began on 25 January.

It comes despite the government's announcement of its plans for a peaceful transfer of power.

President Mubarak has said he will stay until elections in September.

In Tahrir Square, attempts by the army to check the identity cards of those joining the demonstration were abandoned because of the sheer weight of numbers.

and wikileaks diplomatic cables show that israel the u.s. israel the u.s. israel would like to see the cia operative torturer vice president suleiman step in...

Hosni Mubarak, the current president, according to a leaked diplomatic cable obtained by WikiLeaks, the whistleblower website, and published by the UK daily, The Telegraph.

The August 2008 cable said David Hacham, a senior adviser at the Israeli ministry of defence (MoD), told US officials the Israelis expected Suleiman, spelt Soliman in some cables, to take over.

"Hacham noted that the Israelis believe Soliman is likely to serve as at least an interim president if Mubarak dies or is incapacitated," the cable sent from the US embassy in Tel Aviv said.

"We defer to Embassy Cairo for analysis of Egyptian succession scenarios, but there is no question that Israel is most comfortable with the prospect of Omar Soliman," the memo cited US diplomats as saying.

i am so impressed with the peaceful determination of the egyptian people in their desire to get rid of their corrupt and vicious overlords...

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I swear to God, the U.S. and the E.U. are fucking clueless about Egypt

but, in the process of being clueless, nevertheless reveal their true dark intentions...

West Backs Gradual Egyptian Transition

The United States and leading European nations on Saturday threw their weight behind Egypt’s vice president, Omar Suleiman, backing his attempt to defuse a popular uprising without immediately removing President Hosni Mubarak from power.

American officials said Mr. Suleiman had promised them an “orderly transition” that would include constitutional reform and outreach to opposition groups.

c'mon... let's get really real here... super-rich elites are behind their political and governmental puppets in most of the world but never more so than in the eu and the u.s. and have zero interest in seeing the status quo change... so, how to respond to egypt...? back an incremental, phased "transition" approach headed by mubarak's intelligence chief, the very one who was the lead in arranging extraordinary renditions with the cia and who, reportedly, enjoys an occasional hands-on torture session himself (see: The Torture Career of Egypt's New Vice President: Omar Suleiman and the Rendition to Torture Program)... supporting a transition government under suleiman is going to lead to true democracy in egypt how...?

and then we have dick - darth vader - cheney...

Cheney calls Mubarak a good friend, US ally

Former Vice President Dick Cheney on Saturday called Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak a good friend and U.S. ally, and he urged the Obama administration to move cautiously as turmoil continued to shake that nation's government.

[...]

"There is a reason why a lot of diplomacy is conducted in secret. There are good reasons for there to be confidentiality in some of those communications. And I think President Mubarak needs to be treated as he deserved over the years, because he has been a good friend," Cheney said at an event commemorating the centennial of President Ronald Reagan's birth.

that's right dick-wad... just reconfirm what we all know... the u.s. has absolutely no reservations about propping up the vilest regimes in the world as long as they toe the u.s. line... and if there's any doubt about the "propping up" part, it was reported the other day that slimeball mubarak has as much as 70 BILLION DOLLARS squirreled away in u.s., uk and swiss banks... now, just where exactly did all that money come from, huh...?

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The U.S. is trying to maintain the status quo in Egypt

calling for an "orderly transition" led by omar suleiman is hypocrisy of the most disgusting variety...

some background...

A Familiar Story

Resort to the language of order, stability, incrementalism, and moderation is hardly new and existed well before the events of last week. Not only is it consistent with the basic stance that the Obama administration has taken toward the Middle East from the very outset, but it reflects the long trajectory of American practices in the region, which have depended on shoring up Arab authoritarians who are willing to serve in an American "axis of moderation." The members of this axis -- Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan -- have displayed little in common other than a commitment to sustaining current U.S. foreign policy priorities - on Israel/Palestine, the containment of Iran, and access to oil. What they pointedly do not share is any tangible commitment to actual moderation - understood as an internal project of democratization or political openness. This latter fact has been powerfully exposed by the nonviolent demonstrations across the region, and, as in the case of Egypt, the increasingly brutal response such protest has elicited from "moderate" allies.

At the heart of American support for such autocrats is a false opposition between chaos and order, with many in Washington arguing that the only way to avoid pervasive regional violence is to maintain the status quo.

i posted earlier that i think the white house proposed "succession plan" is pure and utter bullshit... the egyptian people are giving us an unprecedented example of solidarity and empowerment that simply must be honored and keeping a foot against their collective throats is NOT the way to do it...

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The White House "succession plan" for Egypt is pure bullshit

a transitional government headed by suleiman is no better and in fact may be even worse than letting mubarak stay on... it's just another way for the u.s. to keep propping up dictators, torturers, and generally bad men while keeping its lips glued to israel's ass...

The Obama administration is discussing with Egyptian officials a proposal for President Hosni Mubarak to resign immediately and turn over power to a transitional government headed by Vice President Omar Suleiman with the support of the Egyptian military, administration officials and Arab diplomats said Thursday.

bullshit, bullshit, bullshit... the anti-government demonstrators in tahrir square ain't gonna buy it and if they do, they're certifiable...

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