It’s understandable if the president’s hand has been stayed by the new crisis; nonetheless, it is important that Mr. Obama act soon. While Washington has been fixed on Syria, the Egyptian regime of Gen. Abdel Fatah al-Sissi has moved steadily toward constructing an autocracy that would reverse Egypt’s 2011 revolution and its subsequent move toward democracy.
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U.S. loses focus on Egypt
In some respects, Egypt already is less free than it was during the last years of Mubarak. Authorities have shut down three satellite television networks considered sympathetic to the Islamists, as well as the Egyptian affiliate of al-Jazeera. A once-diverse press has swung into line behind the government, parroting its far-fetched claims about opponents ranging from the Brotherhood to outgoing U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson. Last week the government-owned Al-Ahram newspaper accused Ms. Patterson of conspiring with a Brotherhood leader to “spread chaos” in Egypt by smuggling in militants from the neighboring Gaza Strip; Ms. Patterson rightly described the article as “absurd and dangerous.”
The Obama administration has been pressing the government to reconcile with the Islamists, release Mr. Morsi and other political prisoners and carry out a transition to a genuine democracy. That these appeals are ignored while the government indulges in grotesque anti-American propaganda reflects the generals’ conviction that the administration will ultimately tolerate a new dictatorship while maintaining U.S. aid. It follows that the only means to exert U.S. leverage is to suspend the aid programs, while linking their resumption to the restoration of democracy. Not just Syria but Egypt requires a “shot across the bow”; Mr. Obama should take it before it is too late.
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