Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak is reportedly seriously ill. To be fair, rumors have been swirling for years, and in recent pictures, Mubarak looks to be his black-haired and burly self. Nonetheless, repeated trips to Europe, unexpected hospitalizations, and another postponement of a scheduled meeting with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have fueled the fire.
Mubarak has been in power for almost 30 years, and has been feverishly pushing for his son Gamal to succeed him as Egypt’s next pharaoh, er, president.
Mubarak’s failing health and unseemly dynastic ambitions should be yet another wake-up call to Washington about the precariousness of our nominal allies in the region. In general, there is a growing latter-days-of-the-Roman-Empire feel to the entire Arab world. Ruthless dictators (Syria’s late Hafez el Assad) passing the crown to their dimwitted sons (Bashar); wobbly kings (Saudi Arabia’s Abdullah, 85) passing the reins to their slightly less wobbly (Sultan, 82; then Nayef, 77) brothers; small-time thugs (Yemen’s Ali Abdullah Saleh) grooming their children to lead the nation’s “democracy” … I could go on.
Nothing better underscores the bankruptcy of Arab autocracy than these creepy family hand-offs. So too, sons tend to be even worse custodians than the fathers who claimed power by non-genetic means. What does it mean for the future? Greater instability; more opportunities for the only opposition left in most of the Arab world—the Islamists; more risk for the United States. So is it time to refocus on the freedom agenda? Nope.