Al Jazeera Reports Mubarak’s planning exile to Tel Aviv—The Writing on the Wall

Update: Al Jazeera reports Mubarak’s planning exile to Tel Aviv. According to sources in the Egyptian Embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel is making preparations to welcome Hosni Mubarak into exile after Saudi Arabia rejected overtures. Al Jazeera also reports Israeli diplomats have fled Egypt amid the unrest. CNN reports widespread rumors that Mubarak’s wife and other family members have already fled Egypt.

Arab Executives Predict Regime Change in Egypt, as U.S. State Dept says reshuffling of government won’t do. Demonstrations across the U.S. rally in solidarity with protesters. See also Robert Fisk’s latest dispatch: Death throes of a dictatorship.

The U.S. State Dept’s statement, “We strongly believe that the Egyptian Government needs to engage immediately with the Egyptian people in implementing needed economic, political, and social reforms” appears the give-away on Saturday of Mubarak’s fragile hold on power.

Typically, when commenting on this regional baby sister of Israel’s, the U.S. State Department will congratulate Egypt on its steps toward democracy, or issue a public encouragement of a fair electoral process like it did before last November’s lower-house elections.

Explicit calls from Washington for democracy in Egypt carry with them the risk of being interpreted as a threat, a statement to the Egyptian people themselves, or a reckless jeopardizing of U.S. weapons sales to the dictatorship.

No such concerns weigh heavy in Washington now.

Before President Obama spoke yesterday, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the administration might cut the $1.5 billion in annual foreign aid sent to Egypt, contingent on Mubarak’s response to the demonstrations and the ”legitimate grievances” of the Egyptian people.

Domestically, Obama can’t be seen looking impotent—unable to shape world events in the same manner that he seems listless here against raging unemployment and the arrogance of Wall Street.

Intelligence reports coming out of Egypt paint a picture of miscalculations from the regime of Mubarak that even tanks and guns cannot offset.

The images coming out of Egypt, courtesy of Al Jazeera, are reaching Americans (banal cable commentary aside), and impressions are forming.

Sure, Americans don’t know or care that for decades Egyptian elites and various corrupt Arab autocrats have played the role of secret enforcers for the American attack dog, Israel.

But the Arab and Persian street knows this fully well, without aid of the publication of leaked documents like the Palestine Papers, though that didn’t help the autocrats’ cause.

Political Cassandras are everywhere in the region and the U.S. where disinformation and spin usually carry the day or at least the media cycle.

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