Dina Ezzat examines the Egyptian reaction to a tentative legislative US decision to withhold a portion of military assistance to Cairo "We want to get rid of this aid from the US. Why do we have to have aid? You know why? Because [state officials] have to make commissions [off aid projects] and to use the aid money to have new expensive cars," said Ayoub, a taxi driver. Speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly during a traffic jam not very far from the Israeli Embassy in Cairo, Ayoub was very emotional in addressing the issue of US aid to Egypt that he sees as the price Cairo pays for having signed a peace deal with Israel which he says was unilateral and at the expense of Egypt's supposedly leading status in the Arab world. Ayoub makes no distinction between the economic and military aid packages. He also does not have a very clear understanding -- not that he cares to -- of the general figures. For Ayoub, US aid to Egypt is "a few million dollars that the Americans throw at us and take back because they are spent on hiring American experts." Ayoub is far from being alone in hoping for the day when Egypt will be the one to refuse the aid. Throughout the past few weeks, as the debate intensifies over a tentative US legislative decision to withhold $200 million from the annual $1.3 billion military aid package to Egypt pending an improvement in its human rights performance and observance of democratic values, several commentators underlined the need for Egypt to find a way to do without US aid, be it the military package or the $415 million economic assistance. The argument put forward is basically one of feasibility. Commentators argued that the net interest that Egypt gains out of the two packages of aid is not worth the political demands that are being continuously put forth in the various decision-making quarters in Washington. For over a quarter of a century US aid to Egypt has served a good purpose, they added, but the time has come for Cairo to break free from the conditions involved. Egyptian officials are not willing to take that line of thinking. Cairo is upset, if not outright angry, by last week's adoption by the US Senate of a bill that proposes that a portion of US military aid to Egypt be withheld pending a certificate from the US secretary of state reporting an improvement in Egypt's human rights and democratic performances. This is the sentiment, despite awareness that the bill has a few months to go before it arrives for what is likely to be an inevitable approval by the US president to be possibly followed by another inevitable certification from his secretary of state suggesting that the freeze on the $200 million could end. What is upsetting Egypt most is what one official called the "flagrant conditionality" involved. Egyptian officials say they are well aware of the fact that there is no such thing as free aid but that the exchange of aid versus policies should not be conducted in such an "offending manner" as one put it. Indeed, Egyptian officials are particularly sensitive to remarks or positions linking aid to internal affairs. This is especially the case in view of what they qualify as otherwise well-harmonised Egyptian-US policies in relation to foreign policy matters. In a statement circulated by his press office, Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit qualified the bill as "unacceptable interference in Egyptian affairs". Egypt's disappointment, the press release said, was conveyed directly by Abul-Gheit to his US counterpart Condoleezza Rice and other senior US officials. Informed Egyptian sources suggest that the message conveyed from the US administration to Cairo was one of reassurance. "We were told that the administration is not supporting this bill and that it will do what it can to support the solid friendship between Egypt and the US," said one source. He added, however, that so far the level of reassurances offered is not particularly high. "But this is no reason to worry because usually high-level intervention on the part of the administration is saved for a later stage in the lengthy legislative process." "We are going to watch how things will unfold during the next few months. We will monitor what the US administration will do to defend Egypt's interests in Congress," commented one Egyptian official who asked for his name to be withheld. For this and other Egyptian officials who follow Egyptian-American relations, the adoption of the bill last week by the US Senate came as "no surprise" at all. The head of the Senate's Appropriation Committee, David Obe, a Democrat, has a long history of proposing bills that he perceives as punishment against the Egyptian regime for measures he is angry with Cairo for taking or not taking. With the Democrats controlling the Congress and with Obe in charge of passing, at least initially, the appropriations bill for internal as well as foreign operations it was unlikely that he would receive much opposition for his attempt to punish Cairo for what he qualifies as a humble human rights and democratic performance. "Egypt is not completely without friends in Congress or in the administration and we expect their friends to prove the quality of their friendship today," the source added. While observing the dynamics within the US decision-making quarters, Egypt is working on alternative scenarios that it had earlier agreed with the US to present this year on ways to re-manage US aid. However, according to official sources, plans are not yet being drawn up to accommodate a sudden full suspension of US assistance. "We are not there yet. And obviously we think that the Americans are not there yet," said one source. He added that when all is said and done Egypt is well aware that there will come a day when US aid to Egypt, both economic and military, will be suspended. "President Hosni Mubarak actually made public statements to that effect a few years ago," the source stated. At this stage, it seems that the pressure to relinquish US aid to Egypt is mostly exercised domestically by Egyptian citizens and think-tankers alike. "This matter is very sensitive to Egyptians who, no matter how opposed to the Egyptian regime, perceive the flagrant conditionality made by the US on extending the economic and military aid to Egypt as an unacceptable affront," commented the official source. He added that even many of the US-based Egyptian critics of the regime are opposed to the approach of flagrant conditionality that has been increasingly applied in the US in relation to its aid to Egypt. "The Americans, both in Congress and the administration, are being repeatedly told by the vast majority of their Egyptian friends, those for and against the government, that waving the stick works against the US and not against the Egyptian regime. However, it seems that this message is not being filtered through."
