CAIRO - Yemeni President Ali Abdulla Saleh has disgraced his people and the entire Arab nation by claiming that the uprisings unfolding across the Arab countries are being controlled by Tel Aviv and Washington. The Yemeni President told his supporters that he is ‘pretty sure' that the mass demonstrations calling for the departure of his regime and his long-serving colleagues in different Arab countries were planned in Israel and Washington, before their domestic agents were given the cue to take to the streets. Saleh's allegation is a disgrace to him, his people and the entire Arab nation. His claim about a foreign conspiracy means that Israel and the US have a greater influence than Arab governments on the Arab people. This also suggests that his popularity at home is very weak and that he is unable to resist Israel and Washington's brainwashing. Like different Arab heads of state and kings, Saleh has insulted Arabs determined to kick out corrupt, undemocratic regimes, known for their abuse of power and their absence of freedom of expression. It is all the more outrageous that an Arab head of state should bluntly admit that Israel and the US have the upper hand in his country and that his regime is impotent and powerless to resist ‘conspiracies manufactured abroad'. The possibility of an Israeli conspiracy immediately leaps to the mind of any long-serving Arab leader when his people revolt against him, but the irony is that these beleaguered leaders are widely regarded as Washington's biggest allies in the Middle East. Saleh is one of these allies. Last Wednesday, he promised Washington that he would fully commit himself to democratic reforms (proposed by Washington) in his country. Like every other Arab leader, Saleh is a US ally in its war on terror in the Middle East. Annual visits to Washington have become a ‘sacred ritual' for Arab heads of state and kings, who whimper childishly if the big guy in the White House declines to invite them. Women MPs divorce Parliament Sixty-four female MPs, who, thanks to the Women's Quota Bill, recently made their debut in parliamentary life in Egypt, are wailing that their political future has been undermined. Less than two months after taking their seats under the parliamentary dome, they are also regretting all the money they spent on their pre-parliamentary election advertising and publicity. These women had to abandon their parliamentary immunity when the nation's bicameral Parliament (the People's Assembly and Shura Council) was dissolved hours after the premature departure of President Mubarak and his regime, which ruled Egypt for 30 years, due to the huge pressure from the angry young Egyptians, who revolted on January 25. According to the Women's Quota Bill, designed to give Egyptian women a greater role in political life, 64 seats in the 504-seat People's Assembly, are now exclusively allocated to women candidates. The Bill limits this experiment to two five-year sessions, which might be extended if it proves successful. These evicted women MPs have retreated to their homes and resumed their normal housewifely duties. They seem to have no wish to run again in the parliamentary elections later this year. Having had to borrow a lot of money to fund their election campaigns, they were dismissed from Parliament, long before they'd saved up enough money to pay back their debts. These former female MPs spent much money on bright new clothes, whose colours corresponded to the rosy promises they were hoping to make their voters. Their computer-brushed images looked great in the posters, whose purpose was to convince their constituents. They confess that they can no longer look their husbands in the eye. They are reluctant to test their men's loyalty and love by asking them for more money to campaign in the next elections in three months' time. Press sources confirm that many of the crestfallen women MPs have decided to divorce politics, preferring domestic bliss.
