Something picked up from Forbes, 2/18/11 under banner headline “Waging Nonviolence” —What the World Can Learn from Egypt—So Far” by Daryn Cambridge, sregarding the role of the Internet:  “If you have mobilized and informed enough people online, and a critical event takes place, that active online network can quickly morph into on the ground action.

“Morozov argues that the Internet and the liberating virtues that are increasingly ascribed to it mask the fact that it is also being used as a tool of oppression. Because the Internet has no moral code, autocratic governments can and are leveraging it to censor information, disseminate propaganda, gather intelligence on activists, and, in turn, control the population. I do not deny this reality. But it’s that reality that makes a struggle and movement strategy necessary. Just like printing and distributing fliers, setting up pirate radio stations, and communicating via land lines and short wave radio brings with it certain risks, so too does online communication and information sharing. This is why technologically savvy activists are finding ways to communicate in code, use proxy servers to access banned websites, and tap into online platforms and services that are so pervasive they become nearly impossible to ban without shutting down the Internet all together.  And once you’ve shut down the entire Internet and suspended cell phone service, as the government did in Egypt, the lie of the regime becomes even more apparent, not just in the minds of the movement, but also in the minds of those who were, until then, sitting on the fence.”
  Further, I have seen information that the leaders of the Egyptian demonstrations studied nonviolent philosophy and stategy in Serbia with an organization formed on the basis of experiences connected with getting rid of Melosovic.  So there is such a thing, although most people (on Truthdigo or anywhere else, for that matter)  seem not to want to know about it—so far

call me Roy: What do you think about the prospects for peace and understanding between the Israelis and the Palestinians:
  Considering that they both may be victims of a “persecution complex” acting (consciousnly or unconsciously) and reacting—the Jews to a history of persecution, and the Palestinians to the ceaseless readiness and practice of the Israelis to use overwhelming force to oppress (in some ways to extinguish) them?
  Do you have suggestions?

Have you been watching President Obama’s performances during the Egyptian crisis and wondering why he wasn’t this active and vocal during the June, 2009, student/citizen uprising in Iran? The situations are eerily similar, yet in one he wouldn’t open his mouth and in the other, he won’t close it. What’s the difference?

This week, I’m going to take a look back at the speech Mr. Obama gave in Cairo, Egypt, in June of 2009. In it, he apologized for President Bush’s push for democracy in the Middle East. In fact, he said that no nation should press its own political ideology on another—especially democracy. He actually said that from the platform of Cairo University. Apparently he doesn’t think that now. Is it utter incompetence or political naivete on his part? Maybe there’s something more sinister at work. Either way, it’s a bit unnerving.

Unbelievably, the Obama administration is pushing to involve the notorious Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt’s new political landscape. Remember that the Muslim Brotherhood claimed responsibility for Anwar Sadat’s assassination. It also gave birth to Hamas and al-Qaeda. It’s the most organized of the “opposition” groups in Egypt. Its front man is the former Director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohammed ElBaradei. You remember him. He’s the stooge who stonewalled the world as long as he could to cover for Iran’s maniacal drive for a nuclear weapon. Fortunately, even he couldn’t keep Stuxnet out.

However, since Egypt had outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood and President Mubarak had kept them under his thumb (but wouldn’t you if they had tried to kill you and were probably complicit in another five assassination attempts?), they have no official representation in the government. That’s not to say that they’re not organized and eager to jump in. In fact, they’re the most organized and connected of the opposition groups, so it stands to reason that in any political void left by Mubarak’s departure, the Muslim Brotherhood will be the most likely to assume the greatest power.

That does not bode well for Egypt or Israel. The Brotherhood, including ElBaradei, has publicly stated that Egypt will continue to honor all its treaties with foreign nations. Fly in the ointment: the Brotherhood does not recognize Israel’s right to exist. So if Israel has no right to exist, then it cannot be a legitimate state. If it’s not a nation, then there’s no need for Egypt to honor its 30-year old treaty. Case solved! Here’s a hint about the Muslim Brotherhood’s attitude toward the peace treaty with Israel: they killed Egyptian President Anwar Sadat for signing it! Please pick up a history book once in a while, Mr. President. It’s becoming increasingly obvious that history was not his strong suit in college. Of course, we’ll never know because those records are sealed, too.

Finally, as the Muslim Brotherhood begins to smell blood in the water, the rhetoric will heat up. One of the first arguments you will hear in the move to abrogate Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel—which Mubarak has protected the last three decades—is that Israel has no right to that land. The Jews stole it from the Palestinians. You know and I know that that is a blatant and easily disproved lie. However, the Mainstream Media and the US Administration either don’t know it or choose to ignore it.

“From the outset, the organizers of the protests adhered to a strict code of non-violent and peaceful protests. They realized that the regime would crack down and employ brutal methods hoping to either deter or provoke them to use violence to justify even greater violence against them.
  Ahmad Maher, the coordinator of the April 6 Youth Movement explained ... that non-violence was not a tactic but a strategy for the movement. (Acc. to Foreign Affairs Magazine 2/11/11, some of the leaders had studied at a nonviolence training school in Europe to prepare.) For over two years, thousands of members debated the writings and methods of non-violent struggle, including those of Gandhi, King, and Gene Sharp of the Albert Einstein Institution in Boston, the sages of the use of non-violent means for social change.
  Last year Maher’s second-in-command, Muhammad Adel, was dispatched to Serbia to meet with Srdja Popovic, a proponent of non-violent resistance and leader of the Otpor (Resistance) Movement, a group of young activists who helped depose Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. He came back to Cairo with DVDs and other educational and training materials that demonstrated in detail some of the non-violent means and civil disobedience techniques used to induce political change.
  When the protests in Egypt began, there were strict instructions for all participants not to carry any weapons, including knives, sticks, stones or sharp objects. They held signs that said this was a peaceful protest. When confronted by the police who tried to intimidate or beat them they would chant “peaceful, peaceful.”
  Even when the regime sent thousands of its goons ... with sticks and sharp objects, to attack them with Molotov cocktails, or even shoot them with live ammunition, the protesters only tried to defend themselves, refusing to employ violent means….
They refused to take revenge despite the dozens who were killed and thousands more injured.  They simply handed them over to the military units stationed nearby.”—From Anatomy of Egypt’s Revolution, by Esam al-Amin in Counterpunch.
  For obvious reasons, these facts have not been widely reported, unfortunately for us.

Again, very insightful.  For more information about the influence of training in non-violent resistance, see the April issue of Foreign Policy Magazine.
“Revolution U” by Tina Rosenberg
What Egypt Learned from the Students Who Overthrew Milosevic