Neutering democracy

Washington Post columnist Jackson Diehl argues that Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak only jumped on the peace process bandwagon to “neuter President Bush’s campaign for democracy in the Middle East.” Last week’s Sharm el-Sheikh summit may be linked to the fact that Mubarak’s top two envoys are visiting Washington this week:

Mubarak is betting that Gheit and Suleiman will be greeted at the State Department and White House as close collaborators in a budding Israeli-Palestinian detente, not as representatives of a government engaged in an expanding crackdown on its secular and democratic opposition. If so, the 76-year-old president will feel secure in continuing a campaign aimed at crushing what has been mounting opposition among the Egyptian political and business elite to his plan to extend his quarter-century in office by six years through a rigged referendum this fall.