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Cairo, Egypt—The Mubarak regime launched a brutal and coordinated campaign of violence today to take back the streets of Cairo from Egypt’s mass pro-democracy movement.

Pro-Mubarak mobs began gathering near Tahrir square shortly after Mubarak’s speech on Tuesday night and held a rally in front of the state TV building on Corniche El Nile St. In the morning, they began marching around the downtown area in packs of 50 to 100.

These were not the same kinds of protesters that have occupied Tahrir for the last few days. These crowds were made up mostly of men, in between 20 and 45 years old. Many wore thick leather jackets with sweaters underneath. They chanted angrily in support of Mubarak and against the pro-democracy movement. They were hostile and intimidating.

They repeatedly cursed Al Jazeera, asking cameramen at the scene if they worked for the Arabic news network. One man drew his finger across his throat to signal his intentions.

By midday their numbers had swelled dramatically and they began pouring into the downtown area heading straight for Tahrir Square. The army, which had encircled Tahrir since Saturday, simply let them in. The pro-democracy protesters inside formed a human chain inside to try and hold the mob at bay. Utilizing their greater numbers, they initially succeeded in pushing them back non-violently and appeared to have them in full retreat. But then, the mob attacked.

“Suddenly, rocks started falling out of the sky,” said Ismail Naguib, a witness at the scene. “Rocks were flying everywhere. Everywhere.” Many people were hit. Some were badly cut, others had arms and legs broken. The mob then charged in, some riding on horseback and camels trampling and beating people. Groups of them gathered on rooftops around Tahrir and continued to pelt people with rocks.

“It’s a massacre,” said Selma al-Tarzi as the attack was ongoing. “They have knives, they are throwing molotov bombs, they are burning the trees, they are throwing stones at us…this is not a demonstration anymore this is war.”

Some of the attackers were caught. Their IDs showed them to be policemen dressed in civilians clothes. Others appeared to be state sponsored ‘baltagiya’ and government employees. “Instead of uniformed guys trying to stop you from protesting. You’ve got non-unoformed guys trying to stop you from protesting,” Naguib said.

Meanwhile, pro-Mubarak crowds blocked all the entrances to Tahrir. They chanted angrily and pushed people back trying to get in. The army was complicit in the siege, preventing anyone, including journalists from entering. The attack inside continued for several hours. At least 600 were injured and one killed.

Egypt’s popular uprising had come under a heavy and brutal assault nine days after it began. This was the true face of the U.S.-backed Mubarak regime that had repressed the Egyptian people for so many years. But this time, the whole world was watching.

While many pro-democracy demonstrators left Tahrir for the safety of their homes, a significant number remain inside, vowing not to leave until Mubarak does. It remains to be seen how the protesters will respond but Friday will undoubtedly be a decisive day.

Sharif Abdel Kouddous is a senior producer for the radio/TV show Democracy Now.

Follow him on Twitter at @sharifkouddous.

Egyptians pray in front of army tanks in Tahrir Square (Scott Nelson/NYT)

Deputy Israeli prime minister Silvan Shalom made a telling comment in an Israel Radio interview that was captured in Al Ahram (Google cached version) during the Tunisian revolution:

“I fear that we now stand before a new and very critical phase in the Arab world. If the current Tunisian regime collapses, it will not affect Israel’s present national security in a significant way,” he said. “But we can, however, assume that these developments would set a precedent that could be repeated in other countries, possibly affecting directly the stability of our system.”

Shalom added that if regimes neighbouring the Israeli state were replaced by democratic systems, Israeli national security might significantly be threatened. The new systems would defend or adopt agendas that are inherently opposed to Israeli national security, he said.

The deputy indicated that Israel and most of the Arab regimes have a common interest in fighting what he referred to as “Islamic fundamentalism” and its “radical” organisations which threaten Israel.

This threat, he added, is the reason behind much of the direct and indirect intelligence and security coördination between Israel and the Arab regimes.

Shalom emphasised that a democratic Arab world would end this present allegiance, because a democratic system would be governed by a public generally opposed to Israel.

You can gussy this view up in many ways that explain Israel’s concerns, but when it comes down to it Israel fears the Arab street and Arab democracy. Yes, it’s true that Arab democracies would hold harsher views concerning Israel than the current autocrat rulers. Though this isn’t necessarily so in the case of a Muslim democracy like Turkey which, until its citizens were murdered en masse in the Flotilla, actually had constructive relations with Israel.

All that aside, the issue goes beyond what Shalom said, as I wrote last night. Arab democracy threatens Israel especially because it is outside Israel’s control. It cannot be bought and dominated militarily or diplomatically. A democracy represents the interests of the majority and not those of the élite. Israel needs lackeys and strong men. It needs the go-to guy it can do deals with. Having to negotiate its way through the cross-currents and multiple sets of interests at work in the typical democracy has to be bewildering, even frightening to Israel’s leaders. If Mubarak goes then there are big changes in store…for Egypt and Israel.

The Nation is reporting that Mubarak’s son, long considered the heir to the Egyptian throne, er presidency, has fled the country for London, along with the ruler’s daughters and even his wife. Given the dynasticism of Arab regimes and family closeness and solidarity in Arab culture, an eldest son’s desertion of his father has to be big blow to Hosni Mubarak. This too is a development every Egyptian will take note of. This could be the beginning of the end for Mubarak. But the question is who and what will take his place. Will it be a loyalist like Suleiman who will be a slightly different face pinned on the same body? Or will Suleiman be content to be a caretaker for new, truly free elections and a new government?

What role will the Muslim Brotherhood play? Is there a possible path that integrates an Islamist vision with a democratic one? In a country that has suffered decades, if not longer, of unalloyed despotism?

Finally, Israel will have to get used to living in a region that is even less hospitable to its policies than it was before. It will have to negotiate a dense thicket of national interests none of which will be obsequious toward it. Welcome to a brave new world, Mr. Netanyahu. Good luck.

One thing especially frightening to Israel is the potential Islamist nature of the incoming governments. For Israel, Islamism is a synonym for terror. Most reasonable observers know this isn’t true. Another thing Israel fears is that it may become as much an obstacle to regional development as the octogenarian strongmen whose rule is being toppled in Tunisia and Egypt. Israel has identified itself so closely with the oligarchs that the new rulers, whoever they may be, may (probably will) see Israel as an extension of them. That’s why I’ve argued that a course correction in Israeli policy has been long overdue.

It’s worth quoting Gideon Levy, as usual eloquent on the subject of Middle Eastern tyranny:

The people of Egypt had their say, and had the nerve not to fall in line with Israeli wishes. A moment before Mubarak’s fate is sealed, the time has come for drawing the Israeli conclusions.

Not a plague of darkness in Egypt but the light of the Nile: the end of a regime propped up by bayonets is foretold. It can go on for years, and the downfall sometimes comes at the least expected time, but in the end it will happen. Not only Damascus and Amman, Tripoli and Rabat, Tehran and Pyongyang: Ramallah and Gaza are also destined to be shaken.

The hypocritical and sanctimonious division of countries by the U.S. and the West between the “axis of evil” on the one hand, and the “moderates” on the other, has collapsed. If there is an axis of evil, then it includes all the non-democratic regimes, including the “moderates” and the “stable” and the “pro-Western.” Today Egypt, tomorrow Palestine. Yesterday Tunis, tomorrow Gaza.

Not only is the Fatah regime in Ramallah and the Hamas regime in Gaza destined to fall, but perhaps also, one day, the Israeli occupation, which certainly meets all the criteria of criminal tyranny and an evil regime. It too relies only on guns. It too is hated by all levels of the ruled people, even if they stand helpless, unorganized and unequipped, facing a big army. The first conclusion: Better to end it well, with agreements based on justice and not on power, a moment before the masses have their say and succeed in banishing the darkness.

A second, no less important conclusion: Alliances with unpopular regimes can be torn up overnight. As long as the masses in Egypt and in the entire Arab world continue seeing the images of tyranny and violence from the occupied territories, Israel will not be able to be accepted, even it is acceptable to a few regimes.

The Egyptian regime became an ally of the Israeli occupation. The joint siege of Gaza is irrefutable proof of that. The Egyptian people didn’t like it. They never liked the peace agreement with Israel, in which Israel committed itself to “respect the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people” but never kept its word. Instead, the people of Egypt got the scenes of Operation Cast Lead.

It is not enough to have a handful of embassies in order to be accepted in the region. There also have to be embassies of goodwill, a just image and a state that is not an occupier. Israel has to make its way into the hearts of the Arab peoples, who will never agree to the continued repression of their brothers, even if their intelligence ministers will continue to cooperate with Israel.

A real alliance with Egypt and its sister-states can only be based on the end of the occupation, as desired by the Egyptian people, and not on a common enemy, as an interest of its regime.

A comparison between the impact of Islamism and Jewish extremism is also warranted. Israel itself has done the same as what these new potentially Islamist-oriented regimes may. It has focussed on the sectarian Jewish nature of its state to the exclusion of its non-Jewish citizens. It has fueled the cries of racism from its Palestinian citizens and Jewish peace activists alike. For many Muslims, unfortunately, Judaism has become synonymous with terror, as they see Israelis like Meir Dagan kill Muslims while invoking the name of the “Jewish people.” Can Israel truly blame the Muslims of the Middle East for doing what the “Jewish State” itself has done? What we truly need in the Middle East is democracy that focuses on the political interests of each nation to the exclusion of religious sectarianism. Mixing religion and politics is deeply toxic whether it happens in Israel or Iran.

The conclusion of the Turkel Commission that Israel acted within international law and in self-defence during a deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla of aid ships last May ignores substantial proof that Israel fabricated or tampered with evidence, charges the European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza (ECESG).

A study sponsored in October by the International Bureau of Humanitarian NGOs (IBH) and the Friends of Charities Association (FOCA) found “multiple instances of Israeli officials creating false evidence to implement and bolster the government’s version of events. The Israel government also went to great lengths to prevent survivors from discussing the attack or proving their version of the event” by confiscating their film, computers, etc.

“It seems clear that the Turkel Commission relied primarily on evidence supplied by Israel,” said Mazn Kahel, director of the ECESG. “Yet, the FOCA report documented numerous instances of falsification, including manufactured imagery. All traceable efforts to obscure the details of the attack originated from within Israel and its champions. How can the commission’s conclusions be anything but highly suspect?”

The ECESG insists that only an independent commission – not one led by a retired Israeli Supereme Court judge – that examines all evidence, including the testimonies of the flotilla passengers, can conduct a proper investigation of the Israel Defense Force attack May 31 on six ships in international waters. Nine people on board the Mavi Marmara flotilla ship were killed, and many others injured.

The ECESG will participate in a second large flotilla due to set sail for Gaza in the spring. “Israel’s actions in the past and its threats regarding the future won’t deter us,” said Mr. Kahel. “We will not stop until Israel’s siege of Gaza ends and the 1.5 million people regain their freedom.”

The European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza (ECESG) is an umbrella group of 34 European human rights and humanitarian organisations that have come together to collectively pressure the international community and Israel to end the siege on Gaza’s civilian population.

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