³ÉÈËÂÛ̳

Ìý

Commentators look at the momentous events in Cairo.

The Arab press is in no doubt that the uprising has been re-energised.

"Huge Protests Hasten Fall of Egyptian Regime," is the i, reporting Tuesday's turn-out in Tahrir Square.

"Egyptian Revolution Shakes Pillars of Mubarak's Rule," .

The it all with a picture of a lone soldier standing on his tank, marooned in a great sea of demonstrators. The protesters had been galvanised by a speech in the square by the young activist, Wael Ghonim who was released from detention just a day earlier. Afterwards he tweeted the message, "Dear Egyptians, Failure is not an option."

The spirit of Tahrir is captured in the words of a 50-year-old engineer called Hosam Khalaf, who'd brought his wife and daughters along. Talking to the Tunisian revolution:

"We got a message from Tunis... and the message was; 'burn the fear that is inside you. That is what is happening here. This was a society in fear, and the fear has been burned. When we meet God, we will at least be able to say: 'We tried to do something.'"

Thomas Friedman concludes in the New York Times that in 40 years of writing about the Middle East, he has never seen anything like what is happening in Tahrir Square:

"In a region where the truth and truth-tellers have so long been smothered under the crushing weight of oil, autocracy and religious obscurantism, suddenly the Arab world has a truly free space - and the truth is now gushing out like a torrent. I know the 'realist' experts believe this will all be shut down soon. Maybe it will. But for one brief shining moment, forget the experts and just listen. You have not heard this before. It is the sound of a people so long kept voiceless, finally finding, and celebrating their own voices."

it took him hours to wade into what was the biggest demonstration so far:

"Many said they had come because they were frightened; because they feared the world was losing interest in their struggle, because Mubarak had not yet left his palace, because the crowds had grown smaller in recent days, because some of the camera crews had left for other tragedies and other dictatorships, because the smell of betrayal was in the air... But yesterday proved that the revolution is alive."

President Mubarak's determination to have a long goodbye by staying on until elections in September :

"It is painfully obvious that the 'deferred departure' scenario is no more than a ploy to stay on. It is bizarre to talk of the need to worry about a 'dignified exit' for Mubarak at the expense of the dignity of eighty five million suffering Egyptians. The people of Egypt have spoken."

And Mr Elsawaf has a message for the outside world:

"Some foreign western governments have made shockingly derogatory statements inferring that Egypt needs time to move towards democracy. Their hesitation to offer unequivocal demands for Mubarak to go only gives traction to his determination to hang on."

And that the West is playing its hand very poorly:

"The United States and the European Union may not have been able to wheedle or push President Hosni Mubarak from power. Still, they badly miscalculated when they endorsed Egypt's vice president, Omar Suleiman, to lead the transition to democracy. He appears far more interested in maintaining as much of the old repressive order as he can get away with. That is unacceptable to Egypt's people, and it should be unacceptable to Egypt's Western supporters."

A critic of political Islam that the Obama administration should help Egypt's secular democratic groups to organise themselves so they can challenge the Muslim Brotherhood in a post-Mubarak struggle for power at the ballot box:

"[The Democrats] must waste no time in persuading the Egyptian electorate why a Sharia-based government would be bad for them. Unlike the Iranians in 1979, the Egyptians have before them the example of a people who opted for Sharia -- the Iranians of 1979 -- and who have lived to regret it."

Ms Ali's thoughts get a deluge of responses from her readers. One unnamed commenter disapproves:

"You know what would be great? Letting a country decide for itself what it's going to do, without outside sources trying to pressure them in to whatever direction they feel more comfortable with."

what he sees as America meddling in Egypt:

"Dictators are invariably political puppets. President Hosni Mubarak was a faithful servant of Western economic interests."

He says the US is intent on hijacking the revolution:

"From Washington's standpoint, regime replacement no longer requires the installation of an authoritarian military regime as in the heyday of US imperialism. It can be implemented by co-opting political parties, including the Left, civil society groups, infiltrating the protest movement and manipulating elections."

But there's very much more to Egypt's extraordinary story than just what's going on in and around Tahrir Square. And some of the papers step back and explore the wider mood. The in her adopted city of Alexandria where she talks of recent, crazy days of lawlessness:

"I still feel like pinching myself when I watch my husband pick up his weapon - his late mother's walking stick - to join the vigilantes, who are protecting our neighbourhood against marauding thugs and recently-escaped prisoners who are often armed with guns stolen from torched police stations. Each night our guys sit around a fire, smoke cigarettes and drink sweet tea until someone yells 'Thieves!' - when they grab their knives, homemade swords and petrol bombs and run in search of infiltrators."

On the edge of Cairo, at Giza, in the shadow of the Pyramids, the several of the men who rode horses and camels into Tahrir Square in the mad charge by pro-Mubarak supporters at the height of last week's violence. Some say they were offered money to launch the attack, but others deny this - saying that they chose to protest. They're tired of the instability that's wrecked their livelihood.

"Everybody is waiting for the tourists," says one man. "Where are the dollars? Where are the euros? What are we all going to live on, the dung of the horses!"

But that's certainly not on the menu across the Nile at the Katameya Heights golf club, described as a gated citadel of Cairo luxury.

Reporter :

"There is just one tactful nod to the turmoil that has shaken Egypt to its foundations in the past fortnight: a short letter to members, pinned to a noticeboard by the fountain. 'Welcome back - we hope you and your families are all safe,' it reads. 'The 18-hole operating hours are as follows...'"

Shenker goes on to reflect on how little has changed:

"Barack Obama claims this country 'is not going back to what it was', but in New Cairo - a satellite city to the east of the capital, home to dozens of high-walled residential compounds - life, on the surface at least, seems to have barely changed at all."

Also much the same as ever is the Egyptian sense of humour - and it's on display back in Tahrir Square. As you might imagine, the jokes are aimed at getting President Mubarak to pack his bags. A young girl was seen wearing a badge urging him to do it quickly. "Make it short," the badge said. "This is history, and we'll have to memorise it all at school!" And in the land of the Pyramids, I guess there's already way too much history for kids to learn.