Thirteen protestors have been killed to date and over 400 wounded [NYT] in the ongoing crackdown of the Egyptian military (the Supreme Council of the Allied Forces, or SCAF). Juan Cole gets into SCAF's head:
[T]hey probably tried to provoke the peaceful protesters in front of the cabinet building to violence with their use of extreme brutality, so as to depict them as the trouble-makers. They may also have hoped to hang the Egyptian bad economy on the disruptions of the protesters (who are blamed for keeping tourists away and interfering the return of a normal economy.
If the military can keep the youth lefists from allying with the Muslim Brotherhood, and can depict them as wild men to the Egyptian middle classes, then the officers think they might be able to remain in power, with a fig leaf of an elected parliament.
Zeinobia tracks efforts to negotiate a truce. POMED rounds up reax from Egyptian political leaders leaders, while Nermeen Edrees looks at Egyptian social media. Daniel Serwer tosses up his hands:
There is no guarantee the revolution of 2011 will end in a democracy. The demonstrators made a profound errorentrusting their fate to the army, which is using its power to preserve is prerogatives and limit Islamist gains. As distasteful as it may be, the best bet for non-Islamists now is to throw in their lot with the Islamists, aiming to establish a truly democratic framework that will enable them eventually to gain power after a period of Islamist rule. But I know from the Middle East Institute conference session at which Esraa Abdel Fattah, one of the originators of the April 6 Movement that sparked Egypt’s revolution, spoke last month how deep the distrust and distaste for the Islamists is.
(Video from Friday by the Arabist)
The Dish 