A Long Wait

At this point, all I can do is wait. The army's 48 hour ultimatum has come to a close. Apparently, at the invitation of the army, religious and political leaders are in talks right now and should have some sort of statement concerning a map for Egypt's future. They should be announcing it soon. Or so they said an hour and a half ago.

The Freedom and Justice Party (the official party of the Muslim Brotherhood) refused to take part in the talks. Morsi has not addressed the public since last night. In all honesty, it is probably better for him. He really dug himself quite a hole.

Morsi gave a 45 min speech last night in which he used the word "shar'iah," (الشرعية) legitimacy, 56 times. I know you all thought it was like Islamic law Shari'ah (الشريعة) and got really excited. Me too. But alas, he meant the legitimacy of his presidency (note the placement of the apostrophe), demanding that the opposition respect his legitimacy as the first democratically elected president of Egypt and work within the confines of the Egyptian constitution. Compelling, right?

But that's not new. He has been saying the same thing since day 1. It really felt like he was unaware of the millions of people out there chanting "Down with Morsi!"(I actually have no idea if it was millions. That's what Egyptians are telling me, so I will play along). There was nothing that signaled a willingness to compromise or reconsider the positions he staked out almost a month ago. I wanna give the guy the benefit of the doubt, but it's hard to see what he was expecting from that speech.

Still didn't take this picture

But what was more disturbing, was the violent rhetoric he used. At one point he said that if the cost of defending the legitimacy of his presidency was blood, then he was willing to pay that price. That his blood is a cheap price to pay for the sake of Egypt. What do you respond to that? His supporters are picking up on that rhetoric and saying they are willing to defend Morsi's legitimacy at any cost. Oy.

Morsi getting pisssssed

Egyptian's were mocking his speech. They say he and the Brotherhood are done. The army is going to show them who is boss. Yet in spite of this optimism, there is still an uneasy feeling in the air. "What's next?" I ask. "We'll see...," they say. One guy even suggested that Gamal Mubarak, Husni Mubarak's son was gonna emerge a hero and run for president. He said the people of Egypt would back him. I doubt it, but to me it points more to how lost people are. Confused.

A lot of people saying "rabbina yustur" May God protect us. No one is quite sure what the next move is.

So I wait.

Safely and indoors. Duh.

And... I might be on Al-Jazeera tonight. Stay tuned.