The problems that beset the Arab world today are largely the cause of Islamic fundamentalism. But blaming Israel is a tried and tested excuse. Europe should not have indulged the tyrants and should have called this bluff long ago. Instead, Europe let Palestine, Arab nationalism's eternal source of wounded pride, become our trap.

By supporting the tyrants, Europe forsook their subjects. They, in turn, appeared content to be oppressed and convinced that their suffering was the inevitable sacrifice needed to liberate Jerusalem. Their oppression now comes with a price, and so does the decades-old acceptance of the tyrants' pretext about Palestinian grievances. The instinctive reflex to blame others will be there for a long time after the dictators have left the stage. As Egypt descended into chaos, the regime's tame media accused "Israeli agents" of  fomenting unrest, blaming Israel for problems that are entirely of its own making. The effect is debilitating for democracy's chances. A people trained to believe such lies is unlikely to display rationality, exercise constraint and act responsibly once given the chance to vote.

Whatever the outcome of the current season of Arab discontent, one should not forget that the Arab order of things — pillage the state, lie to the people, deflect responsibility and pay lip service to Palestine — has ultimately destroyed civil society. This is an ill omen for those who now wish for a speedy transition to democracy. The wasteland created by tyranny left only one political force organised enough to exploit the current situation: the Muslim Brotherhood, a body dedicated not to establishing Egypt as the beacon of democracy in the Arab world but to introducing a politically subversive and subverted form of Islam. 

As Cairo's season of discontent carries its message to the far corners of the region, the Arab masses are ready to seize their destiny. In the Arab spring of nations we may find that the tyrants' excuse — choose us or the extremists — will haunt us long after the ballot box has issued its verdict.