The situation in Egypt is going from bad to worse. Islamist leaders are being arrested as former despot Hosni Mubarak has been released from prison and put under house arrest. Attempts to shut down protests have resulted in the worst bloodbaths in the country's modern history.
Not surprisingly, attempts to negotiate a settlement to the country's turmoil have broken down, and both sides appear to be digging in, searching for ways to blame the other for the stalemate and to write a new national narrative.
While the military's removal of a democratically elected government should always be challenged, there was hope that the situation in Egypt would stabilize after the army toppled President Mohammed Morsi. Mr. Morsi had governed with increasing disregard for the views of the substantial minority of people who had opposed him. In the 2012 presidential election, 48.3 percent of the voting public voted for other candidates than Mr. Morsi. A combination of administrative incompetence and authoritarian democracy had alienated many of his supporters and brought millions of people into the streets to protest his rule.