First I shouted childishly at the never ending cat-and-mouse games in the animated cartoon films when my family could afford to get the black and white magic box in the 1960s. But I nearly killed myself laughing when Tom had to broker a temporary peace treaty with his foe to fight Spike-Tom's untamed sworn enemy. When I grew up and was forced to accept the polarisation of global politics, Tom and Jerry's antics gave me the impression that they represented the soft part of the former Cold War rivalries between US-led capitalism and the communist world led by the old Soviet Union. The likes of Tom, Jerry and James Bond were part of the harmless – but effective – ammunition of the war between the two superpowers. The eternal love-hate adventures of Tom and Jerry came back to me last week when I saw President-elect Mohammed Morsi sit next to Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi. Morsi paid a ceremonial visit to the headquarters of the Ministry of Defence, after he was declared the winner of the presidential election. His defeated rival Ahmed Shafiq, a former prime minister, is a former colleague of the generals surrounding Morsi during his historic visit to their military lair. Replaying the brief clips of Morsi's meeting with the generals gave me the opportunity to examine the facial expressions of the sworn enemies of the past 60 years. The generals appeared to sigh deeply when Morsi – not Shafiq – won the power in Egypt. It seemed that Morsi's election as President encouraged the generals to take their heavy boots off, signalling that they had finally found someone else to blame if the revolutionary youngsters planned further violent protests. However, when replaying the clips of Morsi' visit I questioned the accuracy of my statement that I caught the Field Marshal and his aides exchanging victorious glances while gazing with sly expressions at the tamed President-elect. I was convinced that the meeting between Morsi and the generals was a new sequel to a tacit and unwritten agreement hammered out just weeks after the outbreak of the revolution by the beleaguered SCAF (the Supreme Council of the Armed forces) and the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). The January 25 Revolution took on tragic dimensions in the shape of violent protests, killed demonstrators and torched state buildings, while the generals kept on desperately defending the integrity, impartiality and honesty of their managing the transitional period. In the meantime, the 60-year struggle over supremacy between the MB and the military in Egypt increased when the Islamists took the lead in the first weeks after the revolution and stole the limelight from the young revolutionaries and everybody else. The generals were dragged to different battlefronts and suffered a real headache. Their pain grew even more severe when the youngsters decided to camp indefinitely in Tahrir Square, increasing their demands. Perhaps in their childhood the Field Marshal or his generals were like me fans of Tom and Jerry. It must have occurred to the SCAF to seek their foe's temporary help in confronting Spike, who refused to stop howling in dismay about the military's management of the transitional period. An unexpected cordiality was not only forged by a similarity in age, but by a long-standing feud (a guard-prisoner friendship built over many years). It enabled the MB to decode the cryptic message sent by the Field Marshal and his generals. Initially the MB admonished and threatened the youngsters, who demonstrated in front of the Cabinet building and the headquarters of the Ministry of Interior last year; the reward was a parliament majority. When Spike found himself disgraced, SCAF and Islamists immediately resumed their rivalry to the delight of those sitting on the fence, usually called the silent majority. The parliament got dissolved and the Islamists expelled. But when Spike gathered strength and snarled at his foes, SCAF and Islamists quickly suspended their rivalry to confront the common enemy. The presidency was the prize given to the Islamists. But since they are fundamentally incapable of enjoying a honeymoon for a longer period of time, the two sworn enemies will get bored soon and will inevitably decide to resume their never-ending chase. The next round could easily end in favour of the SCAF.
