It's something I think we'll see more of in the future and speaks to the power of the masses having a direct connection to the outside world - that there are parties who recognize that to pursue their agenda they need to disrupt Internet access.
But who? The cables are Egypt Telecom- the monopoly carrier. So cutting it hurts everyone inside Egypt.
There are people who don't actually _care_ all that much if their neighbors can read yahoo mail or not.