Mario, how could you say the execrable Mohammed El Baradei is “obviously playing to public opinion” by threatening war against Israel. I thought we’d been told that there is a blossoming Arab spring of freedom and democracy, spearheaded by liberty lovers who — to borrow Condi Rice’s words — just want to live side-by-side in peace with their Israeli neighbors. There wasn’t the slightest cause for hesitation about getting rid of that thug Mubarak — the anti-terrorist pro-American dictator who kept the peace with Israel for 30 years even though Egyptians had killed his predecessor for agreeing to that peace. Remember? It was time for Mubarak to go. And after all, the likely new rulers were the “largely secular,” “moderate” Muslim Brotherhood, and Iran-friendly leftists like Baradei who are even more progressive than the Brothers if that’s possible.
What could go wrong — they’re gonna be a democracy, right? And if a substantial majority of Egyptians denies Israel’s right to exist, why shouldn’t they be able to enact that policy democratically? Don’t our values require that we support them in their quest to chart their own destiny?
Stanley notes that Baradei broke with the Muslim Brotherhood over the election, choosing instead to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with those throngs of progressive Egyptian democracy lovers — who are so numerous they were wiped out, 77–23 percent, by that teeny-tiny fringe of Egyptians who prefer fundamentalist Islam. I would add though (as Ray Ibrahim has observed) that Baradei’s break with the Brotherhood came only after he enthusiastically agreed with the Brotherhood’s position that Article 2 of the Egyptian constitution had to be preserved. That’s the provision that establishes Islam as the state religion and installs sharia law as “the principal source of legislation.” Talk about playing to public opinion: That’s a position an Egyptian democrat has to take not only to be viable for electoral purposes but to be viable as in stay alive.
But, hey, spring is in the air.
And we give Egypt billions in foreign aid?
Why?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDream a little dream. Or hope and change, if you prefer. But come on, you saw the tweets that said "love is all around" and such. Surely, tweets are concrete and binding when democracy is in the air. No one can doubt that the new Mideast is synonymous with a 'peaceful easy feeling'?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'm terribly sorry, but I am left with no choice but to conclude:
1) Iran will finally become the all-powerful hegemon of the Arab/Persian region, dreams of which have made so many dictators salivate;
2) There will be another Yom Kippur War, very soon (Yom Kippur 2013 at the latest), with an en masse Arab/Iranian attack on Israel, with nuclear warheads;
3) Wide-spread celebration will ensue among the international socialist community, nowhere more raucous than among the most gifted "intellectuals" on American college campuses;
4) The day after Israel no longer exists, Arabs and Persians revert both to (i) killing themselves and (ii) persecuting "Palestinians" - who still won't have any blessed "state" - two skills that they've mastered since time immemorial.
5) The concept of a "Palestinian state" dies forever with the Jewish state, with nary a drop of irony! Overflowing, however, from the political left: ENNUI! The only reason the left ever cared about the "Palestinians", after all, was to destroy the Jewish state.
6) Earthlings finally unite, and launch a nuclear blitzkrieg on Arabia and Persia, allowing humanity to breathe a collective sigh of relief.
7) With Arabia and Persia destroyed, and with the world breathing easier, the 12th Imam appears . . . and thanks the Earthlings for FINALLY, JUST ONCE, doing Allah and mankind a most blessed favor.
8) The 12th Imam closes his speech to the assembled audience with the following missive:
"When an entire group of people become so thoroughly incapable of providing for themselves in a peaceful fashion, or from even walking down the sidewalk peacefully among those who are different from them, they lose all human nature, and therefore, they lose any command to our compassion and sympathies, and it becomes obligatory to rid a celestial body of their existence. What a terribly necessary PITY!"
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMadisonian: Brilliant!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSo Andy, are you claiming Facebook isn't mightier than the sword? Who'd thunk it?
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05 April 2011
"We call on the Israeli authorities to reconsider this decision, which undermines the prospects for peace."
Foreign Secretary, William Hague, said:
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse“I condemn Israel’s decision to approve more than 900 settlement units in the East Jerusalem suburb of Gilo and the retrospective approval which has been given for construction in five West Bank settlements. This is not disputed territory. It is occupied Palestinian territory and ongoing settlement expansion is illegal under international law, an obstacle to peace and a threat to a two state solution. We call on the Israeli authorities to reconsider this decision, which undermines the prospects for peace. All those who support a secure future for Israel and a future Palestinian state should be working urgently to restart peace negotiations, not taking steps which make this more difficult.”
Egypt is 0-10 in that conference so they ought to think harder about setting up a schedule with the IAF on it. Article 2 just ensures that the best built structures in Egypt have points on top, so again, no great loss to anyone but them. The Egyptian military has probably killed more Egyptians than Israelis and is far less lethal than a bomb vest in a Sbarros. So foreign aid is just job insurance for employees of Lockheed and other DOD contractors and far less dangerous for Israelis than selling Banana Republic vests in Cairo.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseGloom and doom aside, there was a certain point in each of these little uprisings where we had to either uphold our values, or support a dictatorial regime with military force. At some point our rubber has to hit the road. We either support those yearning to breathe free, or support their jailers. Nobody supports Israel more than I do, but acting like a colonial power will not help her, especially since we have not the wit to be intelligent overlords of Arab regimes, or pick the winners.
There will be more wars between the nations in the region, and the result can not be knowable, but that lack of certainty should provide no reason to embark on a different course whose outcome is just as unknowable, especially if we need to cast our democratic values aside.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhat would Machiavelli say?
Pick up the phone, and tell the NSA to prepare for 2, and only 2 responses:
1. Baradei is dead in 24 hours, or
2. the entire U.S. "intelligence community" is fired - if you can't do this, we don't need you
That's called a "win-win": either the problem is solved, or we reduce the budget.
Will there be more savages eager to mount the throne?
Of course, but we can produce drone missiles faster than Egypt can produce maniacs.
Here's the big secret (just like the prison scene in "Manchild in the Promised Land"): you don't have to kill all of them, just the loudest one.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"support those yearning to breathe free"
Bosh. Balderdash. Piffle. Nonsense on stilts. Where have you been for the last 10 years(or should I say since 732 AD) ? There are no such animals in all the Islamic world.
Welcomes to Fantasyland, Mr. Gersh. Keep ignoring culture and pretend the Islamist countries give a 2nd thought to Western ideals. But do so without any of our tax dollars and without our sons and daughters.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"support those yearning to breathe free"
Bosh. Balderdash. Piffle. Nonsense on stilts. Where have you been for the last 10 years(or should I say since 732 AD) ? There are no such animals in all the Islamic world.
Welcomes to Fantasyland, Mr. Gersh. Keep ignoring culture and pretend the Islamist countries give a 2nd thought to Western ideals. But do so without any of our tax dollars and without our sons and daughters.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThose settlements are not illegal. The Jews were given exclusive political rights over Palestine by the WWI Allies at San Remo. In dividing up the captured Ottoman Empire lands in the Middle East and the Maghreb, they gave 99% of those lands to the Arabs and Muslims. These were divided into 21 states. The remaining 1% was Palestine. They gave Palestine to the Jews. The Arabs local in Palestine have never had political rights over Palestine. They have been ruled by the Turks from Constantinople from 1520 to 1920, by the British from London from 1920 to 1948 and by the Jordanians from Amman from 1948 to 1967. Now they are ruled by the Jews because the Jews were given exclusive political rights under the Balfour Declaration. It was only policy until it was adopted as International Law by the WWI Allies at San Remo in 1920 and confirmed by the League of Nations. Later on it was additionally confirmed by the US by joint resolution because the US never became a member of the League of Nations. Finally, England and the US adopted the terms of the Balfour Declaration in a treaty, the 1924 Anglo American Convention that made it also the domestic law of the US and of England.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseEl Baradei was the elite's choice for Egyptian President,
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuseyou may recall, but when he went to the Egyptian street,
those 'democratic' protesters beat him up.
When's the last time Arab leaders Arab leaders or voters acted responsibly? Must be something in their food, or, just maybe, in their fundamental assumptions about the world.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAt what point does Andrew stop being a pundit and just be recognized as a prophet. Senior leadership at NRO should stop posting about the middle east and let Andy carry the load. It would do loads for NRO's credibility on foreign policy.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe leaders of these "freedom" movements in the Middle East are most often diplomats, technocrats and academicians. Find me a lover of democracy in any of those groups. You'll find socialists, communists and other garden variety totalitarians but not a lover of democracy.
Is the Obama administration still planning to sell a bunch of weapons to Egypt?
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