The Israeli ambassador to Cairo and about eighty other Israelis flew out of Cairo to Tel Aviv on a military plane under cover of darkness. They were lucky to escape with their lives. A huge crowd had attacked the Israeli embassy, overpowering the ninety police on duty, storming into several rooms and throwing files out into the street. The military officers now ruling the country have declared an emergency.
Some days ago, Palestinian terrorists from Gaza disguised themselves in Egyptian uniforms and crossed Egyptian territory to attack southern Israel. In the firefight the terrorists and eight Israelis were killed, but so were five Egyptian border guards whom the Israelis identified wrongly. The Muslim Brothers refuse to accept this as the sort of mistake that occurs all too easily in such circumstances, and they have whipped up this crisis in order to break off the treaty that has kept the peace with Israel since 1979.
This is a repeat of the earlier row that also originated from Gaza. Turkish Islamists were determined to run the blockade imposed by Israel to prevent the smuggling of weapons to Hamas. Israeli commandos boarded the incoming ship, and in the ensuing fracas killed nine Turkish Islamists. The Israeli government refused to apologize for this act of self-defense, whereupon Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan declared the Israeli ambassador to Ankara persona non grata.
Two major Muslim countries have simultaneously experienced, or engineered, a diplomatic confrontation with Israel. On another front, Hamas has its headquarters in Damascus. In the light of the massacres committed daily by the Syrian security forces, Hamas seems to be about to move its headquarters to Cairo. In that case, Hamas may be able to mobilize popular support in Egypt for future terrorism against Israel, greatly inhibiting Israel’s counter-terror options.
Later this month the United Nations will be pursuing a two-track anti-Israel policy, voting on the establishment of a Palestinian state, and on a resolution that Israel is uniquely racist. Iranian President Ahmedinejad has promised that he will be attending in New York to make his familiar speech about the imminent genocide of all Jews.
Quite possibly all this is posturing, but it is beginning to look as if the Arab Spring is the fancy description of another dire round of self-destruction.
What you say about Khaled Meshaal getting out of Syria and moving HQ to Egypt makes a whole lot of sense, seeing how all the tunneling between Gaza and Egypt would make meetings easier.
A real nightmare scenario which the White House did not think through - or if they did, they weren't concerned enough with the consequences of what they were throwing support behind.
Boycott Durban III Demonstration across from the UN Sep 21 11 AM External Link
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI would like to answer the question to your title, Whither the Arab Spring, by saying: "It's withering," but I cannot. That's because I never thought there was an Arab Spring to begin with. It was only something in the eyes of the willfully blind (and that includes neocons like William Kristol). IMHO, there can be no Arab Spring while Islam dominates the Arab world, and by extension, the Arab mind.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAnd neo-NeoCons were deriding that we didn't have "boots on ground" helping facilitate the handover to more "democractic regimes" which inevitably lead to US getting bogged down in millenia old hatred of sects, religions, races, etc at the further expense of US blood and treasure at no benefit to the US...Did you see that touching Twin Towers memorial they made in Fallujah made out of auto parts and mud bricks? No, it doesn't exist and never will.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abusefrom Spengler
"The Egyptian street has nothing to do but rise up against perceived oppressors, because nothing good awaits them; and the desperation that will follow the collapse of the Arab “Spring” threatens every Middle Eastern regime, such that the rulers have to try to get out in front of the rage. But what will they actually do? The Egyptian military is hanging onto power by its fingernails. If it attacks Israel, it will lose, and generals will be hanged from lamp posts. The Syrian military is too busy killing protesters to attack Israel, or to assist Hezbollah in a confrontation with Israel. What we are likely to witness during the next two years will be repellent, even horrifying–but not necessarily dangerous."
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