Posted on 07/10/2013 5:36:09 AM PDT by SJackson
- FrontPage Magazine - http://frontpagemag.com -
The Fight For Egypt
Posted By P. David Hornik On July 10, 2013 @ 12:17 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 6 Comments
Tense calm prevailed in Egypt on Tuesday. The new military-led government laid out a timetable for returning to some semblance of civilian democracy in about six months.
The government also appeared to have come up with a broadly acceptable, technocratic, interim prime minister in Hazem el-Biblawi, an economist and former finance minister.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were also reportedly planning to funnel billions of dollars in aid and loans to Egypt, which has been on the brink of economic disaster. During the one-year rule of ousted president Mohamed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood, the Saudis withheld funds because of their hatred and fear of the Brotherhood.
The previous day, Monday, was of course much less quiet as government forces killed 51 Muslim Brotherhood protestersor according to other versions, violent rioters. But the other major news on Monday was thatnotwithstanding such disruptionsthe Obama administration had decided to keep financially aiding Egypt despite calls by some to suspend aid over last weeks alleged military coup.
In other words, the developments for General Abdel Fatah al-Sisis interim military-led government look favorable at the moment with aid coming both from Washington and the Gulf.
From a Western standpoint, is aiding al-Sisis government the rational course?
According to reports in the Israeli press on Tuesday, Jerusalem fervently believes the answer is yes and may even have played a role in convincing Washington to back al-Sisi.
Haaretz cited a senior American official who said that last week Israel urged the U.S. not to respond to Egypts coup by halting the $1.3 billion in aid America gives the Egyptian army every year.
The official said Jerusalem and Washington held marathon phone calls about the coup over the weekendand that specifically Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon spoke with Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, and National Security Advisor Yaakov Amidror spoke with his White House counterpart, Susan Rice.
The Israeli officials, for their part, warned that cutting the military aid to Egypt could harm Israels security and further destabilize the area. Israelrelaxing the terms of its 1979 peace treaty with Egypthas been allowing Egyptian forces to fight Salafist and other ultra-radical terror groups in the Sinai for which even Morsis Islamist regime was too moderate.
According to the Haaretz report, Israel fears that stopping U.S. aid to Cairo could weaken the Egyptian armys commitment to the treaty.
The Jerusalem Post, for its part, cited a senior Israeli official who told Israel Radio that the Israeli government expects US President Barack Obama to avoid pursuing the same naïve policies in its dealings with the post-Mohamed Morsi Egypt as he did in his handling of the crisis that brought down Hosni Mubarak.
The official also said al-Sisi was hopeful the Obama administration wouldnt nitpick over whether a military coup was carried out.
Another way of saying all this is that Jerusalem hopes to bring Washington closer to its own understanding of the region as one that typically requires choices between lesser evils, and does not justify expectations of quick, grand transitions to democracy.
For Israel, the peace treaty with Egypt has always entailed a calculated risk where the U.S. constantly strengthens Egypt militarily whileideallyexerting enough leverage to keep it faithful to the treaty.
At present, with Sinai part of sovereign Egyptian territory, Israel hopes to avoid creating severe, possibly calamitous friction with Egypt by operating against the Sinai-based terror gangswhich threaten both Israel and Egyptitself. The only other alternative, and lesser evil, is to let the Egyptian military try and contend with them.
A report Tuesday evening that al-Sisis government had arrested 650 pro-Morsi protesters allegedly involved in Mondays violent incident, with the Brotherhood calling for nationwide protests, indicates how volatile the situation still is.
It is not that Egypt abounds in genuinely moderate, democracy-friendly elements. The Muslim Brotherhood, however, is a highly ideological, virulently anti-Israeli, anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, and anti-Western, totalitarian movement whose defeat is a prerequisite for there to be any hope at all.
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Crossposting link to the live thread.
Live Thread: Egypt Revolution 2.1 The Ikwhan Strikes Back: Deadly “Day of Rejection”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3039526/posts
Why should I care anymore? On one side there are 3rd world 7th century rapists and goatf#@#!!rs...on the other side there are 3rd world 7th century rapists and goatf#@#!!rs. Neither side seems poised to begin contributing something remotely positive to the rest of the population of the planet, I say let thjem battle it out until only one man is left standing.
I gotta read this tomorrow placemark.
I seem to recall Bible Prophecy mentions Egypt in the end times? Beyond the Revelation of Jesus Christ where John alludes to Jerusalem and seems to link it by name to both Sodom and Egypt. I believe Jerusalem remains The Lord G-d’s favorite place—That she has been judged for her iniquities
and that Prophecy is being fulfilled in gathering back—But if I read correctly from history Egypt and the Hebrew people have a long almost a love/hate relationship—one I suspect suggests Egypt will not always oppose Israel?
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