Posted on 02/07/2011 9:40:38 PM PST by Scottmkiv
"One of the reasons that the revolt in Egypt is so important is what their new government's foreign policy will be.
The Middle East is tumultuous at the best of times, but Egypt hasn't been a part of the fighting since 1973 with the exception of a brief skirmish with Libya in 1977.
Now, it looks like Mubarak's regime will fall. Mubarak is 83 years old, and the current riots make it seem unlikely that he will hold onto power until Egypt's election this fall."
http://www.rationalpublicradio.com/israel-has-peace-agreement-with-mubarak-not-with-egypt.html
(Excerpt) Read more at rationalpublicradio.com ...
Ping.
I think that Israel needs to start preparing for a war in two fronts
El Baradei just put his foot into his mouth, big time. His liberal Western supporters will have a hard time ignoring his official anti-Israel coming-out.
Strange, Haaretz has the headline.
Egypt opposition figure: Peace treaty with Israel is ‘rock solid’
http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/egypt-opposition-figure-peace-treaty-with-israel-is-rock-solid-1.341642
Here is El Baradai’s quote from der Spiegel
“ElBaradei: There are a few myths that Mubarak has successfully disseminated in the West and in Israel. First, that if he falls, there will be immediate chaos. Second, that if Egypt transitions into a democracy, the peace treaty with Israel will be annulled and we will be on the verge of entering into a new war in the Middle East. And, third, that if there is a transformation, an ayatollah à la Iran will take over in Cairo. All of that is nonsense.”
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,743825,00.html
I thought we give them a billion (with a B) dollars every year. Is this guy trying to eschew that?
Here’s the full quote used in this story...
“ElBaradei: No. Something the Israelis also need to grasp is that it’s impossible to make peace with a single man. At the moment, they have a peace treaty with Mubarak, but not one with the Egyptian people. The Israelis should understand that it is in their long-term interest to have a democratic Egypt as a neighbor, and that it is prudent to acknowledge the legitimate interests of the Palestinians and to grant them their own state.”
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,743825,00.html
He’s not calling for war with Israel.
And we don’t really owe other nations money that America has borrowed from them.
El Baradei doesn't have a base in Egypt, and his "fame" comes mostly internationally. Now if he is going to climb the greasy pole of Arab politics, he needs an angle, and that angle is anti-Mubarak and anti-Jew. He is an amoral politician through and through. He may try to use the Muslim Brotherhood to gain a foothold, and they may likely use him as well for international legitimacy, but in the end El Baradei won't outsmart, and certainly won't out-muscle, the Muslim Brotherhood.
Did you all see on Fox news on Monday afternoon that Cavuto has declared that Mumbarak has a net worth of $$70 billion?
$70 Billion!
Has this guy been ripping us off for 30 years after the Jummuh Carter handshake that whatever aid we give to Isreal we will match to Egypt.
$70 Billion folks. Thank you for your contributions to this despot!
That’s the name of the game now. That is their justification for their hatred toward Israel, because that is what all this is about...the annihilation of Israel. This is just one more step toward that end, and that is why Liberals will embrace Baradei’s assessment with open arms, because they want to see Israel gone too, and since the Liberals, for the most part, control the Press, well....
the riots in egypt are essentially food riots.
Therefor the answer to question as to what to do involves food.
So first have a five year plan to subsidize Egyptian grain. During that five years invest in pulling up water from the ancient aquifers in the Egyptian western desert to grow grain. (Libya shares the same giant aquifer and already has huge wheat fields in the desert that can be seen from space) At the end of five years stop the subsidies and rely on the home grown wheat.
Finally an international contest would be drawn up to collapse the cost of water desalination. The contest would to see who could drop the cost of seawater desalination by $100 on three oceans. Then a new contest would be held. Whoever could beat the new price point would win 1 billion dollars. And so on until the price of desalinized water was ~50@acre foot. At Which point it becomes cost competitive to grow crops. Another contest would be held to cut the cost of delivered water by pipeline. The idea would be to bring down the cost of installing, and maintaining the pipeline and lowering the cost of pumping water.
Cheap water and cheap pipline pumping would make it possible to desert farm 1000 mile from any seacoast with desalinized water. Basically you’d be able to turn the deserts green around the world and double the size of the habitable planet and solve the worlds food water and population problem for 100-200 years.
I have read that Mubarak has 40 billion in personal wealth. You might be able to get him to subsidize Egyptian grain imports for 5 years at a cost of 12 billion or so.
You might also be able to get the Saudis to invest in Egyptian agriculture by pulling up water from the ancient aquifers. That might cost another 12 billion. It is in the Saudi interest to have a stable Egypt.
Finally the cost of contests would also be born by international billionaires as proposed by Bill Gates. This program would run ten years for a cost of ~12 billion.
In the end none of the parties that are non islamist will be able to govern unless they have a vision. This is it. Mubarak has actually been playing with the idea of grain independence–but he has not been able to deliver.
Now that’s a crystal clear call for war with Isreal from El Baraday.
We need to collect all they gear we sold to that one guy- Mubarak.
We’ll have the IDF swing by in the AM to get it.
ElBaradei gives bottom feeders a bad name.
“Did you all see on Fox news on Monday afternoon that Cavuto has declared that Mumbarak has a net worth of $$70 billion?”
Maybe not directly but his family and supporters yeah. In Egypt, IIRC, a local company must own 51% or so whn outsiders invest. Just imagine how much the local share of their telecom is worth. And that’s just one segment
“Did you all see on Fox news on Monday afternoon that Cavuto has declared that Mumbarak has a net worth of $$70 billion?”
I’ve seen that number, but I have also seen more numerous estimates of roughly 1/10th of that. Still.
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