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I noticed over the weekend that Thaddeus McCotter put himself in the vanguard of conservatives backing the dictator Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and fearmongering over the Muslim Brotherhood and the possibility of an Islamist takeover in the country. He may not have been taking his cues from Israel, but certainly their opinions are in sync:
Israel called on the United States and a number of European countries over the weekend to curb their criticism of President Hosni Mubarak to preserve stability in the region.
Jerusalem seeks to convince its allies that it is in the West’s interest to maintain the stability of the Egyptian regime. The diplomatic measures came after statements in Western capitals implying that the United States and European Union supported Mubarak’s ouster.
Israeli officials are keeping a low profile on the events in Egypt, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu even ordering cabinet members to avoid commenting publicly on the issue.
Senior Israeli officials, however, said that on Saturday night the Foreign Ministry issued a directive to around a dozen key embassies in the United States, Canada, China, Russia and several European countries. The ambassadors were told to stress to their host countries the importance of Egypt’s stability. In a special cable, they were told to get this word out as soon as possible.
The story could have been headlined: “Rats to Women and Children: Stay on This Sinking Ship!”
The Israelis were joined by potential 2012 Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, who told the Knesset that “the situation could threaten the world and all those who seek peace and security. The real threat to Israelis is not the bomb but the people behind it, not weapons but the madmen behind them.”
This may seem like the right wing is in a pickle, caught between defending freedom and defending dictatorship. But I think they’re just working to define the new reality, and getting an early start on denouncing whatever following Mubarak in Egypt as a radical Islamist puppet government. I think this could play in the US media – we’re already seeing some of that – but worldwide it can and should be met with total condemnation. If we had smart Democrats they’d highlight this as well.
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Read up on the history of Lebanon. Beirut used to be referred to as the Paris of the middle east for it’s culture and freedoms, until the Fundies took it over.
To posit it’s irrational for people to fear the Muslim Brotherhood becoming the dominant force rising from the upheaval is simply another example of pathetic partisanship. If it does, the wrath brought down on the people will make Mubarak look like Mother Theresa.
If…an important word.
Thanks for posting David. Seems the “fear card voice” is even following posts here at FDL.
ROTFL.
Not fast enough, Likudniks. The American neocons fell silent waiting for you to tell them what U.S. foreign policy ought to be, and they have now been overtaken by events!
Oooooooooo. Isreal is afraid!
That will teach them to block water and land that does not belong to them.
D. Ratigan will be discussing Manning next. Maybe Jane will be on. ;-)
Is there a way for you to capture video of it for us? No TV here.
The EU has since countered by telling Israel that it risks “international isolation”. Perhaps they should tell the US that as well? How I wish they would!
Try going to MSNBC site and watch live.
With the Egyptian army saying they won’t take arms against the people, Mubarek’s departure seems inevitable. The Israeli government would do well to begin acting in good faith with the people of the countries surrounding them. Same advice for the United States. Encourage true democracy at home and wherever else it tries to flourish.
just to add…
quotes I saw from Huckabee over the weekend basically amounted to “the Israelis have been there for 1000s of years and have the right to build anywhere on their land they see fit… and the Palestinians.. well, they need to settle in some arab country where they belong”
Anyway that aside..lets be honest here. The only reason Clinton and Obama are so behind on the issue is that Israel wants Mubarack in power so that is the official US policy. He has been in power for 30 years because that what Isreal wants. The plan apparently was to appoint another puppet as VP and then Mubarack could resign and the status quo could continue
I mean how can they starve Gaza if food can get across the border.
Dylan just said it was somebody that saw him, so it might be David instead.
I don’t see a Live Stream option over there.
YEAH! It’s David! He is telling that Manning is slow and did not light up until discussion of Egypt came up.
Every time foreign policy comes up, we are told by the “news” what Israel thinks. I don’t care what Israel thinks. When are Americans going to realize that our gov’t is being run from Tel Aviv?
Harsh? Yes, Fixed? Probably.
Sorry. I can’t camera it.
“if we had smart Democrats” is like saying “If Huckabee weren’t a Christianist Zionist willing to b*** Bibi so the Rapture can come true”.
Sorry; thought experiment over.
The Middle Eastern nation most in need of regime change: Israel.
Why is the US subservient to them again? They do not produce anything of value aside from spies and nuclear weapons, and we already have a few of each of those. Maybe it’s the human suffering, oppression, and ethnic ghettos which our government prizes so highly, but there’s no global shortage of any of that stuff either.
Of course I know the real reason. Religionist superstition. This world would be a much saner, healthier, more peaceful and more prosperous place if everyone would put their ancient books of fairy tales and folklore back on the shelf and started looking at those long neglected science books. But that won’t happen because most humans are fools or crooks or both.
I wish I could join another species. This one sucks.
Maybe you should, oh I don’t know, know something about the Muslim Brotherhood before you trumpet them as the bringers of extremist Islamist doom. It’s a moderate, conservative tradition oriented movement that officially eschewed violence like 40 years ago. And stuck to peace ever since.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Muslim_Brotherhood_in_Egypt
Exactly Ahmedinejad’s point in his much maligned U.N. speech.
What….a change of heart? I mean it seems like it was just yesterday I remember reading a link to a WaPo article by Eliot Abrams touting the success of Bush Junior’s Shock and Awe in Iraq (that came about due to the fact many Saudi Arabians flew planes into our buildings) as being responsible for the democracy birthing that is occurring in Egypt right now, or something…
Yes, it’s unfortunate that Ahmedinejad is such a crackpot in his own right. He makes a few valid points but then tries to back it up with his own brand of extreme religionist pseudo-logic. Not helpful.
“O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts, And men have lost their reason.”
Jack Shenker has a piece up at the Guardian on the Muslim Brotherhood; among other things:
I think that sentiment is makes sense. Someone on the boards pointed out that once a new coalition government forms, journalists will go wild disinfecting a transition or other government with sunlight.
It’s clear Carter gave Suleiman a certain legitimacy, but I hope Obama and Clinton are not. The People know who he is and what he’s done.
if you ever succeed please send for me!
Both-and, not either-or. They’re caught in said pickle, all right, and this is the best save they can come up with. But it isn’t going to work very well.
Are you serious? Did you even read the wiki you linked to? You want to use wiki articles… here is another wiki page on the Muslim Brotherhood:
“Among the Brotherhood’s more influential members was Sayyid Qutb. Qutb was the author of one of Islamism’s most important books, Milestones, which called for the restoration of Islam by re-establishing the Sharia and by using “physical power and Jihad for abolishing the organizations and authorities of the Jahili system, which he believed to include the entire Muslim world.”
“In the group’s belief, the Quran and Sunnah constitute a perfect way of life and social and political organization that God has set out for man. Islamic governments must be based on this system and eventually unified in a Caliphate.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_Brotherhood
Do you have any idea what that means? If you don’t, you need to read up son.
oops… mistype
Now that it seems the Egyptian military has sided with the people of Egypt and will not fire on them, the regime’s days are over. So there will be change, and the eventual power in Egypt will probably have a strong Islamist cast. It will be antipathetic to American corporatist interests, though not necessarily anti-American. (Egyptians and Americans get along just fine.)
Washington’s foreign policy has for too long supported a corrupt tyranny. Exposing the hypocrisy of our words about freedom and democracy. When Egypt is free and democratic, it will likely not be a friend of our ruling power-elites.
Be aware of that. Our government will try to whip up fear and demonize the changes in Egypt, making comparisons to Iran. But the truth is, Islam means us no harm to America whatsoever. (However, the Muslin world does object to our bases in Arab lands, which is a desecration, our continuing occuptaion, our support of corrupt dictators who suppress their own people, and our slaugher of its innocent people. They don’t have armies or armadas to fight us; do we wonder why there is a rise of ‘terrorists’ to oppose our objectives?)
Now that the administration is helping to ease the dictator out, how come they weren’t doing this a long time ago? Why is that? I think the folks who might read this post well know the answer, and it is fairly shameful if you truly believe in America and its values. We have been sold out.
Jane’s experience trying to contact Bradley Manning is instructive on this point, I believe. She is brave, and yet she faced our own service personnel and must have felt alien in the presence of the American military sworn to protect us. I swear, we live in an occupied country, a corporatist police state.
Israel has a better chance of making peace with democratic Islamist states than autocratic ones. America’s influence in the Middle East is declining rapidly, so our support of Israel will mean less. And Israel must reconcile itself to the new reality, and that its vaunted IDF is not a solution. As a patriotic American, I want to cut ties to Israel. It is heartbreaking when a Chosen People decides to act like a Master Race.
Nonsense, noncents.
The two “countries”…I use the word loosely, in Labanon’s case…have little in common.
The main thing that’s different is that in Egypt there is NOTHING like the factional hatred that you see in Labanon. There is no entrenched group in Egypt that bears any real resemblance to Hezbollah, for example.
It’s going to take a mountain of bullshit for conservatives and the warbots to inflate the big ju-ju “terrist” feardoll enough to get the rest of the world to climb on board any “Save Mubarak!” bandwagon, and the bullshit chits are about to be called in, in Afghanistan and Iraq, as we speak.
I think Hosni’s LearJet material, and good riddance.
“…that many Saudi Arabians flew planes into our buildings.”
Excellent reminder, emal. 15 of 19, as I recall. That needs to be reiterated out with great regularity. :o)
Watching the repub preznintial wanna-be’s rush over to Israel to lick Likud ass like it was an ice-cream cone, is nauseating, but what’s really going to turn my stomach is when the dems start doing it.
Son; the Muslim Brotherhood is a fart in a windstorm, compared with what’s happening in Egypt.
The Israelis are starting in on Obama for “betraying” Mubarak.
http://news.antiwar.com/2011/01/31/israeli-president-others-slam-obama-for-betrayal-of-mubarak/
You’d think those billions and billions that we’ve given them over the years would have been worth a little something…but I guess not.
Suez Canal, hmmm….
Your fart in the wind has a very good chance of filling the vacuum when they topple Mubarak. Your lack of study in middle east history is readily apparent and in this case your ignorance is criminal.
For “if” they do, you will be nice and comfy in your mommy’s basement playing your level 80 shaman, while people are hanged for being gay or burned alive for running from their abusive husbands, or stoned to death for being raped, or hands cut off for stealing bread, or acid bathed for spurning advances. All sorts of nice things that come along with Sharia Law and the culture it breeds.
~~~ModNote: Go after the subject matter, not the messenger.~~~
Dear David – Democrats support the most atrocious tyrannies in the world as long as they toe the US line.
your presupposition that they don’t is nonsensical unless substantiated.
No finer example of an oxymoron… with the emphasis on moron.