After all, why should Hamas have all the fun? Can’t a country to whom the US provides $2 billion in aid yearly have a favorable opinion of blowing up Israelis, too? From the Jerusalem Post:
An Egyptian state-controlled newspaper praised Monday’s suicide attack in Tel Aviv, which killed nine people and wounded dozens, calling it an act of sacrifice and martyrdom.
Egypt has always taken pains to condemn the violence by both sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is exceptional for one of the country’s three biggest newspapers, whose editor is effectively appointed by President Hosni Mubarak, to endorse a Palestinian attack on Israeli civilians.
“It is not required of the Palestinian people that they raise their hands in surrender, accept the daily Israeli attacks and watch waves of settlers occupy their land and build settlements,” wrote Al Gomhuria in an editorial of its Tuesday edition.
“It is not required of the Palestinian people that they clap Israel and its allies while they mobilize the whole world to besiege the heroic [Palestinian] people … because they have chosen Hamas,” the editorial said, referring to the United States and European Union’s cutting off funds to the Palestinian Authority because its Hamas government refuses to renounce violence.
“For all that, the sacrificial and martyrdom attack occurred in the heart of Tel Aviv, and there will be more later,” the daily warned. In the Islamic faith, a martyr goes to heaven.
And in the faith of US foreign policy, throwing money at the problem makes it go away. Or so we thought.
Perhaps it’s time to rethink that aid money to Egypt, too.
A spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Cairo declined to comment on the editorial because he had not yet read it.
Well, I have. And I hope both the President and Condaleeza Rice have, as well.
What is interesting here is the apparent sea change in semi-official (the newspaper is, after all, state sanctioned) Egyptian response. As the JP notes, Egypt has always taken pains to mouth the comfortable “cycle of violence” canard, effectively wringing their hands over the carnage while refusing to place responsibility on either side.
Here, however, they have come out on the side of the Palestinians and, by extension, Hamas. What this augurs I’m not sure—perhaps the Egyptians believe America’s will to affect change in the region is waning, and they are shoring up their bona fides in the Arab world—or perhaps they simply hit the hooka too hard and lost their inhibitions for a moment, resulting in an jarring bit of candor.
Either way, the US diplomatic corp has some serious finger wagging to do. And it wouldn’t hurt if the purse strings were ostentatiously attached to those fingers, so as to remind the Egyptians that our largesse is contingent upon their continued good relations with our allies.
At any rate, I’m sure the Mearshimer / Walt “Jewish lobby” will have something to say about all this…
(h/t Allah)
The Republicans in Congress have rethought the $2billion in aid, and now they have a tough new plan: Offer Egypt $4 billion, but only if they offer more choices in bilious and hateful media. Gotta love those free marketeers.
Considering that the 2 billion was always a bribe to get Egypt on board for a peace deal with Israel, if Egypt is no longer interested in earning its bribe, maybe we shouldn’t be paying it.
Can anyone explain why we continue paying these bribes ?
These “bribes” were the cost of Jimmah Carter’s
Camp David “Peace Accords” in 1978. Then-President Carter commited about 20% of the total US foreign aid budget in perpetuity to these two nations in order to get Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat to sign the accords and help Jimmah earn a Nobel Prize. Given the tacit support & financial aid that Eygpt has given to radical Islamists, it’s a travesty that these funds are still being paid to Mubarak’s corrupt, undemocratic regime.
It seems to be a lose-lose for the U.S., because if we yank any funds, Iran fills the vacumm as the new benefactor, one who attaches some serious strings to their offering, I suspect. We pulled our funding for the Palestinians, and Iran ponied up something like $50MM.
I don’t want to see us funding these states/regimes any more than I’d like to see us funding the Taliban, but there’s some thick lines being drawn in the sand over there, and we’re on the opposite sides of all of them.
Unless I live see the day when the United States obliterates all these Islamo-fuck-heads, I will live to see the day when the Islamo-fuck-heads obliterate all of western society (that’s assuming they kill me last – call me an optimist).
What the fuck is the question?
Aren’t we violating our own Bush Doctrine by giving billions of dollars to Egypt?
It’s all just a game to our ‘leaders’. What would Ronald Reagan do?
I’m guessing he would have fired half the State Department, CIA, NSA and FBI. I mean, an act of war committed on US soil and not one person is fired? Everybody just points fingers at everybody else. It’s all a game…
/vent
I really don’t feel any better
Well, if Egypt’s interested in improving the lot of Palestinians, it could start by treating its own Palestinian population better.
Not likely. Iran can’t come up with $2Billion per year.
Not that this excuses Egypt for pandering to Hamas, but since the Israeli pullout from Gaza, the palestinian terrorist devil is now at Cairo’s door. It’s their problem now, and like most of the world’s elites, they’re appeasing as fast as they can.
For all the no good it will do them…
I just want to point out that reading the following line in your link to the Weekly Standard…
…made me smile. How long until we see asshat make it into common usage?
As to Egypt, I think we are way past the point where our money is buying us anything worth having. The asskicking their neighbors are getting should be enough to keep them from wishing to start up the serious Jew hate again.
Addendum: asskicking might not be the best choice of words for my last. Replace it with the threat of an asskicking.