Israel Matzav

Obama encouraging Muslim Brotherhood to be part of post-Mubarak government

For those who missed my earlier post on the connection between the Muslim Brotherhood and Nazism, and between the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, please go back and read it before you read this post.

Ostensibly knowing everything I wrote in that post, the Obama administration is encouraging making the Muslim Brotherhood a part of the post-Mubarak government in Egypt (Hat Tip: Gates of Vienna, who has lots more comments here).

The Obama administration said Monday for the first time that it supports a role for groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, a banned Islamist organization, in a reformed Egyptian government.

The organization must reject violence and recognize democratic goals if the U.S. is to be comfortable with it taking part in the government, the White House said. But by even setting conditions for the involvement of such "nonsecular" groups, the administration took a surprise step in the midst of the crisis enveloping Egypt for the past week.

If those conditions sound familiar, they should. They parallel the conditions for acceptance of Hamas as a legitimate actor in the Israeli-'Palestinian' conflict (acceptance of Israel's right to exist, acceptance of past agreements, renunciation of violence). And they represent a radical departure from the United States' statement two weeks ago that it would cut off all assistance to Lebanon if a new government was formed by a Hezbullah-led block.

Furthermore, even if the Brotherhood accepted these conditions, why should they be believed? Hasn't the Obama administration heard of taqiyya?

What the US should be doing is saying, "while we have no control over what the Egyptian people decide, we will not continue to financially assist a government which abrogates any of its treaty obligations with Israel, or which includes any Islamist or other repressive party." That would square with what the US has done (and should be doing) in Lebanon (with Hezbullah) and in Gaza (with Hamas).

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said a reformed government "has to include a whole host of important nonsecular actors that give Egypt a strong chance to continue to be (a) stable and reliable partner."

If anything, the opposite is true. If a 'reformed government' includes certain non-secular actors - like the Brotherhood - there is virtually no chance that it will ever be a stable and reliable partner for anything.

The Muslim Brotherhood is the largest and best-organized Egyptian opposition group, with an estimated 600,000 members, many of them educated, middle-class men. It has disavowed terrorism and violence, but its inclusion in any government would likely be deeply controversial among U.S. allies, especially in Israel, because it advocates tearing up Egypt's peace treaty with the Jewish state.

So now we are expected to believe that there is a difference between the Brotherhood's 'political' and 'military' 'wings,' as some would have us believe about Hezbullah? Maybe we can rename Hamas' Izzedein al-Qassam as the Brotherhood's 'military wing'?

What could go wrong?

Labels: Adolph Hitler, Barack Obama, Egyptian regime change, Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, Hamas, Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini, Muslim Brotherhood, Politics, World Politics

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:48 AM