Maybe Prime Minister Netanyahu saw the poll numbers that have her barely making it into the next Knesset. Or maybe he finally figured out what the rest of us did a long time ago: Tzipi Livni is about 'me, me, me,' and while she may have lots of friends on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington and in Foggy Bottom, she was very few friends in Israel. Whichever it is, at long last, Netanyahu may finally have come to the realization that he doesn't need to pander to Tzipi Livni - and he may be hurting himself politically by continuing to do so.
"On Sunday I will bring the Jewish State Law to the Cabinet, in order
to provide a response to all those who doubt the right of Jews to have
their own nation-state in the state of Israel. The Jewish State Law is a
foundation in securing our rights in our country," Netanyahu said.
According to the Jewish State Law, which was proposed by MK Ze’ev
Elkin (Likud) and is backed by the Jewish Home party, all Jewish schools
will teach Jewish history as well as Jewish tradition and heritage.
Hebrew will be recognized as the only official language in Israel.
Arabic, which as of now is considered an official language in Israel,
will instead be given special status.
The bill also declares that the State of Israel is the national home
of the Jewish people, in which a Jew can exercise his desire for
self-determination in accordance with his historical legacy. This right
to exercise national self-determination will be provided to Jewish
people only.
However, every resident, regardless of religion and nationality, will
be entitled to preserve his or her heritage, culture and language.
The bill came before the Ministerial Committee for Legislation on
Sunday, but Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who opposes the law, removed it from the agenda
by purposely wasting time at the meeting, leaving only the last few
minutes for a hurried discussion of the law before announcing that the
debate on it is to be put off for a later date.
Livni has outsized influence on the government - or at least she has until now. She is Justice Minister, a position that is probably ministry number 5 on the totem pole (after the Prime Minister, and Defense, Foreign and Finance), despite the fact that the party she leads has only six seats in the current Knesset. It's long past time for that to stop.
Bashara Shlayan, 58, a ship captain from Nazareth, founded the new party. In an interview with Israel Hayom,
he says he was motivated to enter politics not only because of the
rapid changes gripping the region, but also because the Arab political
parties in Israel predominantly serve the interests of Muslims and have a
communist platform.
“People see what is happening now in
Lebanon, Egypt and Syria. They understand where we are living. I tell
them, ‘For 65 years we have given to the Arab communist parties; 65
years and they have done nothing!’ Give me three years, I will manage
and solve their problems,” he says.
“Look at what the Arab parties have
done. Just talking nonsense about nothing but communism; [MK Dov] Khenin
and [MK Mohammad] Barakeh (Hadash/Communist Party), what have they done
for us? They want us to disappear and are not acting according to the
integrity of their country’s citizens,” Shlayan adds.
Further distinguishing himself from
his Muslim Arab neighbors, Shlayan says he is an “Arab Christian in
Israel who recognizes the land of Israel as belonging to the Jews.”
“Firstly we are completely Israeli, and then comes religion,” he says.
There is fierce opposition among
Muslims living in Israel to serve in the IDF, a position that in the
past influenced Christian Arabs to opt out. Though there is a draft in
Israel, the government does not require Christian or Muslim Arab
citizens to serve, due to possible conflicts of loyalty as family
members may reside in Lebanon, Syria or other Middle Eastern countries
still officially in a state of war with Israel.
Shlayan says he wants to change that,
and helped his nephew and son enlist in the IDF. Since they were the
trailblazers, that effort was a challenge.
“When I wanted my son to join the army
we decided to create a forum for Christian enlistment. We also invited
priests from the church to a conference we held in Nazareth Illit. One
of them is the Church patriarch, Father Gabriel Nadaf [who has drawn the
ire of Arab MKs recently for encouraging Christian Arab youth to join
the IDF], who preferred [our way] and said we were right.”
Today Shlayan’s nephew is a major in a combat unit.
Because he publicly backed enlistment
for Israel’s 130,000 Christian Arab citizens, Father Nadaf was “banned
from entering Nazareth’s Church of the Annunciation, and was threatened
with being fired from his position in Yafia. The tires of his car were
punctured and a rag with bloodstains was laid at his doorstep,” writes
the Times of Israel.
Israel has to be the only country in the world where something as simple as going on standard (as the Americans call it) or winter (as the Israelis and Europeans call it) time is both a political and religious issue.
The bottom line is that we are falling back tonight because most Israelis would (irrationally, in my opinion) prefer that Yom Kippur, which is this coming Tuesday night and Wednesday, be on standard time.
But certain parties on Israel's Left are accusing Interior Minister Aryeh Deri (Shas) of making a trick to thwart the change from happening on the first Saturday night in October, two weeks from now. And to be totally honest, Deri and his Shas party have done a lot to fuel these sorts of accusations.
There was no daylight savings time in Israel until 1988. When it was first implemented, it went into effect on the night Passover ended and remained in effect - at Shas' insistence - only until the Saturday night before the Jewish month of Elul began. Why Elul (which started this year in mid-August and will start next year in early August)? Because the Sfardim, who are Shas' constituents, say Slichoth prayers from the beginning of the month of Elul, and while some say them in the morning before sunrise, most say them at Midnight. No, not 12:00 am midnight, but halfway through the night, which is around 12:30 am (daylight or summer time) or 11:30 (standard or winter time) at this time of year. As you might imagine, if you are staying up every night to start Slichoth at 12:30 for about 45-60 minutes, you just might be tired the next day unless your name is Carl in Jerusalem. So.... they pushed for winter time to start by the beginning of Elul.
The next trick the Knesset tried was to make summer time last a minimum number of days. But the Interior Minister was still entitled to determine when it starts, and Shas controlled the Interior Ministry (one of the largest sources of patronage in the country), so they simply made summer time start earlier and earlier in March so that it would end by early September (which upset everyone who wanted the seder night to be on winter time).
Then the Knesset passed a law that said that summer time starts the last week of March, but the date that winter time starts was left open....
Last year, they supposedly passed a law that said that winter time would start the first Saturday night in October, and when I bought my calendar for the new year a few weeks ago, it said that winter time would start October 6. When I asked the Gabbai (basically, the CEO) of our synagogue about this (because the schedule for Slichoth this week only works if sunrise is at 5:30 am and not at 6:30 am), he thought about it, checked with a city councilor, and then told me that yes, we had a problem last Wednesday and Thursday (with two services scheduled in the same room at the same time), but that the clock would change on Saturday night and resolve the issue for the rest of the week. But still, no 'official' word.
Then, on Friday, I heard on the radio that the Interior Minister had 'tricked' the country regarding the start of winter time. And tonight, Israel Radio is reporting that in fact, we are going on winter time tonight.
Right now, it doesn't matter to me a whole lot. You see, I pray at sunrise every day anyway, so tonight I will get just as much sleep as I normally get, even though the clock will say 4:05 am when our Slichoth services start (and I will have an extra hour to study with my son when we finish services tomorrow). But tomorrow night, I will LOSE an hour of sleep if I go to sleep at my normal time.... In the spring, the effect is the opposite.
I really don't care what clock we are on for Yom Kippur. However, I am just as happy to be on winter time for Succoth, which starts on Monday, October 1. That's because I drive to the Old City (of Jerusalem) for sunrise prayers on each of the intermediate days of the holiday, and the police usually close the Old City to non-public traffic at 5:00 am. Not a big deal if sunrise is 5:35, but would create problems if sunrise were 6:35....
In any event, if you're in Israel tonight, set your clocks back an hour at 2:00 am. Someone somewhere is probably happy about it.
Heh... Press conference with Sacha Baron Cohen in which he thanks UN for 'brave inaction' over Syria
Sacha Baron Cohen, as the 'Dictator', held a press conference at the Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan for his up coming movie. Among other things, he thanks the United Nations for their 'brave inaction' on Syria.
On Wednesday, I warned that the fascist regime of Bashar al-Assad planned to confront any protesters who showed up in Damascus on Friday. That was enough. Remembering how his father gassed an entire city in 1982, on Friday - and on Saturday too - the protesters stayed home.
A weeklong online campaign failed to galvanize the kinds of mass protests that have rocked Tunisia and Egypt in recent weeks. In fact, no one showed up Friday and Saturday for what were to be "days of rage" against the Syrian president's iron-fisted rule.
By Saturday afternoon, the number of plainclothes security agents stationed protectively in key areas of the old city of the capital, Damascus, had begun to dwindle.
"The only rage in Syria yesterday was the rage of nature," wrote Syrian journalist Ziad Haidar, in reference to a cold spell and heavy rain lashing the country.
But it was more than just the weather that kept Syrians at home. A host of factors - including intimidation by security agents and President Bashar Assad's popular anti-Israel policies - kept Syria quiet this weekend.
"Syria has its own set of peculiarities that make it quite different from Egypt and Tunisia," said Mazen Darwish, a journalist who headed the independent Syrian Media Center until it was closed down in 2009.
A major difference is that Assad - unlike leaders in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen and Jordan - is not allied with the United States, so he is spared the accusation that he caters to American demands.
Interview with Osmaa Mahfouz, organizer of Egypt demonstrations
Here's an interview with Osmaa Mahfouz, the organizer of the Egyptian demonstrations. It's amazing that this petite woman is on the verge of bringing down a dictator who has been in power for thirty years. Notice - no mention of Israel. And I doubt she is from the Muslim Brotherhood either.
The Jerusalem Post talks to Egyptian demonstrators about Israel and discovers that more than thirty years after Camp David, they still hate us.
"After Camp David, all the Arab world sees that we are no longer a leader. Camp David made us a slave”
Like many at Tahir square on Tuesday night, 26-year-old Mohammed Salama of Cairo spoke of an eagerness for Egypt to shelve its nearly three decade old peace agreement with Israel, but insisted he does not want the country to go to war with Israel. In his hands he held a sign reading in Arabic “Netanyahu is worried about Mubarak”, which he said he wrote because “this is my country and my leader, I don’t want him to care about Israel, only about my country.”
Salama spoke moments after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak gave a nationwide speech vowing to hold new elections in six months in which he would not run. Like all of those spoken to by The Jerusalem Post after the speech, Salama said he didn’t feel the speech represented a victory for the movement, only a new ploy by Mubarak to stall and stay in power. Salama and all others spoken to by the Post vowed that they would stay in the square as long as it takes until Mubarak leaves and that the revolution is far from over.
Salama’s friend, Hazan Ahmed, 29, said the years of peace with Israel are tinged with the sting of humiliation, and that Egyptians still feel they’re country is not completely free of the Israeli occupation of the Sinai which ended under Camp David.
“The Egyptian army can’t enter Sinai, we feel that it is still Israel. There are Israeli people there all the time, but when we go, we have to stop at checkpoints and we get turned back. We don’t feel that Sinai is Egyptian.”
Ahmed said he didn’t want Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel completely demolished, but for it to undergo a serious change.
“It should be remodeled. With Mubarak leaving, we know that whoever comes next will remodel the agreement.”
When asked about the fact that Israel and Egypt have not gone to war since the agreement was signed, Ahmed, an unemployed medical school graduate said “yes, we have peace, but we have no dignity.”
Cairene Mohammed Gadi, a 33-year-old sales manager, walked around Tahrir square Tuesday holding a placard of Mubarak with a star of David drawn on his forehead. When asked about the sign, he said he wrote it because “we don’t want to take our orders from Israel anymore. We will keep the peace, but we won’t let Israel or any other country tell us what to do anymore. We don’t need to take orders from the world.”
Abdel Aziz, 27, from Mubarak’s hometown of Kfar El-Meselha, held a sign Tuesday saying “Bollocks to you Mubarak, it’s all over”. When asked about Israel, Aziz said “this is not about Israel, this is about our country first, we don’t care about other countries. This is not why we are doing this.”
Ahmad Ragab, 42, spoke more vehemently towards Israel saying “look, all Egyptian people hate Israel, only Sadat wanted Camp David. We know that Israel will be mad about what is happening here, and we know that Netanyahu can’t sleep now. We know that with the change here, there won’t be peace with Israel. There won’t be a war, but I don’t think there will be an Israeli embassy in Egypt any more, we will have only the most minimal relations.”
Ragab, who studied Chinese and works in Egypt-China business relations, said “we know the revolution will change this and that’s that, we see every day what Israel is doing with the Palestinians.”
At the same time, like all others asked by the Jerusalem Post after Mubarak’s speech about the revolution’s meaning for Israel-Egypt relations, Ragab said the issue was not at all at the heart of the January 25th upheaval.
After more than 30 years, we want peace, and they want 'honor.' What could go wrong?
Egyptian opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei has given President Hosni Mubarak until Friday to leave the country or the latter will be a 'dead man walking' (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).
ElBaradei, who won the Nobel Peace prize while heading the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency despite his defense of Iran’s nuclear development, accused Mubarak of trying to deceive the country by not resigning immediately. ElBaradei has said that he is not necessarily interested in replacing Mubarak.
Although the president said he will not run for re-election, he did not mention the name of his son Gamal, who has been groomed to be his successor. Gamal and his family reportedly fled the country last week when it was clear that the protest movement was becoming a threat to his father’s regime.
Working against Mubarak is President Obama’s decision to instruct U.S. ambassador to Egypt Margret Scobey to speak with ElBaradei. The move was "part of our public outreach to convey support for an orderly transition in Egypt," according to U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley.
President Obama earlier said in reaction to Mubarak’s speech that an “orderly transition must be meaningful, it must be peaceful, and it must begin now.”
He also sent former ambassador to Egypt Frank Wisner, a personal friend of Mubarak, to Cairo to report back on the situation.
Hmmm. I wonder if ElBaradei believes that the army will back him.
In an earlier post, I reported on Saturday's planned demonstrations in Syria. Unfortunately for the demonstrators, the Syrians do not plan on taking the demonstrations lying down.
Elaph sources in Syria have revealed that President Bashar al-Assad has been holding intensive meetings with the chiefs of internal security to take precautionary measures in preventing any protests , similar to those that are taking place in Egypt . They reportedly discussed the withdrawal of military units from the borders with Iraq to Damascus where the demonstrations are planned for February 5 in front of the Syrian parliament.
The security measures include intensified monitoring of the Kurds and Islamists, who are the main sectors that are opposed to the regime
The opposition will be reportedly demanding constitutional changes , cleanup of prisons ending the corruption and addressing unemployment and poverty problems.
And they're not even demanding the Golan Heights.... What could go wrong?
Tom Friedman: Now's the time for Israel to give the 'Palestinians' whatever they want
Of course. The new Egyptian government is likely to hate us and may abrogate what's left of our treaty with them. Jordanian King Abdullah may yet be on his way out, and whoever takes his place is likely to hate us and may abrogate what's left of our treaty with them. And Tom Friedman's solution? Give the 'Palestinians' whatever they want so that they will be our friends (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).
But Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu of Israel is in danger of becoming the Mubarak of the peace process. Israel has never had more leverage vis-à-vis the Palestinians and never had more responsible Palestinian partners. But Netanyahu has found every excuse for not putting a peace plan on the table. The Americans know it. And thanks to the nasty job that Qatar’s Al Jazeera TV just did in releasing out of context all the Palestinian concessions — to embarrass the Palestinian leadership — it’s now obvious to all how far the Palestinians have come.
No, I do not know if this Palestinian leadership has the fortitude to close a deal. But I do know this: Israel has an overwhelming interest in going the extra mile to test them.
Why? With the leaders of both Egypt and Jordan scrambling to shuffle their governments in an effort to stay ahead of the street, two things can be said for sure: Whatever happens in the only two Arab states that have peace treaties with Israel, the moderate secularists who had a monopoly of power will be weaker and the previously confined Muslim Brotherhood will be stronger. How much remains to be seen.
As such, it is virtually certain that the next Egyptian government will not have the patience or room that Mubarak did to maneuver with Israel. Same with the new Jordanian cabinet. Make no mistake: The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has nothing to do with sparking the demonstrations in Egypt and Jordan, but Israeli-Palestinian relations will be impacted by the events in both countries.
If Israel does not make a concerted effort to strike a deal with the Palestinians, the next Egyptian government will “have to distance itself from Israel because it will not have the stake in maintaining the close relationship that Mubarak had,” said Khalil Shikaki, a Palestinian pollster. With the big political changes in the region, “if Israel remains paranoid and messianic and greedy it will lose all its Arab friends.”
To put it bluntly, if Israelis tell themselves that Egypt’s unrest proves why Israel cannot make peace with the Palestinian Authority, then they will be talking themselves into becoming an apartheid state — they will be talking themselves into permanently absorbing the West Bank and thereby laying the seeds for an Arab majority ruled by a Jewish minority between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.
As usual, Friedman has it all wrong.
If we make 'peace' with the 'Palestinian leadership' and they are thrown out as is now happening to Mubarak, there will be no Sinai Peninsula to act as a buffer between us.
Egypt and Jordan may well attack us, but if they do, it won't be because they want to create a 'Palestinian state' or because they cannot stand the 'injustice' being perpetrated on the 'Palestinians.' It will be because they wish to terminate the existence of the Jewish state (God forbid) just like the 'Palestinians' wish to do.
And there is no demographic time bomb and there will not be a majority of 'Palestinians' 'from the River to the Sea' in your lifetime or mine, Tom, so long as we don't give all those 'Palestinians' in 'refugee camps' in Jordan and Syria and Lebanon and Iraq a 'right' to 'return' to Israel. The 'Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics' is about as reliable as anything else in the Arab world - that is to say not at all.
In Cairo, pro and anti-Mubarak forces are clashing in the streets as President Mubarak tries to maintain his hold on office for the time being in the name of an 'orderly transition' of power (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).
Hours after a call from Egypt’s powerful military for the president’s opponents to “restore normal life,” thousands of men, some carrying fresh flags and newly printed signs supporting Mr. Mubarak, surged into Tahrir Square.
Some waved off reporters and yelled, “No photos.”
They were outnumbered by Mr. Mubarak’s opponents, who have spent nine days in the square insisting on his ouster. Clashes erupted close to the Egyptian Museum housing a huge trove of priceless antiquities.
The two sides traded volleys of rocks and engaged in hand-to-hand fighting. Many were led or carried away with bleeding head wounds. Antigovernment protesters organized themselves into groups, smashing chunks of concrete into smaller projectiles to be hurled at their adversaries. The violence was the most serious since the antigovernment protesters laid claim to Tahrir, or Liberation, Square days ago as they pursued what seemed to be a largely peaceful campaign for Mr. Mubarak’s ouster.
Hours before the violence erupted in the square, antigovernment protesters had been chanting: “We are not going to go; we are not going to go.”
In counterpoint, demonstrators supporting Mr. Mubarak chorused back: “He’s not going to go; he’s not going to go.”
At one point, plumes of smoke, apparently from tear gas, rose above the rival crowds surging back and forth as the two sides fought for the upper hand.
“Where’s the Egyptian army?” antigovernment demonstrators chanted.
“They are trying to create chaos,” said Mohamed Ahmed, 30. “This is what Mubarak wants.”
The army took no immediate action as the skirmishes intensified, leaving the competing demonstrators to press toward one another. But troops with bayonets fixed to their AK-47 assault rifles fanned out near the museum as antigovernment protesters sought to build makeshift barricades to keep their foes at bay. And eventually, several tanks maneuvered into position between the two clashing crowds, and soldiers tried to calm both.
Some antigovernment protesters used the shelter of the tanks to launch rocks, and others said they believed their foes were agents of the authorities. At one point, they began calling for the soldiers to fire into the air to disperse their opponents.
A short while ago, Israel Radio played a recording of gunfire on the streets of Cairo, and apparently a number of people have been shot. Several journalists report that they have been beaten, including Israel Radio's Gideon Kutz, and CNN's Anderson Cooper.
Speaking of CNN, here's some video they did in Cairo. Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip: Hot Air).
Four Israeli journalists were arrested in Cairo - apparently on Tuesday night - for violating the curfew order.
Mark Levin interviews Caroline Glick on Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood
On Tuesday night, Mark Levin interviewed Caroline Glick to talk about what's going on in Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood and much more. It's a dynamite interview.
Let's go to the videotape.
Levin discusses his own views on the Muslim Brotherhood here.
More in common with Ahmadinejad than with democracy
Mohamed ElBaradei has a lot more in common with Iran than with Western notions of democracy, says Anne Bayefsky in this article on Fox News' website.
Year-after-year for a decade, ElBaradei used his position at the IAEA to stall for time on behalf of Iran. In September 2005 ElBaradei helped push the issue off the Security Council table and bragged: "I am encouraged that the issue has not been referred to the Security Council, precisely to give time for diplomacy and negotiation." Typical of his foot-dragging was his February 2006 report: "Although the Agency has not seen any diversion of nuclear material to nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices, the Agency is not at this point in time in a position to conclude that there are no undeclared nuclear materials or activities in Iran. The process of drawing such a conclusion ... is a time consuming process."
In January 2007, in the midst of growing calls for sanctions against Iran, ElBaradei suggested a "time-out." In September 2007, with stiffer sanctions on the horizon, ElBaradei again called for a "time-out." In January 2008 the IAEA reported: "ElBaradei has repeatedly noted that ... the IAEA has not seen any diversion of material to nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices."
As soon as ElBaradei was finally replaced as IAEA head early last year, his successor Yukiya Amano attempted to distance himself from the obvious cover-up. He issued a report in which the IAEA, for the first time, said things like - on the basis of "extensive" and "credible" information the IAEA now has "concerns about the possible existence in Iran of ... current undisclosed activities related to the development of a nuclear payload for a missile," and "concerns about possible military dimensions to Iran's nuclear program.''
If El Baradei were ever to become President of Egypt, not only would he have helped Iran acquire nuclear weapons, he would undoubtedly turn around and lead the charge for an Egyptian nuclear weapon. Nobel Prize notwithstanding, his calling card is to cast nuclear proliferation as some kind of equal rights game between developed and developing countries.
Read the whole thing. With ElBaradei teaming up with the Muslim Brotherhood, what could go wrong?
For those who haven't figured it out yet, yesterday was a day where I spent very little time on the blog. I'm doing a little catchup today.
Al-Reuters has a roundup of some of the reaction in Israel to what's seen here as President Obama's abandonment of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Some of the comments are quite scathing (Hat Tip: Joe L).
One comment by Aviad Pohoryles in the daily Maariv was entitled "A Bullet in the Back from Uncle Sam." It accused Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of pursuing a naive, smug, and insular diplomacy heedless of the risks.
Who is advising them, he asked, "to fuel the mob raging in the streets of Egypt and to demand the head of the person who five minutes ago was the bold ally of the president ... an almost lone voice of sanity in a Middle East?"
"The politically correct diplomacy of American presidents throughout the generations ... is painfully naive."
...
"The question is, do we think Obama is reliable or not," said an Israeli official, who declined to be named.
"Right now it doesn't look so. That is a question resonating across the region not just in Israel."
Writing in Haaretz, Ari Shavit said Obama had betrayed "a moderate Egyptian president who remained loyal to the United States, promoted stability and encouraged moderation."
To win popular Arab opinion, Obama was risking America's status as a superpower and reliable ally.
"Throughout Asia, Africa and South America, leaders are now looking at what is going on between Washington and Cairo. Everyone grasps the message: "America's word is worthless ... America has lost it."
Mohamed ElBaradei: Muslim Brotherhood not extremist, like Evangelical Christians and Orthodox Jews
Putative Egyptian opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei tells ABC's Christiane Amanpour that the Muslim Brotherhood is 'not extremist' and is no different than Evangelical Christians and Orthodox Jews.
The interview starts around the 2:00 mark, and the discussion of the Muslim Brotherhood runs from about 4:35 to 5:00.
'Contrary to the Western media hype, ElBaradei is nothing'
Here's a fascinating (anonymous) insider's account of what's gone on in Egypt over the past week. I urge you to read the whole thing. You'll be surprised at how little Israel is mentioned.
What bothers me about it is that it is an ideal situation for the Muslim Brotherhood to step into the chaos and take over.
Will Egypt go from one dictatorship to another? What could go wrong?
Under pressure from the Obama administration, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has announced that he will not stand for re-election in September.
There were few signs that Mubarak’s concession would quell the Egyptian insurrection. “I will die on the soil of Egypt,” he vowed in his announcement — greeted by screams of “leave, leave” and “get out” by protesters. “I will say with all honesty … that I was not intent on standing for the next election because I have spent enough time in serving Egypt and I am now careful to conclude my work for Egypt by presenting Egypt to the next government in a constitutional way.’
In another sign of Washington’s carefully calibrated exit strategy, the United States also said Tuesday that it had reached out to Mohammed ElBaradei the former International Atomic Energy Agency chief who has emerged as the leader of Egypt’s currently united opposition political movement.
“As part of our public outreach to convey support for orderly transition in Egypt, Amb. [Margaret] Scobey spoke today with Mohammed ElBaradei,” State Department PJ Crowley said in a tweet Tuesday.
The acknowledgement of opposition contact came a day after the administration dispatched Wisner to Cairo as its envoy, and as the Egyptian unrest appeared to be at a pivotal tipping point, with a few glimmers of optimism that with the army agreeing not to fire on protesters and the Egyptian opposition uniting behind a single leader, the Egyptian street revolt might shift towards the post-Mubarak era without enormous bloodshed.
The Egyptian people aren't buying it. And there have been shots fired on Tuesday night in Alexandria. Mubarak's announcement is too little too late for many Egyptians. The Obama administration is stuck playing catch-up.
Fear is the main answer: fear that Mubarak will be followed by the Muslim Brotherhood immediately or after a few months or years. This fear is reasonable, for none of us can possibly know what the future holds for Egypt. The cold peace that Mubarak supported with Israel is certainly far better than war.
But Mubarak has ruled Egypt for 30 years and has failed totally to crush the Brotherhood. In fact as he leaves the stage it is united and powerful, while the moderate and centrist forces are in disarray. Why? Hosni Mubarak, who has for all those years crushed the moderate opposition. He prevented the formation of moderate (including moderate Islamic) parties, jailed moderate opponents (like Ayman Nour), and allowed the Brotherhood to thrive underground. The Israelis apparently do not see the irony that they are mourning the departure of the man who created the very situation they now fear.
Mubarak is 82 and would soon have left the stage anyway. His insistence on staying, his theft of last November’s elections, and his flirting with the idea of setting his son upon the throne have led Egypt to its present crisis. Now he has said that he won’t run in Egypt’s scheduled presidential elections in September. Too late. Had he done that even a month ago Egypt would have been spared this uprising and a smooth transition would have been possible. Now the crowds demand that he leave instantly, and the idea that this man will preside over the transition to free elections will strike them as grotesque—which it is.
It’s a sad ending to Mubarak’s long career. It could have been avoided. But the Israeli reaction of wishing he would stay on—thirty-five years? forty?—shows a deep misunderstanding of the situation in Egypt.
Israel should keep quiet about this. The more we support Mubarak, the more we turn his people against him and the more we drive them into the waiting arms of the Muslim Brotherhood. But the US - as it did in Lebanon - needs to come out and say that although the Egyptian people can do whatever they please, if the Muslim Brotherhood gains control or plays a significant role in the next Egyptian government, they can kiss their American aid goodbye.
Video: Meeting among Mike Huckabee, Jon Voight and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu
Here's video of Monday's meeting among former Arkansas Governor (and likely Republican Presidential candidate) Mike Huckabee, actor Jon Voight and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
Let's go to the videotape.
In case you're wondering, the tall guy in the royal blue tie that you keep seeing in the background is Ron Dermer, Netanyahu's bureau chief.
Mississippi governor and possible Presidential candidate Haley Barbour arrives here on Saturday for a 4-day visit.
This trip will include briefings and meetings with senior leaders in Israel, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It will also include touring important sites in the country. In addition, given the Governor's strong interest in energy issues, there will be visits to several sites such as the Noble Energy offshore gas rig and the Better Place electric car facility outside Tel Aviv. The trip will conclude with Governor Barbour making a major address at the prestigious Herzliya Conference on February 9.
RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks said, "We are especially pleased that Governor and Mrs. Barbour will visit Israel at this incredibly important time. The Middle East faces many challenges, from the instability in Lebanon and Egypt and the threat of a nuclear Iran to the continuing danger posed by Hamas in Gaza. As Iran and its proxies attempt to expand their reach in the region, it is vitally important that American and Israeli officials build and nurture a strong partnership in the fight against terrorism.
"This visit will give Governor Barbour the opportunity to learn more about the difficulties facing Israel, about the current thinking of Israel's political, military, and economic leaders, and about the Jewish state's exciting advancements in the development of new technologies."
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
