Tuesday, September 13, 2011

The Arabs Spring

I was fed up to the neck with the drooling announcements of the "Arab Spring" about thirty seconds after I first heard the expression. Fools in the American government and on the left actually believe the overturning of repressive regimes in the Middle East somehow was the foretaste of western-style democracy. That is nothing short of criminal naivete.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss (only worse). As the Arab Spring develops in Egypt with all the happy peace-loving Egyptians skipping down the streets of Cairo, holding hands, and singing kumbaya, something seems slightly amiss. Former strongman president Hosni Mubarak is going on trial for acting like a typical Arab leader, but in one way he was atypical. He maintained peace with his neighbors, most particularly Israel.

The usual Egyptian mob showed up for the weekly freedom (choke) demonstration in Tahrir Square, but as mob mentality took over, the mob decided demonstrating against a government that had already fallen just wasn't enough fun anymore. So last Friday's fun-fest turned into a march on the Israeli embassy in the nearby Giza district. Things aren't working out so well in Egypt. Tourism is down dramatically. The "free elections" have been kicked down the road. Money is becoming hard to come by for the average Egyptian. All good Arab Muslims know why things are so bad. It's the damned Jews.

The average Egyptian has probably never heard the line "the fault, dear Brutus, lies not in the stars, but in ourselves." Knowing that Islam is never in error, and that Egyptians are the very salt of the earth, someone has to be behind the troubles that have made Egypt's situation worse rather than better after the fall of Mubarak. We all know what the default position for failure is in Arab nations--Israel did it. Hatred of the West, the United States, democracy, freedom and civilized values in general are thoughts shared among the denizens of Jihadistan. But hatred of Israel is almost genetic and extremely visceral.

So the mob broke through barriers and entered the Israeli embassy. Shades of Saigon and Tehran. The violence in Eqypt was not as widespread, but the pattern was the same. Throw a thousand years of diplomatic rules and sovereign territory out the window and loot. The Egyptian military at first stood idly by as the mob vandalized everything in sight inside the embassy, destroying a peace that had existed between Egypt and Israel since 1979. After the embassy was gutted, and the Israeli diplomats had escaped, the military finally took charge, killing two members of the mob and injuring many others.

The Egyptian provisional government had already proved itself adept at shooting itself in the foot. One of its first acts was to show those Jews what's what by ending its exports of natural-gas to Israel. That instantly took almost $355 million out of the nation's already-staggering economy (incidentally and entirely coincidentally almost the exact same amount taken out of the American economy by Obama's gift to bankrupt Solyndra). Even after trying Mubarak friends in kangaroo courts, 12,000 of them to be exact, the thirst for the blood of those to blame for Egypt's woes was not slaked. Israel must pay.

The Arab Spring in Egypt is beginning to look a lot more like the long, hot summer. The Egyptian Israel-haters have been encouraged by Barack Obama's ongoing public disrespect for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Obama's support for an independent Palestinian state which includes parts of Jerusalem haven't helped much either. But at least some of Obama's diplomatic functionaries recognized that they have been a little too cozy with the new Egyptian bosses, and forced Obama to render assistance to the trapped Israeli diplomats at the embassy.

Unlike the arrogant and self-centered Obama, Netanyahu behaved like a statesman and a gentlemen (both expressions entirely foreign to the amateur President). Netanyahu praised Obama, saying that the American President "used every considerable means and influence of the United States to help us--we owe him a special debt of gratitude." Watch your back, Mr. Netanyahu.

8 comments:

T-Rav said...

I have a very liberal friend who remarked a few months ago when Mubarak's government fell how happy she was that Egypt had been freed from tyranny, blah blah blah. One of us terrible right-wingers asked her if she realized this opened the door for the Muslim Brotherhood to seize power and create an Islamic fundamentalist state. Her response? "That doesn't matter; all that matters is that the Egyptian people have democracy." The Left: short-term, emotional reactions all the way.

Unknown said...

T-Rav: Yep. It's traditional Arab democracy. One man, one vote, one time.

AndrewPrice said...

I guess we'll see how this turns out, but early indications definitely aren't great.

Unknown said...

Andrew: And it will have to play itself out. The Obama administration obviously has no plan and is just going with the flow. That is probably a very dangerous thing to do. We'll soon be seeing how he reacts to the latest Durbin conference and the potential unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state.

StanH said...

Arab Spring my ass. What Barry, the Imbecile in Chief has done, is unleash the evil that is Islam. I guess they don’t teach the ancient adage of “the devil you know,” at Haaaarvard. One of the most infuriating part of this was when Iran was experiencing their “Arab Spring,” Barry ignored a genuine uprising that could have unseated the most corrupt Islamic theocracy on the planet. That on a daily basis threatens the USA, Israel, and the West with death. Putting the crap back in the horse, an impossible feat some say, may have to be mastered by the next administration in 2013, the planet is a cluster without American leadership.

Notawonk said...

Law: time to fit the libs with some long term goggles. although they would faint from their own stupidity the moment they put them on.

and i love me some Netanyahu.

Unknown said...

Stan: I agree. The Obama administration is hapless and helpless. It never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity. His personal fondness for Islam makes things even worse. When he does decide to choose sides, it's the Sunnis versus the Shiites. It's never the West versus the Islamists. Formerly secularist Turkey is now attempting to counterbalance Iran's Shiite hegemony with its own Sunni hegemony, and Obama is completely clueless as to what to do about either.

Unknown said...

Patti: If we had a President who was half the man and one-quarter the patriot that Netanyahu is, we'd be in good shape.

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