One thing that has always confused me over the years was the support of the Democratic Party by American Jews. Looking back, it seems to me the staunchest supporters of Israel’s right to exist has been the Republican Party, while the Democrats and their supporters have been negligent at best, and downright hostile at worst. (Mild disclaimer at the bottom of the post)
American leadership support for Israel has waxed and waned over the years, depending on who controlled the White House and/or Congress. I seem to recall that Presidents Reagan and Bush (I & II) we firm supporters of Israel as were Republican Congresses. Carter, Clinton, and now Barak Obama not so much. Republicans want to see a strong Israel to promote stability in the region, a region that is highly important to our national interests. Conservatives firmly believe in Israel’s right to exist in the region and we believe in their right to protect themselves.
Leftists and Progressives on the other hand seem to want to see Israel defeated and no longer be a viable country. When you have the likes of Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn and organizations like Code Pink protesting the Israeli blockade of ships bringing “humanitarian” supplies into Palestine who also support the Democrat causes, it makes one wonder. When the Obama appointed US Intelligence Directors says things like the Muslim Brotherhood is largely secular, it points to not having Israel’s best interest at heart. Yet the Jewish population in American continues to support Democratic politicians. In 2008 78% of the Jewish voters voted for Barak Obama, and John Kerry won 74% of the Jewish vote in 2004. I find this very interesting when you consider that some of the groups that vocally support Democrat candidates are also vocal supporters of Hamas, like Code Pink.
Do the leftists and their apologists in the MSM realize their undying support to terrorist regimes is tantamount to supporting genocide? If Israel goes down, it just won’t be the end of a country, but it will be the end of MANY, MANY lives. There are people who live in Israel; mothers, father, husbands, wives, sons, and daughters. Many on the left, including Obama, have stated they would like the US to sit down with Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad without preconditions. Iran continues to build nuclear weapons with Israel in their crosshairs. As pointed out above, there are supporters of Palestine whose leadership in Hamas has stated time and time again the only way to have peace in the region is for Israel to be eliminated. Now the weight of the left, Hollywood, and even possibly the US government, has been throw in behind the Muslim Brotherhood, a group that has said the death of Israel is their primary goal. I wonder if history will accurate reflect that the demise of Israel (if it comes to that) could be laid at the feet of Obama and the leftists that support him.
As the world watched the events unfold in Egypt, many in the media spoke in effusive terms about the Muslim Brotherhood (examples below) but nary a word is spoken in the mainstream media about the Muslim Brotherhood and their goal of ending the existence of Israel. For reasons that escape me (well actually, they don’t escape me), the media has continued to call the protest in Egypt pro-democracy protests, when there are very large elements that are not pro-democracy, at least not as you and I would know them. At Yahoo News the first paragraph of the story titled ‘Egypt is Free,’ crowds chant after Mubarak quits reads like the reporters had been under a rock for the past 18 days:
“Cries of ‘Egypt is free’ rang out and fireworks lit up the sky as hundreds of thousands danced, wept, and prayed in joyful pandemonium Friday after 18 days of peaceful pro-democracy protest forced President Hosni Mubarak to surrender power to the military, ending three decades of authoritarian rule.”
18 days of peaceful protests? YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!. Tell that to the families of the several people who have died in these “peaceful protest”. I know that Mubarak supporters were the instigators of the violence, but the groups that got the whole protest “party” going 18 days ago do not have bloodless hands. The Muslim Brotherhood has had a very large hand in organizing part of the protests.
The leftist media, which is to say the main stream media, has refused to see the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) for what it is and has been from many years, a violent terrorist organization. The violence started many years ago, starting with joining the Palestinians to wage war on the newly formed country of Israel and assassinating the Egyptian Prime Minster in 1948. In 1954, the MB attempted to assassinate Egyptian President Nasser. In 1981, the MB once again made an attempt on the life of an Egyptian leader, killing Anwar Sadat. (source: fas.org)
In a column over at the Daily Beast blogger Bruce Riedel writes about the Muslim Brotherhood in such glowing terms that I myself want to join. But then I remember I don’t want to strap a bomb on my kids and blow up a transit bus. The opening to his post:
“The secretive Islamic opposition group has long renounced violence and may be the most reasonable option. …Obama shouldn’t panic—and should let Egyptians decide their own fate.” (emphasis added)
Renounced violence? Has he done any checking around, or is he just reading the front page of English version of the MB website? I am very aware of the statements made in recent years by the MB leadership, renouncing violence. In light of their continuing to supply Hamas with arms, and their stated desire to have Israel removed from the map, I am not convinced the MB has totally forsaken violence as a part of their MO. Middle East expert at the Brookings Institution’s Doha Center is quoted at cfr.org:
“It [Muslim Brotherhood] does not share America’s view on the security architecture in the region. It is strongly anti-Israel…and does not support the peace processes.”
It is those “peace processes’ between Israel and Egypt that have kept the region fairly stable over the years. The journalistic integrity of many who report on the region can be called into question if the left dismisses that as not threatening towards Israel. Check out this link about what the protester in Egypt were saying about Israel, it kind of dovetails ‘nicely’ with the well documented hatred that is harbored towards Israel by the MB. Before anyone gets their knickers in a knot because the link is to a Beck website, please note that the video and the reporter belong to CNN, not exactly a conservative or a conspiracy new organization. Furthermore, Mohamed Elbaradei, who has become the de-facto leader of the opposition groups (i.e. protesters), has said that Israel has a peace agreement with Mubarak, not with Egypt.
One point that I will agree with Mr. Riedel is that we should let the Egyptians decide their own fate. But we have every right to be concerned about the direction of the government. It has a direct impact on our national security. This could range from economic problems if the Suez Canal is blockaded to war between Israel and Egypt, which would escalate in into a broader war very rapidly.
Victor Hansen at the National Review has a great run down of what could be in store for Egypt over the next few years. In his column he discusses what happened in Iran 40 years ago and how the same process could be in the works for Egypt. One part of his column I would like to point out:
“Why do we welcome the demise of a Mubarak, but keep quiet about Castro or Chavez? Are Cubans free than Egyptians? Did a Mubarak have more blood on his hands that a Castro. Why celebrate freedom in the Cairo streets, but help facilitate its growing suppression in Moscow? If we are, admirably, to privilege democracy in the case of Egypt, then surely such ideological tiling must apply to democratic Israel over autocratic neighbors, or democratic India over autocratic Pakistan, or democratic Columbia over autocratic Venezuela, and so on.”
I think I can answer that question with one word: Israel. India, Pakistan, and Venezuela have no direct interaction with Israel, and Israel’s continued existence does not depend on a friendly government in Caracas or Havana. In recent years, Israel has lost one friend in the region (Turkey), and is poised to lose a second. If the words coming from some in Egypt become official policy, Israel will have no friends in the region. Would the current US government come to her rescue if necessary? I have my doubts. The current administration is too busy propping Hamas.
In a previous post I mentioned the changes now going on in Turkey, without really focusing in on what those changes have been. Here are two must read articles on how the Turkish government moved from secular to Islamist. The first at Real Clear Politics puts the blame squarely on our shoulders for playing the appeasement game. The second article from Legal Insurrection points out that Turkey is looking like the next Iran.
Due to much bumbling over the years that was been accelerated with Obama’s apology tour, Israel now finds itself in probably the most precarious position it has been in since the formation of the country back in 1948. Israel has a right to exist by United Nations accord and nothing short of the UN rescinding the 1947 Partition Vote, which would mostly likely be unlikely, despite the UN not being friendly towards Israel.
Tomorrow I am going to try and flesh out a little further on the relationship between the Muslim Brotherhood, the end of Israel, and the leftist (MSM) media.
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