The events of the past week in Egypt have grabbed the world’s attention. We’ve been bombarded by it in the news, and analysts have had no lack observations to make about its true meaning. Though the most significant piece I have seen to date was written by Ray Hanania titled Bad news for Israel. And his opening statement basically blows the lid off of what has been hidden from the public all these years, which he states “Democracy will give Egyptian people a voice, and their voice may demand that peace accord be broken.“
For thirty years there has been peace between Israel and Egypt, if only a cold peace. That peace was celebrated in 1979 when the accords were signed at the behest of none other than Jimmy Carter. And the dirty secret which was obvious to all that dared to be honest with themselves is that this peace was only achievable because the one side that completely rejected Israel’s existence, Egypt with a vast majority Muslim population, was governed by a dictator.
Indeed, this very same modus operandi was also key to peace between Israel and Jordan. For as the world, scared to admit the sad truth that any nation run by Islam completely reject’s Israel’s existence on religious grounds is unwilling and, indeed incapable of making peace with Israel. For years the West tried to hide these facts, and the world ignored the fact that the only reason the treaties between Israel, Egypt and Jordan were a success were precisely because they were made with dictators.
And today, with the upheaval in Egypt the world is starting to discover a sad fact: that peace between Muslim nations and Israel is not possible, not because Israel and Israelis don’t want peace, but because the Muslim world sees Israel as an abomination, blasphemy, and something to be eradicated.
President Obama today stated recently that any political process in Egypt must include the Islamic Brotherhood. And while from the Western point of view it makes sense that the “democratic” political system include all major constituencies, the question becomes how can a democratic system continue to blossom if a major participant in that system rejects democracy and democratic values. And as has become clear to the world, a democratic election does not a democratic society make. The Palestinians had democratic elections and elected Hamas, a terrorist organization that went on to violently overthrow Gaza and transform it into an Islamic republic. Lebanon has democratic elections though one of the participating parties, Hezbollah, does not only not believe in democracy, they have more weapons and power than the army of the state of Lebanon itself and therefore can influence the outcome of events by undemocratic means. Thereby for all practical purposes sterilizing any real democratic processes.
Though none of these events seem to make much of a difference to President Barack Obama or his administration. As a matter of fact, while he was oddly silent in the wake of Iranian elections, the people’s protest against the fixing of those elections, and the violence used by the Iranian regime to put down these protests (he didn’t support the people’s will all the while silent in the face of violence used to suppress that will and even speaking with a conciliatory tone to the Iranian dictator), he is now not only vocal in supporting non-democratic entities in the Egyptian protests including the Muslim Brotherhood, but now he is slamming the very same Egyptian government that managed to make peace with Israel and help keep relative peace in the Middle East for decades. Granted, the people of Egypt deserve freedom, they deserve prosperity and they should be supported in their demands for a better life, but does that support really entail negating America’s recognition of the positive aspects that have come from Egypt over the past few decades and throwing one of the US’s closest allies under the bus?
Not only that, but the liberal Ha’aretz is also attacking the Israel/Egyptian peace format. A piece by anti-Israel activist Amira Hass is titled “When Israel's protective net of tyranny tears. I guess that means that Ha’aretz, which has been a vocal if not violent advocate of “peace with the Palestinians at any cost,” now believes that making peace is tyranny if it’s not with a democratically elected government and a people that support it. And if so, then just what has Ha’aretz been pushing all these years? Mahmud Abbas and the current Palestinian authority are not the democratically elected Palestinian government, Hamas is. And the majority of Palestinians don’t support peace with Israel. So Ha’aretz seems a little confused to say the least.
And then we come to the final question, if the American administration supports the Egyptian people in overthrowing the current Egyptian government, and if they support the involvement of the Islamic Brotherhood as part of the political process, if the Islamic brotherhood wants to tear up the peace treaty and wage war with Israel, and if the Egyptian people want the same, does that make it a legitmiate policy of the Egyptian people, much like President Obama’s administration claim that Jihad is a legitimate tenet of Islam?
Does the Obama Administration believe that Islam’s rejection of Israel is valid if it’s the people’s will and that they have the right to wage war on Israel? And if not, then just what do they think will happen if in Egypt an Islamic regime rises? We don’t have to guess, we’re seeing today the process of Islamification of a democratic government in Turkey. And that includes the rejection of Israel, vehement anti-Semitism being propagated by the government which is quickly going down a path of belligerence and confrontation by Turkey against Israel.
There is something very suspicious about everything taking place in Egypt. And something very hypocritical when the very governments that for 30 years cheered the Egyptian Israeli peace treaty only made possible by a dictator is now slammed for the very reason for existence.
Can the Egyptian people successfully make the government transition from dictator to democracy? And can that democracy provide for the betterment of all Egyptians. I sincerely hope so for the Egyptian peoples sake, and for everyone else in the Middle East. For if not, Egypt will look more like Gaza than anything else.
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