THE SPINE JUNE 27, 2010
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A vivid report by Ashraf Khalil in Friday’s Wall Street Journal and an AP dispatch on the same day evoke a moribund Egyptian politics coming to life because of the death of a 28-year old in Alexandria. The murder—and it was a murder!—was committed by the police. Out in the open or, to be precise, down the alley from an internet cafe out of which Khaled Saieed was dragged. Saieed’s face was shown on web sites, and the image was not pretty: a battered face and broken teeth. The police attributed his death to resisting arrest. Of course.
Not surprisingly:
‘We are all afraid for our children. And we should be afraid because they are in danger,’ shouted Maha Ibrahim, a young Alexandria mother who wears the full face veil known as the niqab. ‘We are afraid of own government.’
Indeed, they are afraid. Everybody knows it. Moreover, it is not only the Muslim Brothers who are fearful, although they would set up their own clerical dictatorship if they were to come to power. There is a civil Egypt and, many decades ago, there was even a liberally inclined Egypt. But it has long-since been smothered.
The Egyptian circumstance is so degraded that one is forced to look upon Mohamed ElBaradei, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, as a savior for the body-politic which aspires to lead. Alas, he is one of those in the Cairo elite who cannot quite embrace what Anwar Sadat embraced, which is a quotidian peace with Israel. And before you get to think that ElBaradei is a savior for the Middle East you should know that he played monkey business with the Iranians over their nuclear ambitions, just another expression of Arab cynicism about the Iranians.
I’ve gone back to read President Obama’s address last June at Cairo University. (And, yes, I may be obsessed with this speech: historically dishonest, morally skewed, personally indulgent.) Curiously, there was not a word of solidarity for even the most civilized dissidents. Not a hint of criticism of Hosni Mubarak, who’s been the president of Egypt for just as shade under 30 years. It was as if not Obama but Brent Scowcroft was doing the speaking, the Scowcroft who has been on so many blue-ribbon national commissions that one is almost obliged to distrust him.
Who will be the successor? ElBaradei is not a candidate, at least not yet.
But Gamal Mubarak, the current president’s 46-year-old son, is being groomed for the succession. That is, the country is being groomed for his succession. I think the last time Gamal visited the U.S. was just a bit more than a year ago. He spent a decent amount of time in Washington seeing just the appropriate personages the next president of Egypt should see. And, then, he came to New York. Where he confided to a small group of foreign policy experts that he had never before been to Washington “when I wasn’t deluged with questions about the human rights situation in Egypt.” Even he, the heir to the secular throne—an arrangement similar to those in Syria and Libya, two other more than a bit nutsy Arab revolutionary republics—was stunned.
It is we Americans who should be stunned by the arrogant complacency of our president to the indifference to human rights of one of our closest allies.
P.S.: Please look back to Obama’s Cairo speech. There is a curious paragraph in which the president again finds fault with America, and finds fault on a pathetically trivial issue, if it actually is a an issue at all.
In the United States, rules on charitable giving have made it harder harder for Muslims to fulfill their religious obligation. That’s why I am committed to working with American Muslims to ensure that they can fulfill zakat.
What in God’s name was the president talking about?
Indeed, it was his administration that appealed a 9th Circuit Court judgment putting down a Patriot Act provision criminalizing “material support”—meaning especially financial support— for foreign terrorist organizations. Ruling 6-3, the Supreme Court overruled the appellate bench, As Juan Zarate, my friend and former student who was President Bush’s deputy national security adviser, explained, the court
has conceded that the Congress and the executive have the ability to, in essence, wall off those terrorist organizations so designated, and have the ability to restrict the providing of support of any sort to those groups.
Maybe someone in the president’s wide (but ever narrowing) circle can tell us how genuine Muslim charitable giving was ever impeded by the Internal Revenue Service. Or is this another instance of Islamic paranoia?
My only qualm about the correctness of the opinion written by the Chief Justice is that Stephen Breyer, the member of the Supreme Court I admire the most, wrote the dissent.
14 comments
"(And, yes, I may be obsessed with this speech: historically dishonest, morally skewed, personally indulgent.) " Marty: If you read the comment threads you would know that you are not the only one who keeps referring back to that speech. All those who are concerned about the future, in a much more palpable way than most Americans for whom these are stories of exotic and unfathomable lands, keep returning to this speech trying to figure out what exactly your president is saying without actually saying it. And as the time passes, and we follow American policies, declarations, actions, we look back to this speech and we get a little more understanding of what it means. By the end of four or eight years we will look back it and it will all make perfect sense.
- noga1
June 27, 2010 at 9:20pm
about the Cairo speech, it looks as though there is a shift since the Marmara. Obama just dissed Erdogan a bit at their G20 sidebar. (kept him waiting, no photo op, no public statement). I do believe SecDefGates and Admiral Mullen showed Obama exactly where the Suez Canal is located on June 1, 2010. Maybe someone else explained Pakistan's Ahmadis, and Turkey's Alevis, the eight million Egyptian Coptic Christians, and Iraq's 800,000 Christian refugees who have all been thrown under the bus to different degrees by Obama's original Muslim outreach in Ankara and Cairo.
- K2K
June 27, 2010 at 10:26pm
K2K, that is wishful thinking, that Obama will allow himself to be persuaded even by his inner circle. And BTW don't forget the Christian Palestinians who's numbers have been shrinking and for the past 15-20 years have been increasingly been marginalized (at best) by the Muslim Pals. The Jerusalem Post has published a number of stories on the problems of the Christian Palestinians living under the yoke of the P.A. but the story has been largely ignored by the Western media. One exception is the Wall Street Journal which has published a number of articles about the harsh fate of Christians living in Moslem majority Arab countries. Even the "enlightened, progressive" high Protestant Churches have assiduously ignored the stories, preferring to blame Israel for everything (that is why we Jews are the chosen people -- chosen to shoulder the blame for everything; it's our fault the ref in the Germany - England World Cup game missed the English goal). Michael Oren, in his majestic history The Power, Faith and the Fantasy shows how Arab nationalism was largely a product (direct and indirect) of the American Protestant missionaries in the middle east during the latter half of the 19th century and early 20th century. It's not surprising that the nationalistic ideologies initially took root mostly with the Christian Arabs who saw nationalism as a springboard to escape from their Dhimmi status in the Muslim dominated middle east (Bernard Lewis makes this point in several places). Ultimately nationalism was largely embraced by the Muslim Arabs with the noted exception of the nascent Islamist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood. Indeed if you listen carefully to the rhetoric coming from the radical Islamists & jihadis of today you'll hear nationalism disparaged and that true Muslims maintain their allegiance to their village and tribe and above all the the Islamic "umma", which is cognate to the Hebrew word "uma" which means nation. Thus nation or nationalism in the Western, Treaty of Westphalia if you will, sense of the word is at best a nuisance in the Islamist world and is more often anathema. In short the middle east has come full circle and the Arab Christians have, de facto re-relegated to their Dhimmi status. And Turkey is on its way to re-constituting the Ottoman Empire, at least in a virtual & "sphere of influence" sense. Stay tuned for the return of the Caliph. Hershel Ginsburg Jerusalem / Efrata
- ginzy
June 28, 2010 at 4:58am
And speaking of the devil, after I posted what I posted above, a heard a breaking story on Israel Radio on the arrest of a group of Israeli Arabs from the Nazareth & its environs with Salafi leanings and seeing themselves as Israel's al Qaeda affiliate. Their stated ideology was to kill all non-Muslims, including and quite explicitly Christians (there is still sizable Christian minority in Nazareth). They are already being charged with at least one murder (of a Jew) the police spokesman hinted that additional charges are on the way including at least one related to attempted killing of a Christian. Although I suspect that more info about the arrest will come out during the day and in the days to follow, you can read a preliminary report of the story here. hg
- ginzy
June 28, 2010 at 6:53am
ginzy: Obama does not want to be remembered as the American president who 1) handed the Suez Canal (and Egypt) to Muslim Brotherhood/Hamas, 2) lost Afghanistan and Pakistan to an Al Qaedaized Taliban, and 3) allowed a nuclear Iran to fulfill their apocalyptic mission, which, of course, would mean there would no longer be any history books in a new Dark Ages in a de-populated world. On a totally non-sarcastic note, it is tragic that Christian hierarchies and most media ignore the plight of Christians in majority-Muslim countries. I had not noticed the WSJ coverage except on Egypt's Copts. In 2008, only the Christian Science Monitor was constantly covering the Christians of Iraq, who make up the overwhelming majority of Iraqi refugees. As to Turkey? Zero historical friends. That neo-Ottomanism is exactly what can shake Egypt out of it's economic sclerosis (and why human rights is on the back burner). One opinion on Obama's frosty meeting with Erdogan on Saturday: http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/columnists-214398-will-obama-be-able-to-resist-the-lobby.html
- K2K
June 28, 2010 at 10:45am
K2K as I read it - perhaps misread it? that opinion is paranoia which regurgitates the M/W Jewish Conspiracy In The Form Of the Israel Lobby Which Controls America - we need these opinions? One would hope that Obama is guided by common sense and reason and not some fear of the putative "Israel Lobby." Turkey is a NATO member and as such has duties and obligations including mutual defense pacts. I don't pretend to know who has what in the way of weapons but it's logical to assume that NATO members have access to the most sophisticated, advanced missiles and planes and also strategic and operational plans. Doesn't NATO conduct international training missions as well as mutual war/defense efforts? Thus a potential rogue state within NATO represents a serious and direct threat to NATO as well as to the US. Certainly even the anti-Israel voices including the "realists" within the Administration realize this is potentially a big problem, should Turkey decide to turn against Western ideas and Western interests.
- Sophia
June 28, 2010 at 2:44pm
"Certainly even the anti-Israel voices including the "realists" within the Administration realize this is potentially a big problem, should Turkey decide to turn against Western ideas and Western interests." Maybe it's what they are hoping for. I forget who it was that suggested the US bomb Israel into submission. But the kernel of the idea that at some point it will be Israel against some international force sure has some "realists" salivating in anticipation. Or is this too macabre as scenario? BTW, why are those preaching against friendship with Israel called "realists"??
- noga1
June 28, 2010 at 3:12pm
Sophia: TodaysZaman is part of the Gulen Movement business empire. I am new to a Turkish politics learning curve, but Gulen acolytes heavily support the AKP, though not necessarily Erdogan or Davotoglu. I thought that particular column was a timely glimpse into how Gulen Movement sees America, and Jews, NOT for any rational insight into Obama. Turkey is a NATO member as a legacy of the Cold War. They almost lost membership over the invasion of Cyprus. Without a Cold War against the Soviet Empire, Turkey's NATO membership can be questioned, and it certainly is since the Marmara, precisely because NATO IS a mutual defense pact. Now that Turkey is suddenly in a hot battle with the PKK, it has been noted that, of the four technologies one needs to fight a counter-insurgency (helicopter gunships, drones, satellites, and [memory lapse] other electronic technologies), NONE are Made in Turkey. The latter three ARE Made in Israel. Turkey just placed an order for helicopter gunships with an Italian company, but you know how these defense contracts can go into overtime :) As to the Washington insiders (erroneously labelled 'realists"?) who thought support for Israel is not a strategic American interest? A whole lot of shuffling the note cards on that since May 31 (Mavi Marmara and Helen Thomas) if for only one reason: the Suez Canal. As I note in the Turkey thread, US foreign policy took a step away from Turkey last week. A lot of geo-political dots are in play. Propping up the Mubaraks in Egypt is only one of those dots. Watch how Saudi King Abdullah's visit with Obama goes on June 29 - another dot with an even worse human rights record because Saudi Arabia has been very slow to accord basic rights with their Shi'a population, who live on the oil. because of Afghanistan, and North Korea's hysterics, the Cold war concept of 'limited war' is getting a lot more discussion.
- K2K
June 28, 2010 at 5:42pm
noga: "suggested the US bomb Israel into submission. But the kernel of the idea that at some point it will be Israel against some international force sure has some "realists" salivating in anticipation. Or is this too macabre as scenario?" yes, far too macabre, a majority of Americans (not just the evangelicals praying for the rapture) really do see Israel as a settler people who need to defend against terrible enemies. The Liberal Left is a minority that never grows in America, only inside TNR :) Overall, the US military has a really strong relationship with the IDF; such an order would invite mutiny.
- K2K
June 28, 2010 at 5:53pm
On bombing Israel - well obviously that's OTT but on the other hand here is Samantha Power: http://www.zoa.org/sitedocuments/pressrelease_view.asp?pressreleaseID=1522 As for "realism," it seems Received Wisdom considers Israel a "strategic liability." Why that is remains unclear unless it's sheer numbers, which is what Chamberlain concluded also.
- Sophia
June 28, 2010 at 8:26pm
K2K thanks for the information about TodaysZaman. If that's really what they think, oy.
- Sophia
June 28, 2010 at 8:28pm
Sophia: the Gulen Movement is what has been Islamizing Turkey (and Gulen preaches NO jihad), so I added TZ to Hurriyet after the Maramara to see how Erdogan is faring. I figure that op-ed was the only way they could save face for Obama's snub of Erdogan at the G20. Hurriyet made sure to note that Turkey had to send their military to Israel to keep training on the Heron drones because the manufaccturer had withdrawn all Israeli personnel. I have no idea what gets written in Turkish. In the Peretz Erdogan Turkey post above, I recommend David P Goldman aka Spengler on Turkey in today's AsianTimes, which is an online news source out of Hong Kong that pays for news analysis and opinion, the opinion being more Goldman than Chomsky, but not by much. AT has better detail of Central and South Asia than anything in the West.
- K2K
June 28, 2010 at 9:08pm
reword what I wrote at 5:53 pm: "a majority of Americans (not just the evangelicals praying for the rapture) really do see Israel as a nation of immigrants who need to defend themselves against terrible enemies." The term "settler nation" is frequently used to describe America, Canada, Australia, Brazil, and Argentina (ok, and South Africa) to differentiate from colonial conquests like India or Indonesia where there was no real migration of the imperial power's population. That oil spill makes me crave chocolate...
- K2K
June 28, 2010 at 9:16pm
Obama was a member of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright's church. That lunatic has for decades spewed out anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism and anti-white racism. The "Reverend" has recently reaffirmed his beliefs. Obama sat for years in the "Reverend" Wright's "church" and listened to that garbage without protest. It's not that Obama believed that s***. Obama is not that stupid - far from it. The point is that he has no core beliefs. He is a bizarre combination of sleazy Chicago hustler and Ivy League snob who cares only about nothing much but his own outsized ego. Barack Hussein Obama will go down in history as the worst excuse for a president in US history. Any Jew who votes Democratic this fall is voting for a possible second Holocaust. Please Jews, learn from history!
- bulbman1066
June 30, 2010 at 1:25am