Michael Totten, a clear thinker and very well traveled in the Middle East, interviews Eric Trager, a scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Per Totten,
He's a real expert on Egypt and has been more consistently right than just about anyone. He called out the Muslim Brotherhood as an inherently authoritarian organization while scores of other supposed "experts" falsely pimped it as moderate. And contrary to claims from the opposing camp, that the army "restored" democracy with its coup, he saw the recent bloody unpleasantness coming well in advance.
Absolutely worth the read.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/16/2013 10:58 ||
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#1
Totten has been a stalwart of truth for very long time.
It's 2015, and there is a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. The Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood (Hamas), financed by Iran, wins an election on a platform demanding the expulsion of the Jews from Israel. Iran, meanwhile, smuggles shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles to terrorist cells in Palestine that can take down civilian airlines at Ben-Gurion Airport. With backing from the Egyptian military, Fatah throws out the elected Hamas government and kills a large number of Hamas supporters. What will Washington do? Given the track record of both the Obama administration and the Republican mainstream, one would expect America to denounce the use of violence against a democratically elected government.
Such is the absurdity of both parties' stance towards Egypt: the Egyptian military is doing America's dirty work, suppressing a virulently anti-modern, anti-Semitic and anti-Western Islamist movement whose leader, Mohammed Morsi, famously referred to Israelis as "apes and pigs." It did so with the enthusiastic support of tens of millions of Egyptians who rallied in the streets in support of the military. And the American mainstream reacted with an ideological knee jerk. America's presence in the Middle East has imploded.
As it happens, Iran already is smuggling weapons via Syria to the West Bank to gain leverage against the Abbas government, as Stratfor reports (hat tip: the Daily Alert), including surface-to-air and anti-tank missiles. Hamas crushed Fatah in the 2006 West Bank parliamentary elections 74-45, and made short work of the supposedly moderate Palestinian faction when it seized power in Gaza in 2007. As Syria disintegrates, along with Iraq and Lebanon, the artificial borders of Arab states drawn first by Ottoman conquerors and revised by British and French colonial authorities will have small meaning. Palestinians caught up in the Syrian and and Lebanese conflagrations will pour into a new Palestinian state and swell the ranks of the hard-core Jihadi irredentists. Iran will continue to use Hamas as a cat's paw.
Among other things, the American response to the events in Egypt shows the utter pointlessness of American security guarantees in the present negotiations between Israel and the Palestine Authority. Even in the extremely unlikely event that Mohammed Abbas chose to make peace with Israel, he would face a high probability of civil war, just as Ireland's independence leader Michael Collins did when he struck a deal with the British for an Irish "Free State" rather than a republic. Collins killed more Irishmen than the British did in the preceding independence struggle. I do not want to compare Abbas to Collins, and I do not think he has any intention of making peace with Israel. But American blundering in Egypt has closed out the option, for whoever makes peace with Israel will require a free hand with Iranian-backed rejectionists.
America forgets that it corrected the flaw in its founding by killing 30 percent of Southern men of military age during its own Civil War, so many that the Confederate Army collapsed for lack of manpower. There are numerous wars which do not end until all the young men who want to fight to the death have had the opportunity to do so. And of all of history's conflicts, none was so likely to end with this sort of demographic attrition as the present war in the Middle East. Compared to the young Arabs, Persians and Pakistanis of today, American Southerners of 1861 were models of middle-class rectitude, with the world's highest living standards and bright prospects for the future. The Europeans of 1914 stood at the cusp of modernity; one only can imagine what they might have accomplished had they not committed mutual suicide in two World Wars.
Today's Middle Eastern and South Asian Muslims have grim future prospects. The world economy has left them behind, and they cannot catch up. Egypt was at the threshold of starvation and economic collapse when the military intervened, bringing in subsidies from the Gulf monarchies. The young men of the Middle East have less to lose, perhaps, than any generation in any country in modern times. As we observe in Syria, large numbers of them will fight to the death.
America cannot bear to think about its own Civil War because the wounds are too painful; in order to reunite the country after 1865, we concocted a myth of tragic fratricide. Wilsonian idealism was born of the South's attempt to suppress its guilt for the war, I have argued in the past. That is an academic consideration now. America's credibility in the Middle East, thanks to the delusions of both parties, is broken, and it cannot be repaired within the time frame required to forestall the next stage of violence. Egypt's military and its Saudi backers are aghast at American stupidity. Israel is frustrated by America's inability to understand that Egypt's military is committed to upholding the peace treaty with Israel while the Muslim Brotherhood wants war. Both Israel and the Gulf States observe the utter fecklessness of Washington's efforts to contain Iran's nuclear weapons program.
The events of the past week have demonstrated that America's allies in the Middle East from Israel to the Persian Gulf can trust no one in Washington -- neither Barack Obama nor John McCain. Those of us in America who try to analyze events in the region will be the last to hear the news, and the value of our work will diminish over time.
#1
My key takeaway passage: "There are numerous wars which do not end until all the young men who want to fight to the death have had the opportunity to do so."
#2
Big wars are fought by coherent organized states. The Arab middle East and North Africa will become like central Africa with rather more sand. Ie, constant low level strife without producing any clear winners for years, if not decades.
#3
#2 I have my doubts - IMO, as per "Globalism" + OWG "Multi-Polar World" [multiple Co-Superpowers] Shia Iran desires to be the World's first Islamic Nuclear Superpower in contrast to tradition-minded Sunni KSA.
As such, OWG Superpower = Caliphate Iran must be able to act as unilateral "Regional/World Cop-Policeman" just as the US + UNSC does - it must be able to control the most violent sects of the Arab-Muslim ME + Muslim World, voluntarily or forcibly as necessary.
-----------------
As for America = Amerika, ITS NOT JUST THE MIDDLE EAST ...
* IIRC STARS-N-STRIPES > EGYPT'S GENERALS ARE RIGHT TO IGNORE OBAMA'S WARNINGS.
* Also from STARS-N-STRIPES > US LOSING LEVERAGE IN RAPIDLY CHANGING ARAB WORLD, OBAMA ADMIN HAS MANAGED TO ALIENATE BOTH SIDES IN EGYPT'S POLITICAL CRISIS.
Methinks the correct word is "all" sides, not merely "both".
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > PRO-MILITARY EGYPTIANS WANT TO SHIFT TO RUSSIA ALLIANCE [from US/US-West, as due to Obama's support of Muslim Brotherhood + Morsi | OBAMA POLICIES TURNING EGYPT AGZ US - WASHINGTON FREE BEACON.
* SAME > US RELUCTANT TO TAKE SIDES IN TERRITORIES DISPUTES INVOLVING CHINA - THE ECONOMIC TIMES.
Substitute "Iran" + "China" [Other Wannabe?] for "Egypt".
At this rate, the Bammer + Policies may succeed in turning Mr. Spock + Planet Vulcan = Vulcan People into new enemies of the Federation???
I bring you this from a Facebook acquaintance, exactly as she posted it yesterday. The lady, a Muslim Egyptian, is highly educated and has been involved in Egypt's Arab Spring from the early days, though I don't suspect her of taking a leadership role. I came to know her through a mutual Israeli-American friend, which speaks to her open-mindedness.
I have invited her here to respond to your comments, so please be on your best behaviour. Tea and cake are set out in the O Club, and the sideboard as always hosts bottles of something stronger for those of you who prefer such things. ;-)
First, let me preface this by saying that I do not condone any violent attacks on peaceful people, nor do I accept unnecessary use of force by anyone; however, this is not to say that I won't accept the use of force by those authorized to do so to defend our nation, and even to defend their own lives against armed....ahem, peaceful protesters.
One of the earlier images I saw yesterday was of a police vehicle that was tossed off the October flyover by an angry brotherhood of evil mob, and the shattered bodies of CSF officers. An alarming sight and a frightful indication in the early hours of such a crucial day.
Reading and hearing conflicting views on whatever online TV services I can access here (my enormous hatred for Al Jazeerah kept growing over the course of day to a point that has me worried of ever walking by their offices for fear of being tempted to take them down with my bare hands), I started wondering if people wished to maintain the status quo and allow the brotherhood to continue to disrupt our lives, block our streets, invade people's homes, terrorize neighborhoods, contaminate our children's minds with their sexual filth (sexual jihad, and paid/timed conjugal visits in a rather well organized pimping operation), import and produce deadly weaponry to use against fellow civilians, run the most savage torture chambers inside the Rab'a mosque and dispose of decomposing bodies in nearby dumpsters in the dead of the night, spread their lies to the foreign media to turn the international community against Egypt, and so on? Or worse yet, set up a parallel nation at the Rab'a traffic light and seek international recognition that so many self-serving administrations in the west would readily grant to achieve their divide and conquer objective in Egypt. The creatures of darkness were obviously gearing up for a massacre of horrific proportions that never happened, but was already planned and prepared for. The only way they were going to guarantee international support and sympathy was if they could prove to be the victims of a Hitler-like massacre. Their preparations included the murder of heaven only knows how many people, who were prepared for burial and most likely stored in cool places for the big event. How else could 20 or 28 of their dead be washed and shrouded and laid out in a neat row on the street in no time after the raid? The ministry of interior had previously asked foreign media, and local and international human rights organizations to attend the raid and dispersal of the sit-ins to witness the entire process and report what they see to the world. Within no time conflicting stories and sources went out to the world. Egyptian TV reported 15 dead on both sides and some hundred plus injured, other networks reported 140 dead and several hundred injured, and the brotherhood reported 2000 dead on their side. Everyone seemed to be following instructions and a well thought out plan rather than reporting the news on the ground. The image of the broken bodies of the CSF officers under the bridge still haunted me.
Next, I heard about street battles in my neighborhood, Mohandeseen. I turned to friends and neighbors for reliable and unembellished live reports and all agreed that security forces were only using tear gas to disperse and push back the armed "peaceful" demonstrators who fired live ammo at the security forces and civilians. Several snipers were seen on top of buildings. A sit-in was being set up at the Mostafa Mahmoud square outside the mosque, where they were trying to erect scaffolding for their platform. Reports that residents went out to fight them back came through, but eventually the armed "peaceful" pro-Morsi protesters prevailed and managed to dig in for a spell. Apparently, military and security forces broke that sit-in and the one in Maadi, across town, up a little later. Friends on the main, Arab League, street reported that it was converted into a major war zone. A wonderful lady, and hopefully a leader in our future government, who lives close to the square also described horrific street battles outside her home. My sister shared pictures of another main road completely wrecked beyond recognition. I know my street is unharmed, and I'm thankful for the safety of dear friends and neighbors.
I watched ONtv live online where it was reported that nuns at one of the Suez convents were screaming for help, as creatures of darkness were torching the building, and surrounding it to keep them from escaping or being saved. This hair raising report came after several days worth of destructive attacks on Coptic, and Evangelical churches in Upper Egypt and Cairo, as well as Christian homes, especially in Upper Egypt. Amazingly, the west didn't so much as report, let alone condemn these crimes, but screamed bloody murder at the inhumane attack and violation of the rights of armed "peaceful" protesters. I can't stop thinking of a little ten year old angel named Jessica, who was shot and killed coming out of church a few days ago, just because she's Christian. Say what is Obama's religion?
Still, people questioned the motives of the ministries of defense and interior. This is not to say we've forgiven sins of the past, but the current leadership is obviously trying to correct the path, or at least reset it to February 11, 2011 to allow us another chance to choose which way we want to take OUR country. For that, and only that, I give them my full and unconditional support. For the past, I hope we start our revolution to cleanse and reform these institutions and all others once all the wrongs of the past two and a half years are righted and the slate is wiped clean and the revolution leads the country. The corrupt among them must be brought to justice along with the brotherhood of evil for all the crimes committed against this great nation over the course of some sixty plus years. But first, we must eliminate the enemy in our midst, and by that I'm not insinuating we torch everyone who was at Rab'a or Nahda, or is currently hoping to become my neighbor by force, because most of them are brainwashed, stupid, and really poor. I'm talking about the leadership that was on a mission set by other countries to completely destroy, and divide our country for the benefit of others.
Next came the bombshell resignation of a man I've called a flake, a lightweight, and someone who lacks leadership qualities of a nation like ours. Before I go on, I will admit my mistake in considering him the right man for the right job in the interim government, as he had just proven that he does not even measure up to it. To all those who argued that point with me, I stand corrected. Granted he was opposed to a violent crackdown, and had said as much a few days ago, but to take personal offense when he wasn't consulted prior to the launch of the operation is basically a classical example of the pot calling the kettle black! The dispersal of the sit-ins did not get violent until the creatures of darkness pulled out their heavy weapons, and what did he think the security forces should have done? Hand out candy to the armed "peaceful" protesters? And how would he describe the twenty something decomposing bodies that were dug up from under the Rab'a platform and the twelve or more bodies dug out of the grounds of the Orman park? The merciful euthanasia of the opposition of peaceful protesters? Residents were able to identify burial locations from the stench of the past few days! As for asking for his permission to move in, did he so much as think of informing the government of his intention, or consult with the Salvation Front, or even his political party before screaming "I quit" to the media and placing us all in a very awkward position in the international arena? Dr. Baradei, you could have gone down in history as one of the greatest visionaries of our nation, but will go down as one of our greatest disappointments instead! He could have called for an emergency meeting, recorded his objection, insisted on monitoring military and security forces' non-violent operations, stated his intentions, and when all was done, resigned because of his personal beliefs. I would have respected that act from a man I still call a flake and will never change my mind, especially now.
News of international reactions began trickling in. Ecuador recalled its ambassador, which puts us in grave danger of....what? Losing relations with Ecuador I suppose. Germany, France, and another European nation summoned our ambassadors to discuss recent events. Okay. Denmark is freezing all aid to Egypt. There goes our butter!
Emergency laws have been reinstated for one month as of yesterday afternoon at 4 pm. Curfews between 7 pm and 6 am have been imposed indefinitely, and this time they mean business. People can't attend the soirée show of curfews anymore.
So, people disapprove of us and our recent actions and preferences. It happens, and we can't really care how others feel. To those still lamenting Baradei's exit, don't. He did what he did and he's gone from the scene forever. End of story. Let's please not waste anymore valuable time on someone who doesn't value us, our image, and the ground that carries him. As for those who are still insisting that there were better ways to resolve the problem, why didn't you speak up when you had a chance? Criticizing is the easiest thing to do from the comfort of your plush armchair, and words are very cheap. Lives aren't though. My heart still hurts for little Jessica and the sight of the broken bodies of the CS F officers.
God bless our Egypt.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/16/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Yesterday or the day before, Obama actually denounced the violence against the Copts, although he decided not to blame the MBrotherhood for it. So that is progress of a kind.
Also, yesterday, I saw, on CNN (american TV news network) a fellow who usually defends Islamists, actually criticize the MBrotherhood and say that the MB was provoking some of the violence. That is also progress.
Notwithstanding the above, the Media, the American Public as well as the President of the US has a long way to go in understanding what Cairenes like this blogger see with their own eyes.
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/16/2013 11:21 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I waded through Foreign Policy this morning, specifically Mr. Traub's article. His argument was that the current administration's foreign policy team is populated by 'consequentialists' - a breed that originated during the Cold War and reached its zenith during the first President Bush administrations. Consequentialists, we are told, labor in the lofty ether of international relations, concerned with the long-range big picture where words and actions have long term consequences. It's a picture, the reasoning goes, that doesn't have space for words or actions based on moralizing or indignation (like the Second President Bush's reaction to 9-11.) Hence Saddam Hussein's crushing of the post Desert Storm Shiite uprising is merely watched, because Russian and Arab interests are at stake. An Iranian 'Green Revolution' gets silence, because engaging Iran with its nascent nuke program is important.
Problem is, those consequentialists now on the Obama foreign team were either third-stringers during the Cold War or learned it as theory in academia. Helping topple Qadaffi because the Euros and some domestic leftists were in love with a Responsibility-To-Protect policy, is one thing. Dealing with events that don't follow script or have multiple consequence options is another. So Syria gets placed in the 'hold' file, because of concern over what is more important. Is it relations with Russia or Saudi Arabia? Or is it Qatar and Turkey?
Egypt is its own special type of conundrum. The dissident groups along with the Muslim Brotherhood that toppled Mubarak have now aligned with the military to take down the Muslim Brotherhood. The military is critical to Egypt's role in the 'peace process' and as a counter-faction to the rest of the Arab world. So the Secretary of State mumbles about 'elections' and tap-dances around the word 'coup', exercises get cancelled, ordered jets get placed on hold, but the money still rolls in. Meanwhile all parties from Egypt's domestic groups, to the Emirates, and the Israelis (who know Egypt won't dump its relations with the US) are frustrated, angered or perplexed with Mr. Obama and his people.
And we haven't even touched on Syria, the Western Pacific, North Africa, East Africa, Afghanistan, Iraq...
For an authoritarian government to work, the media has to maintain the appearance of independence even when thoroughly in the tank. That may be impossible in this day and technology, with the greatest dissemination of information since the advent of the affordable printing press.
Second, dear leader has to have a gravitas. Even those ignorant to have never thrown a baseball or used a shotgun would compare those images to what they have seen in the movies and gone geesh. The floppy wrists on his stints up and down stairs only confirms popular agitprop of being able to control, even if the reality behind the scenes is ruthless, the complicity of such depends totally on the masses.
Then we have the soft republican selling points that if the elected body of congress, which actually represents the people of the United
States much more than the monolithic winner takes all Executive, does not play along then el prez will do it anyways. That's bullshit, and any member of congress playing along is so far in the tank the goldfish feed them.
He wants to raise taxes on everyone who buys a cell phone? Call it. He wants to decide who is and who is not legal? Call it. He wants to arm bandits with modern weapons which violates any sort of UN de-weapon program? Call it.
Get a good talking head. Buy some TV time. In the tank? At least take the field to up your price you cowards. Place the whole thing on the emperator, stop the headfire, and you'll be surprised how quick the prairie fire burns itself.
Its going to tip, and there will be howls from the greens of versaille no matter what. Damned if you do and damned if you don't, then do the right thing and be a pillar.
[Institute for the Study of War] Iraq's deteriorating security situation and the recent attacks on the Abu Ghraib and Taji prisons have demanded a visible response by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Maliki's response has centered on the "Revenge of the Martyrs" security campaign, led by the Baghdad Operations Command, that targeted the areas north and west of Baghdad. Reportedly, hundreds of individuals have been arrested and several weapon caches were seized. However, the Iraqi Sunni community has been further antagonized by the indiscriminate arrests of Sunni males. Despite this campaign, al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) has continued to demonstrate its ability to operate and carry out attacks in Baghdad and surrounding provinces. As the security challenges continue to mount, Prime Minister Maliki is struggling to provide stability in the security and political arenas. As Iraq heads towards the national elections in 2014, Maliki's opponents will continue to exploit his weakening security performance.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/16/2013 00:00 ||
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A former WaPo writer wants new Washington Post bossman Jeff Bezos to admit his politics. Fun stuff. The best joke: The writer writes for a business publication.
When I first heard that Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, was a Libertarian, I laughed out loud, because I thought it was a joke. Bezos's company, after all, is based on the Internet, which was created during the Cold War by a military research-and-development arm of the federal government, the Advanced Research Project Agency. No ARPANET, no Internet. No Internet, no Amazon, no $25 billion personal fortune for Jeff Bezos. Using a product originally developed by the military is the first hint of Bezos's suspected politics: An Evil Conservative. I guess this means that I can't drink Tang, since it was invented by NASA for astronauts who flew atop rockets invented by the military...
Why am I writing about Bezos now? For exactly the reason you might suspect: because of his pending purchase of the Washington Post. Call me naïve, if you like, ...perhaps we shall call you evil instead...
but I think that if you're going to own a high-class journalistic enterprise like the Post, whose job is to call powerful forces to account, you should expect to be called to account yourself. He's an owner. He doesn't have to account for anything except to the stockholders and to the accountants. It's a great sentiment: comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Unless the comfortable are Democrats, in which they get a free pass...
But good luck trying to get that done when it comes to Bezos.
When I exposed the thesis of this column to Amazon, I couldn't even get a response, much less an interview. Call yourself a tea party type and they'll give all the attention you never deserved. Amazon doesn't own the Post, so they have no need to respond. So much for those layers and layers of fact-checkers...
When my Fortune colleague Peter Elkind, who spent months working on a must-read cover story in June called "Amazon's (not so secret) War on Taxes," tried to talk to Bezos about his business and personal philosophies, he was stonewalled. That, of course, was before Bezos's deal to buy the Post surfaced. Wow. Stonewalled about taxes. That's stonewalling? Nixonian reference. Perhaps Bezos is smart enough to recognize a hit piece when he sees it coming...
If you check the numerous articles about Bezos -- including Fortune's 2012 Businessperson of the Year and the interviews that he's done -- you see that he ducks and weaves when he's asked about Libertarianism. But consider this anecdote, courtesy of Sheldon Kaphan, formerly Amazon's chief technology officer, and Bezos's first hire at the firm. If I was interviewed and asked about libertarianism, I would probably tell the interviewer that I considered it but all those days at a desk checking out books would be boring. And that, my dear, is why you've not been asked to front a really, really big business. Though he's a snappier writer than anything I've seen besides Jen Rubin at the Post...
Kaphan says he once heard Bezos say: "If the government hadn't invented the Internet, private enterprise would have done it." Yeah, right, and defeated the Soviet Union, too. Right out of The Nation's playbook. I bet Ms Jane is on speed dial on your smart phone. Go ahead. Admit it.
Look. As long as Bezos was doing nothing but running Amazon (AMZN), there wasn't much reason for people to care about his politics. I certainly didn't care about them. You did, but you're saying you didn't because it reads better...
But when you're about to become a major force in the political life of Washington by buying a diminished but still immensely powerful outlet like the Post, that's a different story. Pun unintended I s'pect.
No matter what Bezos says now, once his purchase of the Post closes, scheduled for the fall, he's almost certain to begin imposing his standards and beliefs on the Post, or at least on its opinion pages. That's one of the many benefits of owning your own business. You get to play office politics your way. Much like Citizen Kane as editor, Bezos can afford to lose money on the Post for about a hundred years or so...
For better or worse, that's what newspaper owners do -- but I'd at least like to hear from Bezos what his beliefs are, Hint: He's a leftist
and to have him reconcile the question of his being a Libertarian who's benefited immensely from taxpayers' R&D money. Hint: He's a rent seeking leftist
A core belief of Libertarianism is that their ideas will prevail in a free market place. And if you know about markets, you know the key to making them efficient and fair is for as many players to have as much information as possible. Hint: He's a leftist.
Finally, I can't forget what happened after Rupert Murdoch bought then-upscale New York Post from its liberal owner, Dorothy Schiff, in 1976. Murdoch assured the paper's staff that he'd retain the Post's essential character as a serious newspaper. And we all know how that turned out. It became a more reliable news outlet, and a real alternative to the NY Times. And it makes money, which is more than the Post can say these days...
Disclosure: I am a retiree of and own stock in the Washington Post Co. (WPO), and the Post pays Fortune for the right to run my work. If it's a dollar, it's too much.
The writer should know the bride is always nervous on her wedding night, but unless the groom comes into the bedroom demanding she wear a strap-on, it should be all right.
#1
But when you're about to become a major force in the political life of Washington by buying a diminished but still immensely powerful outlet like the Post, that's a different story.
#5
If Mr. Bezo's purchase of the Post, and his supposed polical affiliation (whatever it is), continues to be as snit&snot-producing for other media types as it is for Mr. Sloan, then all I can say is:
"Atta Boy, Jeff!"
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
08/16/2013 16:48 Comments ||
Top||
#6
{The Post} whose job is to call powerful forces to account
You haven't done that since Obama was elected. DO YOUR JOB. Benghazi. Obamacare. NSA. Executive bypasses of Congress. The mess in Egypt. I could go on and on. Start with those WaPo, but until you do you have no claim to being anything other than a partisan leftist rag.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
It's 2015, and there is a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. The Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood (Hamas), financed by Iran, wins an election on a platform demanding the expulsion of the Jews from Israel. Iran, meanwhile, smuggles shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles to terrorist cells in Palestine that can take down civilian airlines at Ben-Gurion Airport. With backing from the Egyptian military, Fatah throws out the elected Hamas government and kills a large number of Hamas supporters. What will Washington do? Given the track record of both the Obama administration and the Republican mainstream, one would expect America to denounce the use of violence against a democratically elected government.
