The Outsourced Ceasefire
We are watching, once again in real time, the abject failure of the Obama/Clinton foreign policy. We had an amuse bouche of their efforts with the Benghazi assassination of Christopher Stevens before the election but 50.7% of Americans didn’t see it. We are now seeing further fruits of their “lead from behind” and “apology” brand of foreign affairs policy.
As an appetizer, we see a tenuous ceasefire taking place between Israel and Hamas.
"No one is under the illusion that this is going to be an everlasting ceasefire. It is clear to everyone it will only be temporary," said Michael Herzog, a former chief of staff at the Israeli ministry of defence.
"But there is a chance that it could hold for a significant period of time, if all goes well," he told Reuters.
Egypt, an important U.S. ally now under Islamist leadership, took centre stage in diplomacy to halt the bloodshed. Cairo has walked a fine line between its sympathies for Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood to which President Mohamed Mursi belongs, and its need to preserve its 1979 peace treaty with Israel and its ties with Washington, its main aid donor.”
Oh good. We have a temporary truce being enforced by the new and supposedly improved Egyptian government. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton handed responsibility over to Mursi to monitor the situation. Mursi, a so-called former member of the Muslim Brotherhood, is supposed to make sure Israel opens up checkpoints to Gaza and Hamas is supposed to stop the rocket barrage into Israel. This should turn out well especially considering the following tumult in the Arab world’s largest country.
“The focus of their anger: President Mohamed Morsy. On Thursday, he announced that courts could not overturn any decree or law he has issued since taking office in June and, beyond that, in the six months until a new constitution is finalized, his spokesman said on state-run TV. He also fired Egypt's general prosecutor, who has been criticized for the insufficient prosecutions of those suspected in demonstrators' deaths in 2011.”
Great plan Obama/Clinton team. Let’s outsource the enforcement of a truce on a proto-dictator who is basically consolidating his power. Talk about a group of amateurs. What’s next? Are they going to ask Sean Penn to keep an eye on Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez? It gets even worse.
“The chair of Egypt's Cabinet, Mohamed Refaa al-Tahtawi, brushed back criticisms that Morsy had made an undemocratic power grab, saying the opposite is true and that Morsy "is not really trying to monopolize power."
"He is trying to have strong pillars for a steady progress toward democracy," al-Tahtawi said. "A dictator would not try to have an elected parliament as soon as possible."
The Cabinet chief added, "I assure you that in the coming days, the opposition will fade away and calm down.”
They aren’t taking any chances. Mursi’s own political movement is planning on fighting back like this:
“Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood called for a mass demonstration in Cairo on Tuesday to show support for President Mohamed Mursi, who is facing a storm of protest for issuing a decree that expanded his powers.
In a statement published on its website, the Brotherhood also called for shows of support in public squares across Egypt after early evening prayers on Sunday to show support for Mursi's decisions.”
Great. So we now have a dictator consolidating power and his political partners are supporting him on that. These are political partners that have said the following about the existence of Israel and their ideas about the ceasefire.
“The top leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood denounced peace efforts with Israel and urged holy war to liberate Palestinian territories on Thursday — one day after the country's president, who hails from the movement, mediated a cease-fire between Israelis and Palestinians to end eight days of fierce fighting.
"The enemy knows nothing but the language of force," said Mohammed Badie. "Be aware of the game of grand deception with which they depict peace accords," he said in a statement carried on the group's website and emailed to reporters.”
Now I wonder who Mursi will support when the chips are down. Will he act as an honest peace broker when protests and resistance against him are thwarted by a movement that hates Israel? Will Mursi accept the help of the Muslim Brotherhood on the road to tyranny but ignore their calls for destroying Israel? It’s beginning to look like the Obama/Clinton initiative to stop the fighting is more like a crap shoot with loaded dice than a well-considered foreign policy strategy. It appears the Obama/Clinton team is nothing more than a bunch of useful idiots for the Islamo-fascist elements in the Middle East.
I’m dreading the upcoming entrée.