Saturday
Dec022006
Michael Rub-it-in
By 
Issandr El Amrani | US
Issandr El Amrani | US
Enjoy Israel lobbyist Michael Rubin's latest missive, "Arabs may one day miss George W. Bush".
Why, does Joe Lieberman have a shot at the presidency?
Why, does Joe Lieberman have a shot at the presidency?
Reader Comments (8)
Yes, Arabs are really going to miss the empty democracy talk with a nudge-nudge wink-wink at convenient dictators. Because there's such a shortage of hot air in the region.
Does Lieberman have a shot? I've seen people talking about Edwards, Clark, Obama, and even Gore. I don't think Lieberman has a chance to win the Democratic primary.
I don't think Lieberman has a shot, although he might run anyway to boost his profile. He just came to me as someone who has exactly the same foreign policy views as the Bush administration, but is even more pro-Israel.
Egypt, for one, might miss the billions of dollars they're getting for free every year from him, might miss GWB.
Or when al-qaeda decides in Egypt also that the internet is evil, and starts doing their usual "let's bomb everything we don't like" thing, and nobody defends you anymore.
I'm quite interested in the Al-Qada '"let's bomb everything we don't like" thing'. I haven't heard it phrased that way before. Examples?
Jon Alterman's riff on the same theme (i.e., what the elections mean for the Arabs) is http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/qahwa_sada/2006/11/alterman_arab_d.html" rel="nofollow">reproduced over at Qahwa Saada. Worth the read.
So Tom, you expect a sudden massive change in US government policy towards Egypt, including the sudden dramatic cut off of the "billions" of dollars they get from the US every year.
Very optimistic of you old boy, and we could only hope, but a billion dollars in military aid to Egypt has been a pretty bipartisan policy.
Current levels of U.S. aid to Egypt and Israel "are based in great measure upon their continued participation in the Camp David accords and upon the Egyptian-Israeli peace process." (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/cpquery/?&sid=cp104hv1Mh&refer=&r_n=hr600.104&db_id=104&item=&sel=TOC_82459&" rel="nofollow">link)