The New Leader Of Egypt: Whoever Hates Israel More?

The Middle East is essentially Africa with more oil, hubris, and radicalism. The problems the Middle East has aren’t insurmountable, but to get things going in the right direction, they’d need to deal with difficult cultural, economic, and political changes.

Unfortunately, when human beings have tough work to do, all too often they opt for pleasant, but meaningless distractions instead. You can see that on display in Egypt right now.

Former International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, who had previously announced his intetions to run for the presidency of Egypt, said Monday that “if Israel attacked Gaza we would declare war against the Zionist regime.”

In an interview with the Al-Watan newspaper he said: “In case of any future Israeli attack on Gaza – as the next president of Egypt – I will open the Rafah border crossing and will consider different ways to implement the joint Arab defense agreement.”

…ELBaradei’s main competition is Arab League Secretary General and former Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa. Last month he discussed Egypt’s relationship with Israel. “During my term in office the foreign ministry was subject to unfavorable policies from Israel with regards to the peace agreement,” Said Moussa who served as foreign minister 1991-2001,” he said.

Egypt was once one of the greatest nations in the world. Even today, people visit Egypt to see pyramids that were built there 5000 years ago. That’s incredibly impressive. Yet, they’re not a free people and the GDP per Capita there is only $6200 in a country where they rake in money hand over fist because of tourism and the Suez Canal.

So, what’s their election about? Who’s going to give the most freedom to the people? Who’s going to work to modernize the economy? Who’s going to do the most to help bring Egypt’s women into the modern world?

No, instead, it’s about who can spit the most venom at Israel. It’s worth noting that Israel and Egypt have a peace treaty, Israel is no threat whatsoever to Egypt, and that Egypt gets over a billion dollars a year in foreign aid along with access to advanced weaponry from the United States mainly because they maintain peace with Israel.

Despite all the talk you hear about the Palestinians, nobody in Egypt gives a rat’s behind if the Palestinians live or die. Want evidence of that? There are 50,000 Palestinians in Egypt, some of whom have been there since the forties. Yet, they haven’t been allowed to become citizens and they have no “permanent residency rights.” In other words, they’re demanding Israel take in people they don’t even want in their own country.

Want to know when nations like Egypt will really start making progress? It’ll be when they start caring more about fixing their own problems than hating the Israelis.

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