Egypt Aligns with Hezbollah as Obama Gives Egypt 20 F-16s and 200 Tanks

As if the Middle East were not complicated enough, the US is now in the process of making it more complex and dangerous than ever.

Even as Mohammed Morsi’s still shaky government in largely Sunni Egypt openly aligns itself with radically Shi’ah Hezbollah, the Pentagon has announced that it will provide Egypt with 20 more F-16 fighter jets and 200 more M1A1 Abrams tanks.

Hezbollah, a terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of Israel and the West, operates largely out of Lebanon, and has been armed to the teeth by Iran, with 100,000 rockets and missiles, mostly aimed at Israel.  Hezbollah, however, is no longer just a local organization. It has active operations in Europe, Africa, South America, and the United States. It poses a direct threat to Americans throughout the world, and the idea that we can ignore an Egyptian alliance with them represents a new low in our foreign policy. (For more about the threat, see Hezbollah’s Partnership with Mexican Drug Cartels).

The US provides Egypt with $1.3 billion in annual foreign aid, which has made Egypt’s military one of the strongest in the region. With US support, Egypt now has the fourth-largest F-16 fleet with a backbone of 220 F-16 fighters, and, with 4,000 tanks, Egupt also has the world’s seventh-largest tank force.

What can President Obama be thinking? Is he trying to buy his way into the hearts of the Egyptian Islamists? (It won’t work!) Doesn’t he understand that these lethal handovers can mean death to thousands of Israelis in another war? Or that by building up Egypt’s military he is actually making such a war much more likely?

Has Israel become our target instead of our ally?

Recently, in one of his most outrageous and offensive statements, Henry Kissinger was quoted as saying, “In ten years, there will be no more Israel”.  Are the rumors racing around Washington that the administration is planning for “a world without Israel” true? Is that what is driving our foreign policy in the Middle East?

Morsi has made his intentions very clear. The same new Islamist government that plans to impose Shariah law on previously secular Egypt  is not likely to be willing to keep the peace with Israel. The Egyptian move toward an alliance with Hezbollah is one more step closer to what many already think will be the next Holocaust. If America is knowingly facilitating such a war, and anticipating the destruction of a sovereign state that for 65 years we called our ally, we are no longer walking on the side of the angels.

Yes, I know. The elections are over and Obama won. America, what have you done?

—-  Ilana Freedman, Editor

 ______________________________________________

Trying to regain land occupied by Israel ‘is legal and legitimate,’ says Egypt’s ambassador to Lebanon, when discussing the warming ties with the terrorist group that will mark a drastic change from the policies of the Mubarak era.

Egypt’s ambassador to Lebanon said his country will pursue a relationship with Hezbollah, a “real political and military force,” Lebanon’s  Daily Star reported Saturday. If implemented, the decision would constitute a dramatic policy shift from that of the former Hosni Mubarak administration.

Egypt’s relations with Hezbollah, a Shi’ite Islamic group that is considered a terror organization by the United States, have been strained, in large part, by Cairo’s 1979 peace accord with Israel. The ambassador’s comments on a possible Hezbollah-Egyptian rapprochement came on the heels of the passage of the controversial Muslim Brotherhood-backed constitution by President Mohammed Morsi last week.

Speaking from his office in Beirut, Ashraf Hamdy told the Lebanese news source that Egypt’s new foreign policy objectives include the need to explore fresh modes of communications, which means keeping regional contacts “tight,” even with its enemies.

“You cannot discuss politics in Lebanon without having a relationship with Hezbollah. It is a real force on the ground. It has a big political and military influence in Lebanon,” the ambassador said.

“We are stretching our hand out in the proper, balanced way to all regional powers, but of course, we will continue to develop our foreign policy according to our interests,” he told the paper.

He called the role of Egypt, the most populous Arab nation, that of a real regional power and a “doer” on the scene, particularly through its mediation efforts and intrinsic soft power.

“In discussions we said we want Hezbollah to remain as a political force in Lebanon acting in the interests of the Lebanese first and not others,” Hamdy continued. “Resistance in the sense of defending Lebanese territory … That’s their primary role. We … think that as a resistance movement they have done a good job defending Lebanese territory, and trying to regain land occupied by Israel is legal and legitimate.”

He warned, however, of mixing the “legitimate” goals of resistance with the Lebanese political process — something Egypt and other Arab countries wouldn’t welcome, he said. Elections and a democratic process are imperative for Lebanon, he added.

Touching on Hezbollah’s support for Syrian President Bashar Assad, Hamdy stated: “We want to keep all the parties in Lebanon away from what is happening in Syria. Not only Hezbollah.” He claimed that Western-style of democracy may not be appropriate for Syria at this moment, but said Egypt favored a political solution to the civil war — one that doesn’t include Assad.

Hamdy served as ambassador to Syria under Mubarak before starting his post as top envoy to Beirut in 2010.

MORE . . . .

Obama’s F-16 Delivery Could Help Egypt Destroy Israel

From Investors’ Business Daily at investors.com  December 11, 2012

Why is the U.S. sending 20 advanced fighter jets to an Egypt that’s now the giant question mark of the Middle East? President Obama is appeasing jihadists — and possibly signing Israel’s death warrant.

When President Obama early in his presidency went to Cairo to apologize to the Muslim world, he made a point of saying “there are some who advocate for democracy only when they’re out of power; once in power, they are ruthless in suppressing the rights of others.”

To say such a thing in the capital of a country that had been at war with Israel, but which the U.S. helped transform into a valued ally, could only be interpreted as slamming then-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

“You must maintain your power through consent” because “elections alone do not make true democracy,” Obama said.

But since Mubarak never won a legitimate election, Obama’s remarks apply much more to Mubarak’s successor, Mohammed Morsi, the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood leader who apparently did win a valid election.

Having last month grabbed dictatorial powers for himself, pulling multitudes of Egyptians into the streets to call for his expulsion, Morsi proved he was among those “for democracy only when they’re out of power.”

So why is it that next month the Obama administration will begin to send Morsi’s government at least 20 F-16 jet fighters, filling an order placed by the Mubarak government two years ago?

In maneuverability and other features the F-16 is the best fighter jet in the world, and the U.S. has already made Egypt fourth in the world in F-16s, behind only ourselves, Israel and Turkey.

As with so much of the Obama foreign policy, the explanation can be found in the president’s naivete. Maybe he thinks if we just act as if Mubarak is still there, Morsi will be a U.S. ally, just like Mubarak.

Right now, of course, we can’t be sure Morsi will be around a year from now. Will he be replaced by a pro-Western figure like Ahmed Shafik, who came in second to Morsi in the presidential race?

Or by a liberal foe of U.S. foreign policy, like former U.N. nuclear arms watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei?

Or will Morsi repel the threat to his power by brutalizing his foes, thus proving to be a ruthless Islamist tyrant? Right now, we don’t know to whom we’re handing 20 of the most advanced military aircraft on the planet.

Whatever Egypt becomes in the years ahead, it is sure to be less a friend to America than it was under Mubarak and his predecessor, Anwar Sadat.

And if Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood — “an innately, incorrigibly Islamic-supremacist outfit,” as National Review’s Andrew McCarthy warns — consolidates power, the U.S. will have, inexcusably, armed Israel’s would-be destroyer with the deadliest weaponry we have.

Read the original article here.