While We Wait

While we wait for the American presidential election to be settled, and to see the outcome of the Barak/Clinton and Arafat/Clinton meetings, keep in mind the following:

While we wait for the American presidential election to be settled, and to see the outcome of the Barak/Clinton and Arafat/Clinton meetings, keep in mind the following:

1. Egypt: Egypt is routinely called America’s primary Arab ally, generally on the strength of its relatively-long-but-exceedingly-frigid peace treaty with Israel and its decade-old contribution to the Gulf War effort. Twenty-first century Egypt, however, is more contrarian encouraging Arafat to “hang tough” against Israel and the US in the peace talks, and becoming Iraq’s primary trading partner and now resuming full diplomatic relations with Baghdad in defiance of American sanctions. [We are not fond of sanctions, but are less fond of presumed allies who violate them. As Egypt goes, so goes the anti-Saddam coalition and Secretary Albright’s contention that “Saddam is in the box.”] Vicious anti-Semitism, anti-Israel and anti-American propaganda spew from Egypt’s semi-official press. Since the Palestinians began their war in the territories, there have been nearly daily anti-Israeli and anti-American demonstrations in Cairo. The US has issued a warning that our embassy there is considered a priority target for terrorists (or demonstrators?). Lest anyone think the Egyptians are soft on demonstrators, note that the Egyptian army has been shooting them in election-related violence in Port Said, Ismailiya and Ashmun (south of Cairo). The USS Cole is sailing home the long way around Africa because Egypt will not guarantee the security of the ship through the Suez Canal.

2. In the category of “the more things change, the more they remain the same: DOD has awarded a multi-million dollar contract to upgrade the software on the radar systems in Egypt’s 200-plane fleet of F-16s. Cairo will pay for the upgrade out of its annual U.S. military aid allocation of $1.3 billion of our tax dollars. The outgoing Congress also approved $35 million to Lebanon as part of the foreign aid bill, with nary a word about the presence inside Lebanese territory of four Israelis kidnapped by Hizballah, or about the Lebanese government’s unwillingness to take control of its border with Israel.

3. Also in the “plus ca change” category: A report from Brussels on November 8 notes that the European Commission has authorized payment of up to 27 million Euros to the PA to help it meet “urgent current expenses.” The money comes from a special fund set up in 1998 to provide funding in the form of refundable advances in cases where Israel did not transfer tax receipts on time to the PA. The PA told the Commission that the transfers for October had not been received, causing the “advance” mechanism to kick in. We wonder what is included in those “urgent current expenses” – rocks, ambulances, automatic weapons, anti-tank grenades, payments to rioters?

4. UN Forces in Sierra Leone: According to Associated Press on November 5, UN troops (British and Nigerian) fired on youthful mobs protesting the imposition of a curfew in Freetown. The protesters set tires ablaze and threw rocks at the UN. The troops fired first in the air and then at the crowd.