DANIEL GREENFIELD: OBAMA’S GAZA WAR
http://frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/obamas-gaza-war/
The rockets falling on Israel have their origin not just in their Gaza launchers, but in the election results of November. It is no coincidence that the explosions we are seeing now on the evening news began after the election. Like so many in the Middle East, Hamas leaders were holding their breath to see who they would have to deal with over the next four years.
Once the Muslim Brotherhood on both sides of the border, in Egypt and in Gaza, knew the outcome, the trigger was pressed and the violence began.
Meanwhile Obama, during his Thailand visit, tried to deny that the Hamas violence had anything to do with the Arab Spring, the shift that began with his infamous Cairo speech calling for democracy in Egypt, followed by the betrayal of Mubarak, which led to the Muslim Brotherhood taking control of Egypt through elections, as they had earlier taken control of Gaza through elections.
The Arab Spring transformed Egypt from a peace partner into an enemy and transformed Hamas from the finger of a distant Iran to the arm of a nearby Islamist Egypt. The visit by Qatar’s Emir Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani to Gaza signaled that Hamas now had the full support of the sugar daddy of Sunni Islamists and the architect of the Arab Spring. A few weeks later the war was on.
Like the attacks of September 11, 2012, including the assault on the Benghazi mission, Hamas’s rocket attacks are a show of Islamist strength. But they are also a way for the Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt to distract Egyptians from a collapsing economy while shaking down Obama for some more money in exchange for brokering ceasefires and reining in the “extremists.”
The Muslim Brotherhood is playing Arafat’s old game of setting off violence and then charging money to put a stop to it. However the games are no longer limited to Gaza and the West Bank, but span the Middle East and even stretch over to Afghanistan where Obama inserted the Muslim Brotherhood into the negotiations with the Taliban.
Even as Israel prepares for a ground assault on Hamas, Obama has been working the phones with Islamist leaders in Turkey and Egypt to convince them to help him salvage the Islamist terrorist group with a ceasefire. Hamas and its backers want a ceasefire, but they know that they can extract more concessions from Israel and America by appearing not to want one. The cost of that ceasefire, like so much of Obama’s foreign policy, will be borne by Israel and America. The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt will get its payoff and Hamas will get its concessions. And Israel will get more rockets and more terror.
A stronger administration would not have allowed the Muslim Brotherhood to wrap it around its fingers, but Obama brought the Muslim Brotherhood to power and is now dependent on the genie of Islamist democracy that he released from its iron bottle. Obama’s foreign policy rests on the success of the Muslim Brotherhood and that means the Muslim Brotherhood owns his foreign policy, and he has no choice but to do its bidding.
The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, dissatisfied with the billions it is getting from America, Europe and the IMF, not to mention Qatar, wants more money to funnel into its business empire and its global network of front groups. Behind the scenes, an agreement will be reached, a ceasefire will be offered and Obama will pressure Israel into signing on the expensive dotted line, while easing sanctions on Gaza.
The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Gaza will get what it wants. Israel will walk away, not only sold out, but made painfully aware that its economy and security are dependent on the whims of Obama, Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood.
But this conflict is about more than just shaking down Washington for money and Israel for territory.
The Muslim Brotherhood hasn’t been able to deliver on its economic promises and domestic opposition is mounting. Nearly every Egyptian non-Islamist party has walked away from the Brotherhood and that leaves it vulnerable. If the Muslim Brotherhood can’t fix the economy, its alternative policy is the same one that another totalitarian party that ran on the economy, but then turned to a program of territorial expansionism and conquest, embraced.
Nazism was a model for the Muslim Brotherhood’s political organization and Nazi Germany provided funds for the nascent Brotherhood movement. And millions of the favorite targets of the Third Reich just happen to be living next door to Egypt.
In Cairo, Obama turned back the clock to before Camp David. That made a war all but inevitable. The Muslim Brotherhood is edging closer and closer to annulling the Camp David Accords. Once that’s done, Egypt’s new rulers will have a free hand to launch a replay of 1967 or 1973, with a sizable Hamas militia, armed with everything from anti-tank weapons to long range missiles, on the other side of the border.
War has no downside for the Muslim Brotherhood. If it wins, then it will be able to lasso Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Syria into a local Caliphate. If it loses, then its domestic military rivals will be humiliated, while the government will describe the defeat as a victory; just as Egyptian governments have done in all the previous wars.
The only obstacle to this scenario is America. That is why the Muslim Brotherhood waited for the outcome of the election before crossing the Rubicon in this latest assault on Israel. Now with another four years of Obama to look forward to, the Brotherhood knows that it has nothing to worry about.
The current conflict is only a training exercise for the coming war between Israel and Egypt. Each Hamas attack tests Israel’s defenses, pushing further and further to make Israel appear more vulnerable, so that the Muslim Brotherhood has less difficulty making the case for war.
Obama’s Cairo speech and his denunciation of Mubarak ended not only the Camp David Accords but the relative atmosphere of peace that allowed Israel to explore a two-state solution. Obama’s policy of elevating political Islamists has made it impossible for Israel to take risks for peace, as its neighbors have been transformed into fanatical enemies. And that has made negotiations useless and war inevitable.
The rockets rising out of Gaza are only the first flight of a larger assault against Israel by the Muslim Brotherhood monster that Obama unleashed in Cairo.
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