White House Confronting–Sort of–Egyptian President’s Frothing Hatred of Jews Reveals Its Deeper Policy Thinking
The White House’s response to Morsi’s remarks was in the framework of that approach — condemning the language of one particular statement while praising Morsi for some things he’s done. He is praised for not abrogating the Egypt-Israel peace treaty — yet — and for helping get a ceasefire in the latest Israel-Hamas war. It is good that Morsi helped U.S. goals in that case, but since he was in effect doing even more to help his ally Hamas, one should be entitled to a certain element of cynicism. The Egyptian regime is apparently blocking some — not all — of the weapons going into Gaza because a direct confrontation with Israel is not in its interests. Of course, direct confrontation with Israel (after 1973) wasn’t in Egyptian, Syrian, or Iraqi interests either. That’s why they used terrorist group clients to do the job.
But the main problem with the White House response is not that it is too weak, but that it deals with calling Jews the offspring of pigs and monkeys against whom eternal war must be waged as entirely isolated from any analysis or policy consideration. None of these factors are considered as part of the Egyptian president’s and Muslim Brotherhood’s ideology and worldview.
This kind of hate speech is not equivalent to an American politician making a gaffe — many such examples can be given — but is a core aspect of the Islamist and Brotherhood ideology from which its policy behavior will flow. Carney’s government-crafted statement also reflects a strong hint that Morsi is now older and wiser, so the things he said before becoming president don’t matter any more. He’s being disciplined by the requirements of wielding power. But such concepts have failed repeatedly in the Middle East — Arab nationalists did not become moderate, neither did Islamists in Iran, or Yasir Arafat in the Palestinian Authority — and other parts of the world.
Indeed, hate speech is more significant when it doesn’t just feature a banned ethnic slur, but is followed by the stirring up of violent hatreds among millions of people that are likely — as they have in the past — to lead to war and terrorism.
It is ridiculous that such disproved, mistaken ideas form the basis for U.S. policy in 2013. The response to Morsi’s rants is like condemning nasty anti-capitalist statements made by Lenin before the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia, but implying that this is merely a problem of intemperate language, of hate speech, that will probably go away now that he is facing the responsibilities of power.
Carney added: ”This type of rhetoric is not acceptable or productive in a democratic Egypt.” That is correct diplomatic language, but those who use it are supposed to know that such sentiments are also ridiculous. Acceptable? That type of rhetoric is the norm now. And whatever Morsi says about keeping the treaty with Israel, his view of Jews as sub-humans who should be wiped out may have something to do with his behavior as president in future.
Note, too, that Morsi and his colleagues believe that to think that way is a direct command from God, a personage in whom they place a high level of respect.
The White House did not respond to the fact that Morsi’s statement is based on key Islamic texts. There was no need for the White House to say that — it wasn’t asked. But it is vital that the White House understands that fact. Islamist ideas are interpretations that are not inevitable, but the fact that they are quite arguably proper interpretations of the proper Islamic religious worldview makes them far more powerful. The White House behaves as if they are the zany misinterpretations of marginal would-be hijackers of Islam.
It isn’t easy to deal with this situation. The problem, though, is that it needed to be managed before it got to this point.
Consider the question of whether the U.S. government should supply Egypt with advanced military equipment. How’s this for a joke: the reason America has been giving Egypt arms for the last 30-plus years is to use them against the people who are now in power in Egypt.
Of course it isn’t that simple, but the weapons were also provided to keep the existing regime in power, to keep it at peace with Israel, and to ensure a close relationship with the United States. Only the last of these points still applies. Yet that, too, is compromised. The premise now is that military officers will constrain the Brotherhood regime. But of course they won’t, at least not short of the direct launching of a war on Israel, as many officers sympathize with the Brotherhood and radical Islamism. Besides, the regime will pick and choose the officers it will put in charge of those weapons to ensure they will follow its orders. We know, of course, that congressional efforts will fail to stop the arms supply, that any conditions placed upon it can be easily disregarded, and that the transfer of weaponry will go through.
Another issue is the U.S. insistence that Morsi show he opposes religious intolerance. It is safe to say that during each month of 2013 there will be several anti-Christian actions — church burnings, prohibitions on building, attacks on Christians, kidnapping of Christian women and their forcible “conversion” to Islam, etc — about which the Egyptian government will do nothing, and the U.S. government will say nothing.
These people are hopeless. First they ridiculed and demonized anyone who said the Muslim Brotherhood is the most popular movement in Egypt and is likely to win the election. After the election, when it turned out they got that one all wrong, they are ridiculing anyone who says the Muslim Brotherhood is extremist and that it’s not good that extremists rule a state with all its resources. Even after getting it so wrong about the popularity of the Islamists they remain so arrogant and self-confident it never occurs to them to even slightly doubt themselves, or that the people that did predict the results correctly might have something to say that might be worth checking out, if only for the heck if it, rather than just dismissing out of hand and continuing to ridicule or demonize them. Their hubris knows no boundaries, or else they are just automatons with a human form.
Oh, and the NYT probably would not have reported Mursi’s remarks if they weren’t shamed into it by this Forbes article. They don’t normally cover Jew-hatred and other nasty issues in the Muslim world, so this one report, because of its rarity, made it look like Mursi’s remarks were an aberration rather than the norm. The White House saw fit to respond to it probably only because it reached even the NYT. Otherwise everyone just want to keep this issue a secret. I wonder why.
“Otherwise everyone just want to keep this issue a secret. I wonder why.”
Because they are enjoying themselves feeding at the trough of tax revenues and an “expanding” “peacetime” economy (financed by debt). Anybody with two functioning synapses in the analytic part of their brains knows that the Muslim Jew-hatred is implacable, but the majority of Americans are incapable of independent analysis. The pols have no incentive to alert them, on the contrary, they have every incentive to keep them sedated.
They don’t want the boat rocked for fear of drowning in the maelstrom that surrounds them. Pretty soon the debt-financed Pax Americana will end and with it the restraints on the Muslims – a reality that more and more Israelis seem to be facing.
Americans should ask themselves how a man could demand they give up their personal weapons, a right granted them by The Constitution, yet willingly deliver the most advanced fighter aircraft and battle tanks in the world, to a despot? How this same man can plea for the safety of children yet preside happily over the murder of tens of thousands of infants in a killing spree that surpasses the days of human sacrifice? How he can throw himself a celebration for $50 million and watch his countrymen starve?
This modern day Pharaoh, this hard hearted petty little man, has through lies and deception, become a cancer on the American soul.
This administration seems to see the Middle East primarily through the lens of post colonialism. Most of academia has seen things that way for some time, and Obama is a product of that academy. Unfortunately, post colonialism is not a balanced critique of Western political power, but an agenda driven ideology aimed at diminishing and destroying American power which it sees as illegitimate. It is now in charge of the reins of government in the US. Your analogy to Lenin is apt and points to a more basic characteristic of the Muslim Brotherhood – it is one of a large number of totalitarian movements which sprung up in the first part of the 20th century which claim to be world changing reform movements espousing absolute views and having no compunction whatsoever about accomplishing their goals by any means necessary. These movements are a reaction to the breakdown of traditional society under the impact of widespread industrialization and advanced material culture. The Brotherhood and their ilk are different than the Fascism or Communism of 100 years ago in that they are primarily concerned with the restoration of religion as the dominant force in human life and present many unique problems because of that difference. Still, I think it is fair to say that the Muslims are going through the same sort of collective madness as Fascism or Communism, or Japanese militarism or for that matter Mao’s China went through earlier. I agree neither the responsibility of governing , nor engagement is likely to moderate them and by supporting them we are pursuing the worst possible course.
While the MoBros were influenced by communism, fascism and Nazism, it’s inaccurate to describe their imperialist totalitarian drive and absolute views as a product of the 20th century. The view of Islam as the absolute truth and of Islamic law as the law of god under which all mankind should live go back to the foundation of Islam and are the source or justification for Islamic imperialism, which certainly isn’t a new phenomenon. The MoBros was founded in the late 1920s as a reaction to the abolishment of the caliphate by Ataturk in the mid 1920s, with the goal of restoring the caliphate. The Ottoman caliphate existed for centuries, and before it there were other caliphates. From the beginning of Islam the Muslims conquered vast territories, where they imposed sharia law to varying degrees. The MoBros are not an aberration, but it’s rather the short period of relative modernity and relatively secular states, influenced by the West, which was the aberration in Muslim history.
I am not trying argue that those characteristics of Islam were not present all along, What I am saying is that Islamism, seen as self-consciously political Islam, was founded by the MB in ’28 partly in imitation of totalist Western movements, is very much part of the outbreak of collective insanity that overtook the world in the early part of the 20th century. I think both the original built in absolutism of Islam that you speak of and the 20th century use of ideology to intensify extremism are present. Put another way I think we are dealing with a toxic combination of the medieval mind and the modern mind. Publicly debating the exact nature of the problem, even though far from power, seems worth while when the leadership in both the US and Europe are apparently trying to deal with it by pretending it doesn’t exist.
There are interesting publications coming out of Germany showing the historical links between the Moslem brotherhood,the Baathist part and the Nazi ss.the former were heavilynfunded and influenced by the latter as a waymof breaking the British. I highly reccomenf mattias kuntzel’s work.
“Of course, it isn’t that simple but the weapons were also provided to keep the existing regime in power, to keep it at peace with Israel…” No. Weapons aid/ gifts are intended, primarily, to keep US production lines in tact till needed. Due to the precarious nature of the progressive-conservative power shifts, DoD has been unable to protect the industrial base from the roller coaster of entitlement policies. (Defense jobs are high tech, high pay and not suitable for the folk of the ‘hood, and vote more or less conservatively)
Colonialism doesn’t seem so bad when exposed to the light of day. Eight out of 10 ex-colonies would be much better off, especially if British, had they stayed in the fold for three or four generations AFTER deciding to go-it-alone. A transition plan of 100 years would have been very useful. But NOOOOO the progressives know so much better than the people on the ground who make things work. After all, they had time to think, between their 18th and 22nd birthdays.
ta
We here in Israel were under the British, who seemed to be rather lax in stopping the Arabs from murdering us (but diligent in keeping Jews from defending themselves). That’s why Netanyahu’s predecessors threw them out.
Oh, and the British were sure Jews couldn’t fight, while Arabs were great warriors.
But they probably were better than any of the other colonial powers. And I wish we were “allowed” to use the tactics they used on us (except destroying the houses of terrorists, which we took from them).
The AAyan Hirsi Ali article http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/18/opinion/global/ayaan-hirsi-ali-morsis-comments-on-jews.html? is essential reading. I hope NY Times readers will pay attention to it.
And in “Muslim Extremism in Egypt” the French scholar Gilles Kepel
discusses the Islamicist journal Al Da’wa, which was published in Cairo in the mid-1970s. In a column in the children’s supplement, entitled “Recognize the enemies of your religion” there is a long anti-Semitic passage, ending in this chilling exhortation, “Muslim lion cub, annihilate their existence, those who seek to subjugate all humanity so as to force them to serve their satanic designs.”
Kepel comments, “Such is al’Da’wa’s definition of the Jew, intended for the edification of Muslim children. The race is corrupt at root, full of duplicity,
and Muslims have everything to lose in seeking to deal with them, they must be
exterminated.”
The Brotherhood has not moderated its views in the years since then.
Keep up the good work, Professor Rubin!
This is a result of the fusion of Islamic Jews-hatred with European, mostly Nazi, anti-Semitism. In Islam, in the Sahih al-Bukhari collection of hadith (and possibly elsewhere), it says that Judgement Day will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them, the Jews will hide behind stones and trees and the stones and the trees will cry: ‘Oh muslim, oh slave of Allah, there’s a Jew behind me, so come and kill him’. This hadith is quoted, among other places, in Hamas charter. Of course, the left considers Hamas freedom fighters, maybe because they fight to free the world of the existence of the Jews.
But conspiracy theories such as that the Jews “seek to subjugate all humanity so as to force them to serve their satanic designs”, which you quoted, originated in Europe, most accutely in the Czarist fabrication The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which is considered in the Muslim world an authentic document. The Protocols is also explicitly cited in Hamas charter (in article 32) as the source confirming the conspiracy theory. Of course, this doesn’t change the leftists’ mind about Hamas being noble freedom fighters. I suppose citing The Protocls makes you a loathsome far-right antisemite that should be shunned only if you’re a white European. If you’re a Muslim Arab your desire to exterminate the Jews is noble and worthy of support and of identifying with, such as by holding pro-Hamas demonstrations and chanting: “We are all Hamas now” (which isn’t that far from the truth, come to think of it).
The long-term impact of collaboration with the Nazis on the Muslim world was researched by Matthias Kuentzel, among others, and is dicussed in several articles on his website (remove the spaces):
www. matthiaskuentzel. de/contents/kategorie/32/?lang=en
There are also several books on the subject by different researches. For some reason the Western media, academia and politicians prefer to hide those facts from the public. I wonder why.
Yes.
Dr. Rubin’s article has the ominous feel of pre WWII correspondence on the coming war in Europe – all of which was explained away or ignored by many wishful governments and of course was precisely correct about the rise of the Nazis. Now we hear the threats against Israel, merely the first step in a totalitarian world vision of conquest, wishfully explained away and the true weakness of America exposed to all jihadi – its leadership. As with Hitler, now with Islam and as Hitler directly challenged the US, so will Islam. Only now apparently we will arm them to do so. That’s not merely weakness, it is pathological and unfortunately also reflects the population of the majority of the US – pathologically in denial of reality – in world affairs, in its economics, in its culture and in the binding future this now shapes.
Right. It is pathological. Obama reminds me of my ultra-left professors in social work school, who taught us (in a nutshell) that power is bad, and all those who have power are bad. So, the automatic default labels were: White = evil; Brown = virtuous. First World = to be tamed; Third World = to be elevated. Rich = greedy/exploitative; Poor = robbed/exploited. And so on and so forth.
We were told to “fight the system from within” – that is, to conduct our own individual mini-revolutions to subvert the status quo of whatever institution we work in. Why? Because we needed to “take back the power in the name of anti-oppressive social work”.
We studied Edward Said, and watched films showing Israelis celebrating Independence in 1948 – black and white footage with ominous background music making Jews marching with the Israeli flag look like goose-stepping Nazis.
This is what Obama and the educated class is all about these days, and this is why America is so ashamed of its power. What so many of these people refuse to understand is that when you vacate your position of power and leave a power vacuum, somebody else is waiting in the wings to replace you, eager to grab the reins and run. And they won’t be wringing their hands over how much evil power they have in relation to the poor powerless. They will shoot their rifles in the air while stepping on your head. And worse.
This is something I understood instinctively while still a student learning this stuff, and it amazed me that nobody else in my classes got it. What I didn’t see, though, was how this would all play out on the world stage. But here it is in the form of the Obama administration. Most of my friends who don’t particularly like Obama think he will just go down in history as a weak, ineffectual POTUS. But I think the effects of Obama will only be known some time down the line, several years from now, when the power plays shift enough to get more people scared for their future.
Indeed this is the great risk. This is why Rome knew Spartius must be defeated. Because there are things worse than hate speech : Torture. This is why if you plan to start something new Mubarak Gaddafi and Assad Must be removed.
This is why The True God is not so quick to release the souls from hell until the FEAR of the Lord is in the tissue of the soul and why Islam people who know there is a hell and the True God will put them there by their great sins can turn them into lambs as the Prophet Isaiah say
Goodnews! The great sins of the one who tortures are paid back when they are thrown in hell in the afterlife and Saint John’s vision of the holy slain and they cry out with such Great passion for justice they will see justice When The True God defeats the atheist torture monger
“res ipsa loquitur”
Doesn’t everyone know about Islamic Jew hatred? Apparently only the chattering classes don’t . So much energy expended on trying to bring modernity and peace to 7th century barbarians who’s spiritual progenitor practiced pedophilia and marauding as a way of life.
How do you spell futility? Islam!
Or maybe they agree. Until very recently, it was accepted in Christendom at all levels, from Pope to Peasent, that the Jews as a whole were inherently evil and guilty, and should be kept in a downtrodden position. In some parts of Christendom this is still true to an extent.
Is it 1937 or 1939?
The difference is Israel today has the means and the will to defend itself. I seriously doubt Netanyahu will commit suicide just because ObamaRx wants him to.
Time to stop over thinking…
The Moslem Brotherhood are modern Islamic nazis.
Maybe the uniforms have not arrived from Amazon yet but in the words of some guy named “bard’?
If it looks like a rose, smells like a rose, feels like a rose? It’s an anti-semetic Jihadist piece of crap.
You can put all the lipstick on a pig you wish, it’s still a pig…
Or my favorite? A “shit” sandwich is still shit no matter how much you pay for it and how many pickles and much secret sauce you put on it…
Wake up world, the Moslem Brotherhood?
it’s a pig, no it’s a shit sandwich, no… It’s just business as usual for dozens of Islamic nations in the world…
life is like a shit sandwich: the more bread you have, the less shit you have to eat. if only life was that easy.
This isn’t complicated: it’s political correctness and it’s obsession with race, class and gender. Morsi’s a member of a protected do-no-wrong group.
Third World country – check. Muslim – Check. Against Israeli “apartheid” – check. Arab – check. Post-revolutionary – check.
Well, that all seems to be in order. To the Left, Morsi’s teflon coated.
You forgot anti-American, which to the left means he’s not on the side of the “bad guys”.
Online petition to stop military funding to Egypt
http://aclj.org/middle-east-turmoil/stop-funding-egypt-defend-israel
I’ll bet Carney had both hands behind his back with fingers crossed. The Times? You mean someone still reads that garbage can liner paper?
Right, he didn’t mean it. And the “LOL, j/k” at the end of his statements was just truncated for lack of space, right Jay?
CIA Agent Exposes How Al-Qaeda Dosen’t Exist
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GARE6NcxdcY
Why is it that we always have to hear “what so and so ment to say”, from somebody else. Can we not take what an individual says and believe what he says? I take what Morsi says as what he means. He is against the Jews wants there extermination and the destruction of everything non-muslim.
Carney knows about as much about The Muslim Brotherhood as he knows about Obama’s grade point average.
When Carney makes such an incredibly stupid remark about Morsi’s intent, why is he laughed off the stage by the press corp? It is the only reasonable response to idiocy.
Or maybe the world as a whole ,and especially the “enlightened” parts, still has no problem with anti-semitsm.
The aid to Egypt should be tied to a demand that they change the incitement against all religions in their COMPLETE Educational system, from elementary schools to the infamous Al-Azhar University.
Morsi needs to feed 80 million Egyptians. Being a cynical I could say that Morsi could send a big number of them to their early graves by starting some sort of war………..and blaming Israel, the USA or whatever….. Being even more cynical I could say that the some of the aid money goes to easy/cheap luxury living in Egypt and the rest stays on bank accounts in USA on the name of a variety of army characters and suppliers of food, energy and clothing…………
until obama is impeached and jailed for betraying the oath to defend the Constitution, and for his numerous felonies.
The Saudi Arabian Princes are filthy rich, and are giving US colleges bushel baskets of money. They are also hiring retired State Department employees and Ambassadors for “think tanks” at astounding wages.
Is there some reason to think the leftoids are going to say something the Saudi Princes might object to?
That was no hate speech, that was MyJihad.
“It isn’t just pathetic, but also strange that educated Europeans/North Americans who are eager to destroy the career of anyone who has ever uttered a single sentence that was or can be portrayed as hate speech will accept those who issue whole reams of the stuff.”
No, that’s just being an appeasing liberal who always believes that the west is to blame for all of the world’s ills rather than the people who are actually responsible for them, such as radical Islamists, like the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists in Egypt.
And tell me, with all this hatred and bitter scorn, what has it gotten the arabs and the radical Islamists? Has it gotten them a great economy, a wonderful standard of living, or medical health system that is the envy of the modern world? Has it gotten them great advances in science or electronics or has it gotten them more efficient and cleaner cities?
All this bitterness, hatred, bigotry, and racism has gotten them is more poverty, more hatred, more bitterness, and a standard of living that should be embarrassing for any western-educated society, such as in Egypt. In short, radical Islamists have given their very own people more misery, more poverty, more economic hardships, and more hopelessness than ever before. And the only way they get away with it is by blaming all their corruption and fraud on other people, such as the Jews, the Americans, the Europeans, ANYBODY but themselves. It would be funny if it wasn’t so seriously disgusting.
It’s not just the hatred of Jews being covered up, it is the full support of the Muslim Brotherhood across region 4 of WTO increasing power for the enemies of Israel with American tax monies. We have blood on our hands now for the death of innocent women, and children for a few flag holders of the agenda to gain money, and power.
The world system hates Jews, and now the American government has sold out to the world system agenda. I wonder what histroy tells us about the enemies of Israel, and those who support same?
When one uses such inexcusable nonsense to defend the indefensable one leaves one’s hidden evil exposed.
Dear Jay, does this mean your boss did not mean to really fundamentally transform United States and at the end of 8 years of misery we will all wake up in the shower and Palin will be President?
In reference to Morsi: I wrote to my Congress representatives that if my taxpayers money was going to be used for a loan to Egypt, such loan should have as a condition that Egypt has to reform their educational system and STOP THE INCITEMENT AGAINST COPTS, JEWS, ETC.
I hope you’all would join me with such a request and spread the word…….
So they hate us, that’s why we spend billions of American dollars on these countries in the Middle East, hand-picking their new leaders, building democracies and armies for people who hate us. Makes perfect sense to me.