YNET NEWS: Op-ed: Obama’s abandonment of Mubarak shows Israel cannot count on US at times of crisisThe earthquake in Egypt caught us off guard. As was the case before, this time too our intelligence officials did not predict it, yet we are in good company: No Western country, including America, predicted this, just like they did not predict Hamas’ rise in Gaza.
Yet there is one more thing we can learn from the events in Egypt, aside from the fragility of the region we inhabit, and it is something that’s not easy to digest: The Western world’s and mostly America’s treachery. We learned that the way they abandoned President Mubarak and gave him the cold shoulder can happen to us too. Or in other words, we cannot count on the Americans at a time of crisis.
Everyone understands that Mubarak has to go, yet we would expect the American Administration to back him rather than disown him. It’s the decent thing to do at least. For dozens of years, he was the only leader the West could rely on, the dam in the face of Islamization. He should have been treated differently if only in gratitude.
And when America does this to the Egyptian president, what should any other ally think? Perhaps that it’s better to conduct oneself like Iran or Syria, rather than like a moderate Arab state.
There is no doubt that something fundamental about the American Administration has changed. The US conduct in the Middle East attests to inexperience and lack of familiarity with the region. It appears as though the world is being led by a rookie. >>> Sima Kadmon | Friday, February 04, 2011
