Why give money to the enemy in Egypt?

Friday, September 30, 2005

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald asks why the U.S. is so willing to play the dhimmi for the Egyptians:

Egypt has so far received nearly $60 billion in jizyah -- Protection Money that the Infidel donor of such money is afraid to stop, for fear of the consequences -- from the United States alone. Why? Did Egypt need to be bribed into accepting the entire Sinai, its oilfields, its infrastructure, all put in place by the Israelis? Did Egypt in 1979, or 1988, or 1993, or 1999, or today, show any signs of fulfilling its solemn commitments under the Camp David Accords?

No? Well what about its attitude, as demonstrated in its government-monitored and controlled press, toward the United States? Do you find great gratitude for that $60 billion? Any gratitude at all? Do you not find, instead, all over the Egyptian media, the most murderous hostility, the most venomous antisemitism (including a television series based on "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion"), and the most sickening and predictable anti-Americanism?

How long should American taxpayers put up with the misreading of Islam by our rulers, who have given every indication of understanding Islam less well than many of those in the general population (a sampling of whom come to Jihadwatch), or not at all? We are under no obligation to respect their choices, or to believe that they "know more" about Islam and the Middle East than most of us. We are simply taking in the world as it is and making sense of it by taking into account the main fact in Egypt, as in the other Muslim countries: the fact of Islam.


Long ago, in his "Manners and Customs of Modern Egyptians," Lane noted that Egyptians would often begin the day with prayers of imprecation against the Infidels, prayers of hate. That was in the 1830s. What has changed since? A brief interregnum, when the British brought some modicum of efficiency to Egypt's government. And during the ancien regime of King Farouk, the presence of large numbers of Italians, Greeks, Jews, and Armenians helped to give a veneer of civilization to Alexandria and Cairo, with the Muslim masses either held in thrall as fellahin or whipped up by the Muslim Brotherhood to attack foreigners, Copts, and Jews. Then came the colonels, who overthrew Farouk, and primus inter pares, the bullying blustering Star of the Arab World, the deplorable Gamal Abdel Nasser. He managed to offend even that philo-Arab, that godfather of the Arab League, Anthony Eden. He also managed to split the United States, under that dimwitted "anti-colonial" John Foster Dulles, from its traditional allies England and France over the Suez business, when the slapping-down of Nasser might have at least delayed the day of Muslim self-assertion that has become, because it can, full-fledged Jihad using whatever instruments present themselves.

Why has no one called for hearings on the nature of our aid program to Egypt? Why has not a single member of Congress cried aloud about this little fact: though Egypt is a poor country, a small class lives fantastically well on the largesse that American taxpayers, many of them are living lives far more difficult than that led by the Egyptian ruling class, are forced to supply year after year? No aid comes from rich Arabs. It is not expected to. It is not demanded. It is the Americans and other Infidels who are now expected to supply such aid, year after year....or else. Or else what, exactly? Nothing could do as much good to get Egypt's attention, and make America less unpopular among the Egyptian masses, as to withdraw all aid from Egypt -- not merely to threaten to cut a small sum. After all, all it took was the threat to cut $30 million to get the Egyptian government to arrange for a new trial, and a new verdict, for Saad Eddin Ibrahim.

And here is one more thing for you to write your Congressman about. Egypt is a poor country. It receives more than $2 billion a year from the United States. But in the last full year for which there are records, 2004, Egypt stood third among all the countries in the world for the amount it spent on buying foreign armaments. It was third -- after China and India. Why did Egypt, a poor country, spend $7.5 billion on arms? Who threatens Egypt? Not the Sudan. Not Libya, that has just disarmed and whose ruler has other fish to fry, what with his pan-African schemes and dreams. Surely the Egyptians do not think that Israel intends to attack, now that there is that "Peace Treaty."

Could it be, might it be, is it just possible that -- Egypt is preparing for a future campaign against Israel, the Infidel enemy, the once and future enemy, the enemy with which a permanent peace, according to Islam, can never be made?

Is this a question that someone can please raise in Congress? Can someone ask the Administration to explain the American aid and what the Egyptians are doing with it, and the anti-American attitudes fostered in Egypt by the government and by the Egyptian elite -- attitudes which might be lessened among the masses if they did not think, correctly, that American aid simply goes to prop up a band of thieves at the top? Can someone ask about this, please? Because nearly 300 million Americans do not relish having sent $60 billion to a country whose government and people dislike or even hate us, and do not wish us well.

Is that so hard for our rulers and increasingly un-representative representatives, of both the 2-year-term and 6-year-term varieties, to understand?