Israel Sticks Up For Mubarak

by Chris Bodenner

Haaretz reports that the country has called on its allies to "curb their criticism of President Hosni Mubarak":

Israeli officials are keeping a low profile on the events in Egypt, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu even ordering cabinet members to avoid commenting publicly on the issue. Senior Israeli officials, however, said that on Saturday night the Foreign Ministry issued a directive to around a dozen key embassies in the United States, Canada, China, Russia and several European countries. The ambassadors were told to stress to their host countries the importance of Egypt's stability.

Goldblog recently addressed that notion:

In any case, the "stability" created in the Middle East by autocratic regimes is an illusion, as we've learned again and again. There is ultimately no alternative to freedom and self-government. As Elliott Abrams has noted, the Arab world is not exceptional in this regard. I've gone back and forth on this question any number of times, but ultimately I have to come down on the side of people like Reuel Gerecht, who argue that the imposition of ostensibly pro-Western autocrats on Muslim populations leads to nothing good in the end.

Goldblog is well aware of the threat posed by the Muslim Brotherhood, republishing some of its vile rhetoric toward the US and Zionists, but he's "unsure whether the Brotherhood will find its way to power in Egypt in the current situation."

2006-2011 archives for The Daily Dish, featuring Andrew Sullivan