Less clear is the appeasing behavior of the Obama administration. It seems oblivious to the damaging effects on our prestige that can follow when we allow such threats to go unpunished, particularly when our citizens have in effect been kidnapped. And such craven behavior is especially dangerous when the aggressor has been the recipient of $60 billion in U.S aid. Now the message is not only you can attack American prestige with impunity, but also get paid to do so. What is equally unclear is why Obama would pursue this tack given the utter failure of his earlier solicitous “outreach” to various regimes in the Middle East, especially Iran and Syria. Obama entered office offering to talk with the mullahs in Iran “without preconditions,” sent a letter to Khamenei calling for “co-operation in regional and bilateral relations,” and assured the regime that it “remain committed to serious, meaningful engagement.” What it got in response was contempt, insults, genocidal threats against Israel, terrorist plots in our own country, more support for the terrorists killing our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and an intensified effort to acquire nuclear weapons. At some point Obama should realize that the Islamists see flattery, appeasement, foreign aid, and offers to parley as signs of weakness and fear, the expected behavior of infidels whose spiritual poverty makes them vulnerable to the spiritual strength of the faithful. And this perception of weakness is increasingly being shared not just by our enemies, but by many of our friends.
Finally, the administration’s refusal to punish the new regime in Egypt for their arrogance in kidnapping our citizens and threatening us not to stop giving them money endangers our key ally Israel. The border to the south is already more open and dangerous, even with the peace treaty supposedly still in effect. Weapons like surface-to-air missiles–– looted from Gaddafi’s arsenals in Libya by other “peace, dignity, and justice” -loving democrats––have been pouring into Gaza. Barry Rubin has drawn the obvious conclusion from such fecklessness: “If an Egyptian government is willing to risk U.S. aid and have a confrontation on this small issue, what are they going to do regarding big issues? What happens when the Egyptian government moves toward Islamism or helps Hamas fight Israel on some level? We have been told that fear of losing U.S. aid will constrain Egypt. But we are now seeing that this simply isn’t true.” Indeed, we could very soon see another war against Israel, this time fought by an Egyptian army trained and armed by the United States, its ally a Palestinian Authority force likewise trained and funded by us. Such would be the wages of this administration’s penchant for indulging delusional wishful thinking rather than facing reality.
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