Obama seeks to mollify U.S. Jewish groups uneasy about Mideast turmoil

[bemildred]

As Egypt's government hurtled toward collapse, a senior White House official got on the phone with American Jewish leaders who were worried what it might mean for the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty.

The official, Daniel Shapiro of the National Security Council, promised them that the treaty, long seen as a cornerstone of the Jewish state's security, would endure.

But when asked about the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist organization that may wind up with a share of power in Egypt, Shapiro was more noncommittal, according to participants in the call. He said the U.S. did not have a relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood and that, in the end, Egypt would pick its own leaders.

That troubled some of the Jewish leaders, and their reaction confronts the Obama administration with a new dilemma: In adapting to rapid developments in the Middle East, the president could alienate part of his domestic political base.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama-jews-20110309,0,1495909.story

[madrchsod]

1. maybe the boys are getting uneasy because they are afraid

the citizens may wake up and look at their society.

[bemildred]

2. The trouble with contrived political stability is that it's contrived, held in place by force.

So when it falls apart, everything gets put in play, there is not the inherent stability that comes from an equilibrium of forces. That is the message of Egypt (2011), and Roumania(1989), and Iran (1979), and so on, it's a very old story. Regimes that survive and endure know how to bend, are not one-trick ponies or three generation family enterprises. We live in times or rapid, even exponential change, things fall apart much quicker than they used to.

[azurnoir]

3. well I guess the UN veto wasn't enough

however what seems to missed here is that the current changes have very little to do with Israel, true Israel could be 'affected' by these changes in the future as it stands there is very little that can or should be done to influence the outcomes with Israel in mind, that type of influence will IMO only further extend the probability of what could be called a negative outcome or yet more instability for all concerned, as we are seeing in Egypt at the moment

[pelsar]

4. and what is the lesson?

that regimes that are not democratic are not stable, prone to eventual revolution/turmoil etc and....are not to be trusted in the long term....until they get themselves a viable democratic govt that actually is democratic.

hmmmm...will such a lesson be applied to various views/opinion on the I/P conflict? NAH!....we're talking ideology based views, nothing to do with actual events.

[bemildred]

5. Now that the status quo has been upset, people are starting to think about what comes next.

Trying to patch up the old status quo, or construct some new situation.