Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will recount it to thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee. (Deuteronomy 32:7)
This organization shall be known as HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF JEWS FROM EGYPT, and not of Egypt or of Egyptian Jews, but FROM EGYPT
The Egypt Game
Memo From: President Clinton To: President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt
This article appeared in the New York Times August 1, 2000
Dear Hosni: I'm writing you this letter by hand on White House stationery because it is a personal note from a friend. Hosni, I have to tell you how disappointed I and all my foreign policy aides were with your behavior during the Camp David summit. I am going to be frank with you, you're skating on thin ice here. The number of people on my foreign policy team, or in Congress, who have a good word to say about you or Egypt today could be counted on one hand -- maybe on no hands. More and more people are asking me: What exactly are we getting out of our relationship with Egypt -- not to mention $30 billion in aid to Egypt since 1978?
Let's review what's happened here. Before the summit I called you and asked for your support and you said you would try to be helpful. Then, in the middle of Camp David, while I was at the G-8 summit in Okinawa, I called you, King Abdullah of Jordan, Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and President Ben Ali of Tunisia, and I asked for your help. I said the summit was totally stuck and the big problem was Jerusalem. I told you that I didn't expect you to force Arafat to compromise on Jerusalem. I know how important that is for the Muslim world. I needed your help to persuade Arafat to defer the Jerusalem issue -- which we obviously weren't going to solve -- and to try instead to reach agreement on all the other issues, which was possible.
King Abdullah of Jordan tried to help. You, by contrast, flew to Saudi Arabia and joined with the Saudis in urging the Palestinians not to make any compromises on Jerusalem. Well, thanks a lot. I wasn't asking you to twist Arafat's arm on Jerusalem; I was asking you to cover his back, while he deferred this issue. But instead of making that decision easier for Arafat, you made it harder.
But that's not the only reason we're losing patience with you. Where do I start? You just arrested Saad Eddin Ibrahim, an American University of Cairo democracy specialist who has a U.S. passport and whose crime seems to be that he was working for democratic elections in Egypt. I say "seems" since you've been holding him without charges while your press smears his name. (Your press seems to be free only to spew hate at Israel or spin conspiracy theories about the U.S.) In 19 years as president of Egypt you've never visited Israel, save for Yitzhak Rabin's funeral. And you were just re-elected in a one-man election by 94 percent of the vote. Not as good as Hafez al-Assad used to get, but close.
I have started to realize, Hosni, that Israel is to Egypt what oil is to Saudi Arabia -- a hugely distorting factor. Ever since Camp David, we in the U.S. have judged Egypt on only one yardstick -- how nice you were to Israel. And as long as you were not totally hostile, we made excuses for you and turned a blind eye to your regime's corruption and lack of democracy. In doing that, we've done you no favors.
Several times you've said to me that Ehud Barak may be afraid for his life, and that is why he hasn't been more forthcoming. The fact is, he showed remarkable courage at Camp David, and it may cost him his job. You should only be so courageous. You're always telling us that the Egyptian street won't let you do this or that, or that if anything happens to you we will have to deal with the Islamic fundamentalists. Well, have you ever tried to lead your street? And if you are so intimidated by the fundamentalists that they shape all your actions, what good are you? Tell me something Hosni, when was the last time you did something really hard for us or for the peace process? When was the last time you risked anything?
Hosni, Egypt is a great country, with a great people. You led the way with peace with Israel. You were a big help in the gulf war. It's because we respect the role you and Egypt could play that we are so disappointed when you don't. Too often, you act as though we owe you something because you made peace with Israel. Well, guess what? As they say in Arkansas, we don't owe you diddly. The cold war is over. We don't need to buy you away from the Soviets anymore.
The fact is you owe us, and your own people, some real leadership on regional peace and domestic democracy. You've been sitting around too long living off your past and Sadat's legacy. It's time to get moving again, Hosni. One sphinx in Egypt is enough.
Best regards, Bill