US may cut financial aid to Egypt

[Scurrilous]

US Senate to vote on freezing $200m annual aid in attempt to pressure Egypt to crack down on weapons smuggling to Gaza

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3416020,00.html

<snip>

"The United States Senate asked US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Thursday to pressure Egypt into taking harsher actions against weapons smuggling into the Gaza Strip.

Thirty-two senators presented the secretary of state with a letter calling to push the Egyptians into taking harsher measures against those smuggling weapons to Hamas, and saying Egypt must insist Hamas stops firing Qassam rockets at Israel."

<snip>

"The letter includes data – supplied by Israel – suggesting that there are currently 20,000 guns, 38 long-rage rockets, 12 anti-aircraft missiles and 410 anti-tank rockets with 95 corresponding launchers in Gaza.

The Senate is to vote on a $1.3 billion US financial aid package to Egypt for 2008 and is considering freezing $200 million of those funds pending Rice's report on any progress made in the Egyptian legal system, especially in regards to weapons smuggling and human right issues."

[bemildred]

1. Oh, now that is brilliant!

:rofl::rofl:

[no_hypocrisy]

2. That should inflame the Arab world by cutting aid to Egypt and increasing aid

to Israel.

[emilyg]

3. How stupid can they get.

[Purveyor]

5. Oh tut-tut! Haven't you read the talking points? "They hate us because of our freedoms"....

:sarcasm:

[Scurrilous]

4. House okays Egypt aid cut over Gaza smuggling, human rights

<snip>

"The House of Representatives voted Friday to withhold $200 million in military funds for Egypt until Cairo shows it is stopping weapons-smuggling from Egypt to the Gaza Strip and improving human rights abuses.

The $34.2 billion foreign aid bill, for the fiscal year beginning on October 1, passed by a vote of 241-178. The Senate has not yet debated the bill.

The House bill also reiterates that no U.S. funds can be channeled to Hamas."

http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/874065.html

[Shaktimaan]

6. interesting responses.

Especially from some of the people who I believe have said that they'd rather America drastically cut aid to Israel. Egypt gets a ton of aid from the US, most of it is contingent on their continued peace with Israel. (Get that, we actually have to pay Egypt to refrain from engaging with Israel. How would people here feel if we were paying Israel for a similar reason? There's a big difference in giving aid to an ally who backs your interests and paying "protection money.")

By any standard Egypt's human rights record is far more deplorable than any western nation, Israel included. There is a human rights gap between how the third world and the first world operate. When Israel is criticized, it is generally because we find her actions deplorable by first world standards. When we don't criticize Egypt, it would be because their actions are merely moderately bad, using the thried world gauge, which is exponentially more lenient on all human rights matters.

If the US is beginning to demand some accountability from our aid recipients, how could that be considered bad? Egypts HR record is far worse than Israel's. Should we not judge them by the same standard because it might play poorly on the Arab street? It seems that some people might be opposing the threatened cut merely because they are viewing it through an I/P conflict lens, where everything seen as benefitting Israel is opposed and everything that's detrimental is defended. The ethics of the act itself seems less important than people's feelings on Israeli ethics.