Egypt, the US and Israel - the US must do better

The immediate White House reaction to the fall of Egypts President Hosni Mubarak has been to send Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen to Jordan and Israel to reassure them; he has no plans to visit Egypt. The US must stop trying to re-assure Israel and adopt a coherent long term policy aimed at influencing the policy towards Israel of a democratically elected Egyptian Government. The recent record is not re-assuring. The Obama Administrations handling of the Egyptian crisis has continued to be supine and conflicted. According to the Sydney Morning Herald of 8 February Secretary of State Clinton said that Egyptian opposition leaders had told the US that the requirement of the Egyptian Constitution of an election within 60 days after the resignation of a President was not enough time. She said: Thats not us saying it. Its them saying it.