F-16's IN THE COMPLICATED MIDDLE EAST

The news that the United States is sending F-16s to Egypt. The news was like kicking a hornet’s nest on both the right and left of the political spectrum. I as a peacenik do not like it. The arguments presented on Middle East information sources were mixed. Some commentators called the F16's junk, out dated, etc. Others are more technical and point out that they are only equipped with visual weapons control capabilities. The meaning in both cases was that they want more but better arms.

The Israeli comments voiced on the American side of the pond can from our congressmen, Apparently, Republican James Inhofe and Paul Ryan introduced legislation to prevent the shipment of the planes. Their basic reason is two fold. First, Egypt is a Muslim country and Israel is not. They want the balance to be in favor of Israel. The second is that Obama is the president and anything he does they will criticize.

For me, I object because they are weapons of war. As a result, we are putting our country in the middle of an arms escalation; one side has more weapons than the other does; therefore, we must try to create some kind of balance in the struggle toward death and destruction. This of course is cold war nonsense. Trying to understand all the ramifications of that balance and all the ethnic and political sensitivities is a challenge beyond me but I hope not beyond the understanding of our President and the State Department.

In a feeble attempt to understand, I asked my self why we as Nation would want to do this. My conclusion is that in the judgment of the Obama administration, it is more valuable to support a friend, especially a friend involved in the Arab Spring: the birth of Democracy in the Middle East. In addition, it does not completely level but helps to level the playing field in the area.  It is no longer all Israel, even though Israel is still stronger by far than all 20 Arab nations in the area. Couple this with the new relationship Egypt has with the Palestinians, especially Gaza, and it represents a significant change in our policy in the area. I trust Obama to do the right thing. My only hope is that he can do the right things fast enough and sure enough to prevent the Republicans at the behest of the Likud Party from over turning his accomplishments. Fulfilling the “Zionist dream”, a mythical imaging of them having everything they could ever dream of having, requires sweeping aside political boundaries and allowing them dominance over huge swaths of neighboring territories to which God gave them the rights. It can never happen and it should never happen.  All we can do is try to help them learn to live contentedly with the Palestinians and United States made the shipment of F-16 fighter jets with that in mind.

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