Hillary in the Holy Land

Hillary's trip to Jerusalem and Cairo smacks of desperation.

Thus far the only official comments out of Washington re the current Gaza "crisis" have been about Israel's right to defend itself.

While that line still has some resonance with the American audience, most of the world understands that this latest conflagration has absolutely nothing to do with Israel defending itself.

And as Washington sticks to the official AIPAC-approved script, more and more supposed US allies are making it plain that they hold Israel responsible for the events of the past week.

Senior diplomats from Tunisia and Turkey toured Gaza today in a show of solidarity. Tunisia is the cradle of Arab Spring, which the US has desperately been trying to co-opt ever since it unexpectedly sprung a year and a half ago.

Turkey is our go-to player in the Syrian revolution, and even more significantly, a NATO ally.

So while Washington spews bromides about Israel's right to defend itself, a senior minister of a NATO ally is in Gaza talking about "Israeli aggression."

It's a brave new world.

But the ultimate blow to American prestige in the region can still be averted. What if Hamas and the Israeli's came to a cease-fire agreement via the efforts of the Muslim Brotherhood intermediaries in Cairo, with no input from the biggest of big dogs, the USA?

What a catastrophe that would be for America!

That's why Hillary is in the Holy Land right now.

NYT calls out the hypocrisy of the Egyptian Government on Gaza

David Kirkpatrick takes a swing at Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood president today. Apparently it's not kosher to play peacemaker while openly favoring one side over the other, and Morsi has made it plain who he holds responsible for the current crisis.

There is no hint in David's article that he is aware that this is exactly how America and "the quartet" have been seen by most of the world, and especially the Muslim world, for the past fifty years. It does indeed undermine the credibility of the peacemakers when they clearly hold one side blameless.

In America's case and in the Nations of Virtue generally we finance and arm one side and continuously blame the other, yet we hold ourselves out to be credible "honest brokers".

The main difference between our hypocrisy and that of Morsi is that he's only been at it for five days.

We've been at it for fifty years.