There’s a lot of unseemly Monday morning quarterbacking underway as events unfold in Egypt, over who was pressing Hosni Mubarak harder to reform his democracy.
Myself, I can count on the fingers of one hand the folks with influence who I remember making the case in real time for diverting U.S. money from military assistance to build democratic institutions.
What’s interesting is, from a pro-Israel community perspective, how unlikely a bunch they are: From GOP hawks on Israel (Ileana Ros Lehtinen) to hawks-on-Israel, period (the Zionist Organization of America’s Mort Klein) — to a preeminent Israel critic, former Rep. David Obey (D-Wis.).
As it happens, Obey, as chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, was in a position to do something about it. He did — in March of 2008, passing legislation that would have transferred $100 million to pro-democracy groups unless Egypt stopped its crackdown on such groups. It was also contingent on beefing up the border with Israel.
The Bush administration waived the provision.
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