Mubarak's doing the US and Israel's dirty work. Look for a major uprising in Egypt. Exactly how many 9/11s are we willing to risk? -- if all we care about is our own safety, that is, and not a whit about 1.4m Gazans, who are now living in their own feces. I assume that's the only thing most people care about -- at least most readers of the New York Times.
I might note, parenthetically, that there is no Egypt Lobby forcing this action from the halls of Congress. Not that I know of. This is an example of a client regime of the US following orders. Egypt gets a shitload of aid from us ($50 billion from 1975 to the publication in 2004 of this article in the Christian Science Monitor; more here [PDF]). No other way that dictatorship could survive. Hence, it must perform and give service for payment rendered. Clearly, while the Israel Lobby is important, it is not the only factor, nor perhaps even the most important one. Simple common sense points to that conclusion: the entity with the most power usually calls the shots; nothing's changed on that score since Thucydides.
Meanwhile, on a related topic -- to be placed squarely in the no-shit category -- it turns out that the Israeli government's self-scrutiny (the Winograd Commission final report, summarized here; would love to see a translation of the full report) about the 2006 Lebanon War was not all it could have been, especially regarding pesky little details like war crimes. Exactly what one would expect from a nation-state, of course, Israel, the US, or any other one you can think of.
I might note, parenthetically, that there is no Egypt Lobby forcing this action from the halls of Congress. Not that I know of. This is an example of a client regime of the US following orders. Egypt gets a shitload of aid from us ($50 billion from 1975 to the publication in 2004 of this article in the Christian Science Monitor; more here [PDF]). No other way that dictatorship could survive. Hence, it must perform and give service for payment rendered. Clearly, while the Israel Lobby is important, it is not the only factor, nor perhaps even the most important one. Simple common sense points to that conclusion: the entity with the most power usually calls the shots; nothing's changed on that score since Thucydides.
Meanwhile, on a related topic -- to be placed squarely in the no-shit category -- it turns out that the Israeli government's self-scrutiny (the Winograd Commission final report, summarized here; would love to see a translation of the full report) about the 2006 Lebanon War was not all it could have been, especially regarding pesky little details like war crimes. Exactly what one would expect from a nation-state, of course, Israel, the US, or any other one you can think of.