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How to Send Egypt a Message

(New York Daily News) David Schenker and Eric Trager - The attack on the U.S. Embassy in Egypt went beyond the pale. For starters, it was preventable. A terrorist organization's calls for protests outside the embassy should have prompted the deployment of additional Egyptian security forces. Morsi's abdication of responsibility and the Muslim Brotherhood's defense of the assault should be the last straw. Washington should present President Morsi with a choice: Either abide by international norms or preside over an Egypt increasingly threatened by economic collapse. At present, Egypt's economy is tanking as instability and violence continue to scare away both tourists and investors. Washington can tolerate a lot, but it cannot invest in an Egypt that refuses at a minimum to secure American diplomats. So long as the Muslim Brotherhood and the Morsi administration insist on encouraging Salafists and soccer hooligans to target U.S. interests, the U.S. can and should impose costs for this choice. In addition, absent unequivocal expressions of public remorse in Arabic, U.S. officials should refuse to meet with Morsi when he visits New York in late September for the UN General Assembly. Morsi's visit to the U.S. is an opportunity for Washington to deliver an unvarnished message: Inciting potentially violent protests against the U.S. is the act of a rogue, not an ally. David Schenker is director of the Program on Arab Politics and Eric Trager is the Next Generation Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
2012-09-14 00:00:00
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