Amid efforts by the Israeli government to consciously refrain from siding with embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak,the US administration has been flayed here for "turning its back" on one of its most trusted allies in the Middle East and "throwing him to the dogs". Israel's Deputy Minister for Galilee and Negev Development,Ayoub Kara,told visiting former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee,a likely Republican US presidential candidate,that US President Barack Obama needed to understand that "supporting the masses carrying out a revolution in Egypt is like support for the Muslim Brotherhood which is likely to take Mubarak's place," The Jerusalem Post reported. Kara,who is from from the ruling Likud party,said he was "disappointed by Obama turning his back" on Mubarak. "It needs to be understood that if the Egyptian government will fall,the Muslim Brotherhood will take its place,and that will cause even worse problems not only for the Middle East,but for the whole world," the deputy minister said. Kara said while it was clear Obama wanted to see democracy established in the Middle East,"anyone with eyes in his head sees there is no worthy alternative now to Mubarak,and those pushing the masses toward revolution are the Muslim Brotherhood." The Americans needed to learn from their experience in Iraq,which is now "saturated with terror",he stressed. A columnist for Israel's leading daily 'Yediot Ahronoth',Eitan Haber,who was a top aide to former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin,was more blunt in his criticism of the US administration writing that its stand sends a dreadful message to Israel. Obama threw Mubarak "to the dogs",Haber wrote in a column yesterday. "America,which waves the banner of 'citizens rights','democracy',and 'freedom of information',turned its back in a day on one of its most important allies in the Middle East," he said. "Obama sold Mubarak for the pot of lentils of popularity among the Egyptian masses," the columnist wrote asserting that the US President did this without a true understanding of the Middle East. "Our conclusion in Israel needs to be that the man sitting in the White House is liable to 'sell' us over night," he argued,adding,"The thought that the US might not stand by our side in the day of need causes chills. God help us." The same sentiments were echoed by former Mossad chief Danny Yatom who told Israel Radio in an interview that the US' treatment of Mubarak was a dangerous message to Washington's allies in the region,including Israel,that they could not rely on America. The former top spy argued that Washington's first error in judgment came when it desisted from aggressively supporting the opposition in Iran when it took to the streets against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the summer of 2009. By contrast,Yatom said,"there is an important relationship" between the US and Egypt,with Cairo an important layer in Washington's regional policy. "The way Obama and (US Secretary of State) Hillary Clinton abandoned Mubarak at once is very problematic,and I think hints to other allies,for instance Israel,that these things can happen under certain grave circumstances to us as well,and to others," he stressed. The former Mossad chief noted that the US erred in talking,as Clinton did on Sunday,of an orderly transition to lasting democracy,and should have instead sufficed with demanding reform. "They should have supported him (Mubarak),but demanded more reform," he said.
