“All the forces that we see building in Egypt are the forces that should be naturally aligned with the US, [and] should be aligned with Israel,” he told attendees of the Florida fundraising event.

“I’m actually confident that 10 years from now we’re going to be able to look back and say that this was the dawning of an entirely new and better era,” he added. The US president expressed his hope that the new era would be one in which “people are striving not to be against something but to be for something.”

I can probably go with “some,” but not “all”. Really? “All?” Mr. President? “All?“such as the forces that decided it would be fun to attack Lara Logan in Tahrir Square while shouting “Jew! Jew!”? Such as the forces that decided to invite Sheik Qaradawi to spew hatred of Jews to the throngs there while preventing the advocate for democracy Wael Ghonim from speaking? Such as the ones that murdered a woman’s father because he did not kill her in an honor killing for having a relationship with a Christian, then burned down the Coptic Church terrorizing the town’s Christians, and followed that by triumphantly holding prayer services on the site of the burned down church? How about the forces that are demanding an end to the peace treaty with Israel? Those forces?

If you see those forces as naturally allied with America and Israel, Mr. President, I don’t think you have an understanding of the values of America and Israel or those of the forces about whom you speak. Simply opposing one form of tyranny, nationalist dictatorship, while backing another that is potentially far worse, theocracy, hardly qualifies as being naturally allied with America and Israel, even if there is a democratic election that brings it about. Advocacy for free elections does not mean at all that there is a desire that those elections produce a government that would be allied with America and Israel.

Mr. President, some of those forces building in Egypt would burn down your own church if they had a chance. They would certainly torch my synagogue. And if a mosque were to publicly condemn their actions, it would probably get torched too. They murdered a man for not murdering his daughter. I don’t think they would have qualms about flicking a Bic.

Is there reason for hope in the region? Yes. Is everything a reason for hope? Are “all the forces building in Egypt” those that give us reason to hope? If the answer for you is “Yes?” I must ask what kind of shrooms were served at that dinner? We might need to call the Narc Squad in.

Mr. President, you ran on a platform of hope. I too hope. I wish to see the good out there. I too hope to see good triumph. But I am not blinded by hope. Nor am I responsible for the future of the world as to a extent you are as President of the United States and that is what scares me. Mr. President, I hope that you are right about Egypt. Unfortunately, I’m worried that your vision is but a hope and a false hope at that.

Why do I fear that you are wrong? Mr. President, you might as well have said that you have spoken with the enemy and they have promised “peace in our time.” Meanwhile, minorities go into hiding, women are attacked, churches burn and freedom remains at a distance, perhaps even having retreated.

Because it is abundantly clear that some of the forces building in Egypt are anything but ones naturally allied with America and Israel, I know that your understanding that “all” should be allied with us cannot be correct. I just hope that you are not so incorrect as to result in disaster.

The last time a leader talked about “peace in our time”, things did not work out very well.

There was no doubt that in order to end the protests in Tahrir Square, Mubarak had to officially step down and Suleiman, his Vice President, could not be immediately named his successor. There was no doubt that the military had to step in. But if anyone says that they lack doubt as to what the future holds, either days, weeks, months or years, they are either not telling the truth or are deluded into believing that they are.

The military will rule indefinitely. Might military rule end with an election in September? Will there even be an election in September? Who will be allowed to run if there is? Will the military follow the commands of the Muslim Brotherhood should they be allowed to run and to win?

What has happened today with Mubarak’s resignation is that uncertainty has come to rule the region. If Mubarak in Egypt, then certainly the King of  Jordan and no few other leaders are in jeopardy. In a region ruled by dictators long friendly with us, America has now taken a stand against them. To state that this has potentially profound consequences for American foreign policy would be a dramatic understatement.

Today is a day of joy and freedom. Pharaoh is gone. Today is also a day of fear and trepidation. We hope that the new leader will be one who forgets not Joseph or at least is one who doesn’t want to drive his people into the sea.

Egypt could be expected to aid flotillas into Gaza and to make it much easier for arms shipments and other deliveries to enter Gaza. Israel would then likely need to retake the Gaza border with Egypt and/or would need to place more troops on that border than ever before. Israel would additionally need to dramatically increase its military strength all along the Egyptian border because Egyptian troops would not be trusted to prevent incursion by militants, even if they could be trusted not to participate or directly aid in the incursions. Obviously, all previous agreements between Israel and Egypt would be in question either officially or unofficially.

The Palestinian Authority faces the possibility that its greatest supporter, Egypt, would suddenly become a supporter of its arch enemy, Hamas. The PA has been holding “We love Mubarak” rallies throughout the West Bank. Suddenly the PA’s best ally will be Israel. *I guess that I shouldn’t say this publicly because the PA would then be accused of being traitors to the Arab cause. Israel must be a hated enemy and the cause of all evil.

Jordan would have its best allies (Egypt and America) fomenting rebellion within its borders. It is almost a certainty that Jordan’s rhetoric regarding Israel in the months ahead will be much more hostile than it has previously been. This will be so as to avoid being accused of being a friend of Israel. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority’s leadership all have applied for and received Jordanian citizenship. This, just in case Jordan turns into a Palestinian state after all.

Saudi Arabia would face a highly hostile Egypt battling for hegemony in the region that will attempt to foment Islamist rebellion in the kingdom at every turn. Worse, for the King and his family, is the clear indication that the United States would abandon its close ally at the drop of a hat in favor of a hostile democratic rebellion within its borders.

So, looking at what is actually happening in Egypt, is it any wonder that the Saudis have told the Obama Administration where to place its proverbial oil rig? Is it any wonder that the Saudis have come to the aid of Mubarak, threatening to replace any aid that America would deny, and likely will or are coming to the aid of the leaders in Jordan and Yemen as well? Is it any wonder that America is no longer seen as a friend and supporter, but now as a potential threat for emboldening revolt? It is indeed a wonder that among Egypt’s best friends, among the Palestinian Authority’s best friends, among the Saudi’s best friends, is Israel!

We now look at a Middle East in which the peoples and nations that were/are at war with Israel find common cause with it against Iran, against Political Islam, and against America’s foment of insurrection.

It is indeed a strange new world.

We have gone into the war not because of the Lusitania nor yet because of the Sussex, nor in truth because of any single ferocity of under-sea warfare, but because these and similar things represent a type of national mind or rather of governmental theory which will either subdue and conquer the world or be overcome by it…

In a sense, it is true that we fare forth into the world of war on behalf of the American ideal. But we war not in order to impose the American ideal–for that were after the more Germanico–but to save the peoples of the earth from the abhorrent necessity of yielding to the attempt of a masterful sovereignty to impose its will and even its way upon their national existence….

May we not put the matter in the simplest terms? We fare forth to shield the souls of nations from destruction by a brutalizing sovereignty.

Stephen Wise went on to discuss the things that America needed to safeguard as it waged the war including freedom of speech and the protection of workers, especially keeping children safe from exploitation by industry. However, the beginning of the speech quoted above is one of the best explanations of American involvement in foreign conflicts that I have yet seen and applies to this day. We do not go to war because of single attacks, but in order to “save the peoples of the earth from the abhorrent necessity of yielding to the attempt of a masterful sovereignty to impose its will and even its way upon their national existence.” Could there be a better explanation of our role in the fight against Radical Islam and our presence in the Middle East? In the fight against Soviet Era Communism? In fighting against the Fascism of Nazi Germany?

Yet Wise himself neglected this concept before the second World War, refusing to support acting upon it until it was far too late. To “save the peoples of the earth from the abhorrent necessity of yielding to the attempt of a masterful sovereignty to impose its will and even its way upon their national existence” is exactly the necessary role of America in the modern world, has been for over 100 years, and acting upon that necessity is the only thing preventing another world war. Failure to realize that fact, one could argue, led directly to World War II. The failure to realize it at the end of the 20th Century led to the rise of a new “brutal sovereignty” seeking to “impose its will and even its way” and even resulted  in our suffering new “Lusitanias,” including the attacks of September 11, 2001.

The true alternatives to a two state solution are the following:

• THREE state solution with an independent Gaza opposed by an independent West Bank with Israel in the middle,
• THREE state solution with an independent  West Bank opposed by an Egyptian controlled Gaza with Israel in the middle,
• THREE state solution with an Egyptian controlled Gaza and a Jordanian controlled West Bank, or
• STATE-SEMI-STATE solution, basically maintaining the status quo indefinitely.

It is time that the Palestinian people realized, as Israelis for the most part have for more than a decade, that a two state solution is the only good solution for either side.