Jeb Bush says he can’t understand why the White House has told Sisi “you’re not on our team” as jihadism spreads like wildfire through the Middle East. Ted Cruz, another GOP 2016 pretender has also praised him, and key conservative media figures are lionizing Sisi.
The rush of affection for the former Army Chief contrasts with the strained relationship between Sisi and the White House, reflected in the Obama administration’s decision not to publicly back air strikes by Egypt on a common enemy — ISIS — in Libya this week.
It’s also the latest manifestation of the decades-long tussle between the U.S. and Egypt, which pits a push for human rights and democracy against the yearning for a stable pro-U.S. partner in a chaotic region, whatever the character of its regime.
The spur for the conservative infatuation for Sisi was a speech in January in which the Egyptian leader warned Islam was being “torn” and “destroyed” by extremism.
“It’s inconceivable that the thinking that we hold most sacred should cause the entire Islamic world to be a source of anxiety, danger, killing and destruction for the rest of the world,” said Sisi.
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ISIS’s swift spread in the Arab world has some realists in Washington considering whether it’s time to re-emphasise the stability dimension of the U.S. relationship with Cairo.
Bush suggested as much on Wednesday, in remarks that were especially noteworthy because the second term administration of his brother, George W. Bush, angered the government of then Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak by issuing a call for democracy in the Arab world as part of its Freedom Agenda.
Jeb Bush asked Wednesday: “Is (Sisi) a little “L” liberal democrat that believes in freedom like we do?”
“No, he isn’t. But I think we have to be practical,” Bush said in the first foreign policy speech of his putative presidential campaign which could augur another turn in the roller coaster US-Egypt relationship.
“We have to balance our belief in liberty with a belief that security and engagement will create the possibilities for the Egyptians to garner more freedom. “
