Egyptian Regime Used Ilan Grapel To Placate Their People

After all, they have no Republicans.

Who is to blame for the economic crisis that engulfs the world economies?

If you listen to Occupy Wall Street, the culprits are Wall Street, Capitalists, and those in league with them.
And, of course, the government.

In this regard, Hezi Sternlicht has an opinion piece on Israel Hayom On human nature and the world economy:

Well, it is true that U.S. President Barack Obama, and his predecessor George Bush, made a number of critical mistakes. But the people who took out loans, accrued debt and celebrated with unbridled consumption against their mortgages, were actually the American public.

But even before Wall Street, there were crazy people who took out mortgages without knowing whether they would actually be able to pay them off. Are drug dealers to blame for peoples' addiction to heroin? Are heroin addicts not in part to blame for their deteriorating lives?

What about Europe? Indeed, there was no "gluttonous capitalism," but rather "gluttonous socialism." Who lives on the state's tab, with a 13-month salary, but Greek workers? Who sinks into larger deficits as if there is no tomorrow but Italy, Spain, Portugal and some other countries as well? Some of these countries were saved, and not hurled into the debt crisis initially. But everyone is caught up in the crisis now.

The fact that the European public democratically voted over and over again for socialist infusions of addictive public loans obligates them to assume some responsibility for the crisis. It is easy to receive more benefits from the state, and convince yourself that debts can just keep rolling forward forever, at least until the time for payment actually arrives.

But both European and American demonstrators blame their governments, from the Right and the Left.

Neither European nor American leaders would dare to lash out against the public now. Politicians cannot publicly denounce their citizens because the latter votes for them. They will blame the wealthy or the devil knows what. But no one has the courage to come out and admit that the public is to blame. It turns out that blame is the hardest thing to admit.

But who do you blame when you are dealing with a country like Egypt?
How much blame can you place on them for the kinds of leaders they have?

But by the same token, you cannot underestimate the wrath of the Egyptian people.
Just ask Mubarak.

So what is an incompetent, corrupt government to do?

Lee Smith suggests Egypt captured Israeli-American Ilan Grapel to generate popular support among the volatile anti-Western middle class at home:

Grapel’s arrest is not a sign that the Supreme Council of Armed Forces is joining hands with Iranian-backed terror organizations. The purpose of the exchange, from Cairo’s perspective, is to placate the mobs that have already laid siege to the Israeli embassy, burned Coptic churches, and may in time cause even worse problems for the ruling military council. The way to calm the situation, they believe, is to show that Egypt’s problems are manufactured by the West, and that Cairo’s ever-competent rulers managed to unearth a plot before the foreigners could once again unleash their mayhem.

If all goes well, Ilan Grapel will be freed today.

But who will be Egypt's next scapegoat?

Technorati Tag: Ilan Grapel and Egypt.