WASHINGTON, August 12 (RIA Novosti) – Israel’s former head of the National Security Council, Giora Eiland, told RIA Novosti that Washington’s obsession with creating what it perceives as democracies in the Middle East is a serious flaw of the US policy.
Eiland criticized US policy in the Middle East saying that US pressure for democracy-building and the campaign being renewed in Iraq expose the “weakness of the United States.”
“The United States behavior [to] attempt to get something just because it shows a little more democracy as the only important element is perceived as a terrible mistake...in the region,” he said.
In the past few years, the US has sponsored pro-democracy movements in North Africa, including supporting the ouster of Egyptian President Mubarak in 2011 which led to the accession of Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi. In late 2011, the US and its allies used a United Nations authorization to take out Muammar Qaddafi in Libya, despite international objections.
“I think the relationship between the United States and Israel continues to be stable, regardless of some debates and even from the public dispute created in the past few weeks,” Eiland said, responding to a question from RIA Novosti during a Wilson Center teleconference.
“I think Israel made some mistakes, especially in the wrong way we treated [US] Secretary [John] Kerry... It caused some temporary damage, but I do not think it has any importance to US-Israel [relations].”
Regarding US relations with Egypt, a key player in brokering peace negotiations between Hamas and Israel, Eiland noted that here, too, the United States had its usual blind spot.
“The United States believes that the right way is to move forward to build democracy, and the whole democracy of the election is the answer to everything.”
He continued that this was “not a very fair attitude to [Hosni] Mubarak, who was a very reliable, strong ally of the United States.”
Egypt has been the focal point to each ceasefire, concluded between Hamas and Israel. Many have argued that Egypt has been more central to the temporary cessations in fighting than the United States.
