US: Egypt Is All About Israel

Mubarak may be eating his people alive, but for the United States, all that matters is that he's good for Israel:

"Mubarak has been an ally of ours in a number of things. And he's been very responsible on, relative to geopolitical interest in the region, the Middle East peace efforts; the actions Egypt has taken relative to normalizing relationship with - with Israel... I would not refer to him as a dictator." US Vice President Joe Biden (Quoted in Joe Biden says Egypt's Mubarak no dictator, he shouldn't step down..., Dan Murphy, csmonitor.com, 27/1/11)

Shihab Rattansi, Al-Jazeera: But you have more leverage than that. Surely... the President or the Secretary of State can speak to Mr Mubarak and say: 'Call off your repressive security forces, now begin a transition to true democracy and stop torturing people while you're at it'.

PJ Crowley, US press secretary: But again, you're casting this in zero sum terms and I reject that. We respect what Egypt contributes to the region. It is a stabilizing force. It has made its own peace with Israel and is pursuing normal relations with Israel. We think that's important. We think that's a model that the region should adopt broadly speaking. (PJ Crowley confronted on US support for Egypt. Gives very poor answers, mideastreality.blogspot.com, 26/1/11)