Malcolm Hoenlein Says History of Middle East Uprisings Is Not Encouraging; Also, He Thinks John Batcehlor is Weird

As the executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, Malcolm Hoenlein’s job description is decidedly vague, a fact he acknowledged during his first ever interview with Imus today.
 
“Most of the time I try to coordinate the 52 member organizations, the national Jewish organizations in the Conference of Presidents, in dealing with international affairs,” he said. “When I’m not doing that, I do the John Batchelor show, and try to keep busy.”
 
Hoelein showed his good sense when he agreed with Imus’s observation that Batchelor, whose nationally syndicated radio program airs on WABC in New York, is creepy, and possibly insane. “I accept the warning not to go into his basement,” Hoenlein said.
 
In all likelihood, Batchelor’s basement is a hell of a lot safer these days than Egypt, where violence has begun to infuse the protests that started early last week to throw President Hosni Mubarak out of office after 30 years. A longtime American ally, President Obama’s suggestion that Mubarak leave office has been disquieting to others in the region, namely Israel, whose peace with Egypt has been tenuous at best.
 
“The U.S. was and is in a difficult position in this regard,” Hoelein said. “Having to show that they support a movement toward democratization, and at the same time not appear to be turning on an ally.”
 
The want for revolution in the Middle East began earlier this year in Tunisia, where longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was driven from office by angry demonstrators. Similar sentiments have since spread to Egypt, Jordan, Algeria, and Yemen. Such activity, Hoenlein said, “increases the instability in the region, and the unpredictability.”
 
Historically, such uprisings tend not to result in the creation of democracies. And while Mubarak was certainly an authoritarian leader, Hoenlein noted, “He was our dictator, and that’s the difference.”
 
Israel’s main concern is that Egypt will fall to Islamist influences, as Iran and Turkey and others have, even though there is no indication that radical Muslims were behind the call for Mubarak’s ousting.
 
“It’s really generated by a lot of frustration over economic depravation, political depravation,” Hoelein said, pointing out that limitations placed on immigration to Europe have made it difficult for a disenfranchised, largely unemployed, youth to find jobs. Now, he said, “they’ve turned inward, and the frustration kept growing inside the countries.”
 
The extent of the Muslim Brotherhood’s influence in Egypt is, in Hoenlein’s view, underestimated. “They’re probably the best organized of the opposition groups,” he said, noting that they’re also the most durable, having been founded in the late 1920s. “They don’t need a majority to take over—we saw that in Iran, where the government today is not supported by the vast majority of the Iranian people, but they are in solid control of the country, moving more and more into this extremist realm.” Hoelein called the Muslim Brotherhood “the mother of all these other groups,” like Hamas and Al-Qaeda, both of which have been involved in plots to cause terror in Egypt.
 
As for how the United States should proceed, Hoelein’s advice to the President was, “Go on vacation.” In reality, he suggested Obama focus on central Asian countries like Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, which are oil-rich, largely Muslim, and susceptible to the kind of situation now raging in Egypt. He’d also work with governments in Morocco and Saudi Arabia, to keep them stable as unrest proliferates just beyond their borders.
 
When all is said and done, Hoenlein, like everybody else, can only guess what will happen in Egypt—whether Iran or others will exploit the situation, or whether those Egyptians who truly want to democratize their country will have the final say.
 
“When you ask Palestinians, for instance, what kind of government they want, with all the animosity, they say, ‘Like Israel,’” Hoenlein said, curiously. “Many Egyptians say they want democracy, they want freedom. We have to try and help bring it about.”
 
-Julie Kanfer