President Obama is in a no-win situation. Notice that when Iran's Green revolution happened last year, Obama took heavy flak for not coming out forcefully enough for regime change. The opposite has happened in Egypt. Now Republicans are lighting Obama up for "destabilizing a secular ally and handing it over to Islamist terrorists."
The concern is that both Israel and Saudi Arabia want to see Mubarak stay right where he is, and both countries have made it clear to the United States that neither one will allow Islamists to gain power in Cairo. Better the dictator you know than the Muslim Brotherhood fanatics you don't. They are worried about their own countries, Israel because of yet another front on its seemingly endless war with everyone in the neighborhood and its Sinai Peninsula border with Egypt, and Saudi Arabia doesn't want anyone to start calling for King Abdullah's removal either.
So, on the one hand, Obama has been going all out this weekend urging Mubarak to listen to protesters and heed their calls for his removal, and warning him not to use the military to crack down. (The Egyptian military seems to be spending the weekend going "meh" anyway and hasn't seemed to have picked a side yet.) On the other hand, Israel and Saudi Arabia and the oil emirates want this Mubarak noise over and the country back under some sort of stability yesterday, and they clearly expect Obama to make this happen or else.
Thing is, it's not up to Obama. It's not up to Israel or Saudi Arabia, either. We'll see. Egypt has shut down Al Jazeera in the country, so getting information out may become more and more of a problem.
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