Bucking nearly 30 years of dictatorial rule, the Egyptian people peacefully compelled President Hosni Mubarak to relinquish power in early February. While many nations heralded the success of Egypt’s pro-democracy movement, Israel’s right-wing government views “elections in Egypt [as] dangerous” and clung to the hope that its “close friend” and ally Mubarak would weather the democratic protests and remain in power. Despite the U.S.’s dismissal of this view, the Israeli government’s decision to side with a dictator over democracy found support among a wide array of right-wing figures.

For instance, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), GOP Conference Chair Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI), former Ambassador John Bolton, likely presidential candidate Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AK), and Fox News host Glenn Beck seemed comfortable championing the autocratic rule of a deposed dictator. However, the Bush Administration’s Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz had a different word for it: “crazy.”

On Fareed Zakaria GPS yesterday, Wolfowitz pointed out that “Israelis should welcome what’s happened in Egypt” instead of clinging to a “misplaced” nostalgia about an “irrelevant” regime. Wolfowitz also slammed the right-wing habit marginalizing Muslims as “dangerous,” adding “we shouldn’t say anyone who is of that faith is a problem, they are our best allies.”

ZAKARIA: You have people on the right effectively saying that the Obama Administration junked Mubarak too soon, that they should’ve supported him more, that they are allying for the rise of an Islamic caliphate. And of course the Israelis who really do seem to have deep Mubarak nostalgia.

WOLFOWITZ: It’s crazy. The Israelis should welcome what’s happened in Egypt. If only cynically, I mean, they — instead of associating themselves with a dead regime, they should try to find allies in Egypt. And I would assume there are millions of Egyptians who do not want to restart a war with Israel. And Mubarak wasn’t such a great bargain. He filled the Egyptian state-controlled media with anti-American junk, with anti-Israeli junk, even with violently anti-Semitic junk. So — but the nostalgia — I think the nostalgia is misplaced, but it’s completely irrelevant now. They and we should be thinking about the future.

ZAKARIA: What about the American right? Has it become so fearful of some kind of radical Islam that it is losing sight of the importance of democracy in your view?

WOLFOWITZ:…The view that I would like to associate with is the one I think of is Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan who believed that support for freedom, support for democracy is not only something that is morally important for the United States but equally, is strategically important that a freer, more democratic world is good for us….There is a dangerous argument I think that almost says if your a Muslim and you’re not an extremist, then you’re not a good Muslim. And that’s coming from people who aren’t Muslims at all….We shouldn’t say anyone who is of that faith is a problem, they are our best allies.

Watch it:

Unfortunately for Wolfowitz and other sober-minded national security experts, the GOP is committed to dragging Muslims through the mud. Dismissing Wolfowitz’s experience as “political correctness,” Rep. Peter King (R-NY) will begin his anti-American Muslim hearings on March 9 to prove that America’s “best allies” are somehow “the enemies within” — despite all evidence to the contrary.

Last year, when Mexico’s President Felipe Calderón condemned Arizona’s immigration law, he was called “arrogant and hypocritical.” According to his critics, Mexico has tougher immigration laws in place than Arizona does. The massacre of 72 Central and South American migrants who were brutally tortured and killed by drug cartel operatives in Mexico on their way to the U.S. this past summer increased pressure on Calderón to fix Mexico’s own broken immigration system.

Largely in response, the Mexican Senate approved a newly modified Immigration Law to protect and guarantee the human rights of migrants in the country this past Friday. The approved legislation allows migrants in Mexico to access health and legal services and grants them the opportunity to regularize their immigration status. It is specifically aimed at decriminalizing immigration and removing penalties to prevent the rampant kidnapping and murder of migrants travelling through Mexico. Currently, undocumented immigration in Mexico is considered a minor offense punishable with fines. The hope is that the new bill will decrease the vulnerability of migrants and prevent corrupt police and criminals from exploiting them. The legislation passed just a couple of days after Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission released a report which found that at least 11,333 migrants were kidnapped in Mexico during a six-month span of 2010.

The original version of the legislation was not as welcoming. Article 26 of the bill essentially charged Federal Police with the enforcement of immigration law. Article 151 imposed heavy fines and sanctions on undocumented immigrants and those who hire them. Yet, Mexican senators avoided the temptation to confront immigration with an iron fist. Both provisions were removed and the modified version passed the Mexican Senate with a unanimous vote. “We took out article 26 entirely because we want to send a clear signal that the Senate is aware of the contribution and the value that immigrants bring to our country,” explained Mexican Senator Humberto Andrade. “The new immigration law is a modern, advanced, integrated solution, which permits us to take our place as a country with a congruent human rights policy, and with the moral ability to demand of other countries respect for our nationals.”

According to Andrade, the new version of the bill not only excludes Article 26, it also indicates that law enforcement cannot verify immigration status beyond customs and border checkpoints. If that is true, then the legislature would essentially overturn Article 67 of Mexico’s immigration law which requires law enforcement to demand that foreigners prove their legal presence in the country.

Father Alejandro Solalinde, a Catholic priest who runs a migrant shelter in Mexico and has been a sharp critic of the country’s immigration policy, praised the reforms, stating that Mexico is on the verge of overcoming a “milestone.” In the meantime, the legislation is still pending in Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies — where it is expected to pass.