Israel Matzav

As protesters fight Egyptian military outside Israeli embassy, Sandmonkey on his way to accept a degree from Terror U

The University of South Florida is giving an honorary degree to Mahmoud Salem, better known to most of you as the Sandmonkey or the Egyptian Sandmonkey (Hat Tip: Sunlight). I have to wonder what he hopes to accomplish by accepting it. In these parts, USF is known mainly for shielding Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror financier Sami al-Arian for several years.

The Sandmonkey is also wondering whether he should be going, but for different reasons.

The 'incident' at which his friends were arrested was a violent protest outside the Israeli embassy in Giza, a suburb of Cairo. The demonstration - as usual - was calling for Egypt to open the Rafah crossing with Gaza so that the weapons can flow freely, to cut diplomatic relations with Israel and expel its ambassador, to abrogate the Camp David treaty and to stop selling us gas. Of course.

The rally in Cairo followed calls on Facebook for Arabs to march on Israel on Sunday in support of the Palestinians, who were holding annual ceremonies marking the "nakba," or "catastrophe" — the term Palestinians use to describe their defeat and displacement in the war that followed Israel's 1948 founding.

Egypt's Health Ministry said at least 353 people were hurt outside the embassy, mostly from smoke inhalation. A security official said that some protesters sustained bullet wounds and that one protester was in critical condition. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to talk to the media.

The protesters set fire to an Israeli flag, chanted anti-Israeli slogans and called for the expulsion of Israel's ambassador and the closure of the embassy.

A youth organization, which played a key role in the uprising that toppled former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, said on its Facebook page that the protest in front of the embassy was "civilized," and questioned the riot police's use of force in dealing with the demonstrators.

A witness, who wouldn't give his name fearing reprisals, claimed the police used unjustified force.

Egypt's state-run news agency MENA said the protesters managed to push aside barricades placed around the embassy building and attempted to storm the embassy itself to tear down the Israeli flag, which prompted the police action.

I used to think that the Sandmonkey was a guy who would live in peace with us. He gave me hope that there were other Egyptians that might someday live in peace with us as well. Combined with what I discovered on his website on Sunday, I now have my doubts.

Well, sorry, but even in the West, if you get violent at a demonstration - and sometimes even if you don't - you will be arrested.

There's no such thing as an unfettered right to demonstrate.

UPDATE TUESDAY 12:31 AM

An Egyptian source says that USF in this case is the University of San Francisco (another notoriously anti-Semitic campus, but not as bad as the other USF) and not the University of South Florida (Hat Tip: Raquel R).

Labels: blogosphere, Egypt, Egyptian regime change, Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, Israeli embassy, Sami al-Arian, Sandmonkey, University of South Florida

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:50 PM