No Jews? What difference does it make?
I received the following via email, unsourced. It's spot-on.
"Israel TV have been showing the massive destruction of hundreds of
homes by the Egyptians as they create a 500 meter buffer zone with Gaza
on their side of the ...border.
1165 families have been removed as their homes are destroyed.
Isn't
it strange that this is a yawn for the Western media. Not worth a
mention. No angry street demonstrations. No condemnation by UN human
rights organizations. No criticism by the Obama Administration. Nothing.
There's no Jewish state to blame and accuse of terrible crimes.
It
has to be said that the Egyptians were uncovering Hamas tunnels as they
cleared the area, which was part of the reason for the operation.
Egypt and Israel have a common cause in eliminating this joint Islamic threat, albeit Palestinian."
Here's a comment from Jeff Jacoby on Twitter.
What a double standard the 'international community' has adopted. What difference does it make?
Labels: double standards, Egyptian army, Gaza, Rafah, Sinai, terror tunnels
American peacekeeper shot in Sinai; Egypt kills three more terrorists
An American peacekeeper with the Sinai multinational observer force was
shot and wounded on Monday by 'gunmen' (terrorists) (Hat Tip:
David R).
A US soldier with the Multinational Force and Observers
mission (MFO) in Egypt's Sinai was wounded when gunmen shot at his camp
late Monday, a security official said.
The restive Sinai Peninsula has witnessed a surge in militant attacks
since the army ousted Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.
The security official said that the soldier was wounded in the arm
and treated by medics inside the MFO camp, near the northern Sinai
village of El-Joura.
Also on Monday night,
three terrorists were killed by Egyptian forces and six more were taken captive.
Military spokesperson Mohamed Samir said three terrorists were killed
in an exchange of fire and six fugitives were arrested on Monday
evening.
He also said that an SUV and 16 motorcycles without license plates allegedly used by terrorist elements were destroyed.
Meanwhile, another military source
said army operations continue in Sinai to combat terrorist elements and
planes hover over different areas to scan their hiding places.
The source added that the armed forces would complete the destruction of all tunnels soon to prevent infiltration and smuggling.
But the Obama administration would rather have the Muslim Brotherhood in charge....
Labels: Egypt, Egyptian army, Hamas, Palestinian terrorism, Sinai
Egypt seeking weapons that would undermine Camp David treaty
Egypt is seeking a weapons package from Russia, which would include the S-300 anti-missile defense system, and which would
undermine the Camp David treaty that Egypt signed with Israel 35 years ago.
Cairo is seeking air-defense systems such as the advanced S-300
that Syria and Iran have sought, MiG fighter jets, and Kornet antitank
weapons, which could cause Israel worry, according to a Washington
Institute for Near East Policy report.
Despite the fact that
Egypt has maintained the peace deal with Israel since 1979, a transfer
of such advanced weapons “would degrade Israel’s qualitative military
edge,” said the report, titled “Egypt’s arms deal with Russia:
Potential Strategic Costs,” by David Schenker and Eric Trager.
“To be sure, the strategic cooperation and level of trust between
Israel and Egypt, particularly on Sinai, has never been better. But
changing the status quo could undermine that trust and perhaps even the
Camp David peace treaty,” it said.
...
“Egypt’s priorities right now should be all about counterterrorism
operations, both in the Sinai and the Nile Valley,” Schenker added.
“Russian helicopters fit the bill, though S-300s and sea-to-land
missiles obviously do not.”
And guess how much influence the United States has in Egypt right now? Yes, zero....
Egyptians see the US as an unreliable ally, stated the report, which
led Egyptian army chief Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi “to seek
Moscow’s help in diversifying the country’s sources of military
procurement.”
What could go wrong?
Labels: Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Barack Hussein Obama, Egypt, Egyptian army, Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, Russia, Russian weapons
Video: Jihadis from Ansar Beit al-Maqdis down Egyptian helicopter
In the wee hours of Sunday morning, I reported that Sinai jihadis had
obtained surface-to-air missiles. The basis for that report was a report on a downed Egyptian army helicopter in which five Egyptian troops were killed. The Egyptian army claimed it was a result of a technical malfunction, while the jihadi group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis claimed that their men had downed the helicopter by firing a missile. Now, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis has released video proving their claim.
Let's go to the videotape.
JPost adds:
The clip features an audio track of a Koranic verse titled "The hand of
God is what struck." A voiceover belonging to "Abu Osama al-Masri" is
then heard warning the Cairo regime of a similar fate that befell Syria,
Libya, and deposed president Hosni Mubarak.
"Did the United States help [Mubarak]?" the speaker asks sarcastically.
"If you do not cease collaborating with the fighters of Muslims, we will
stand against you and all of your planes won't help because we are the
soldiers of God," the speaker says in the video.
That sure doesn't look like a simulation, nor does it look like a technical malfunction. Hmmm.
Labels: Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, Egyptian army, jihad, Sinai
Egypt's al-Sisi slams Hagel over aid suspension
Who's afraid of the Obama administration? Certainly not Egyptian army chief
Abdel Fatteh al-Sisi.
Egypt does not appreciate the way in which the US hints at suspending
aid from time to time, army chief Gen. Abdel Fatah al-Sisi communicated
in a strongly worded message to US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel
during a conversation last Thursday.
This is especially true when dealing with a country the size of Egypt, the military leader added.
Egypt rejects any external pressure that seeks to affect its domestic
affairs, Sisi said, according to a military source quoted on Friday in
the London- based daily Al-Hayat.
Among those standing in line to replace US aid are the Gulf countries.
After Morsi was deposed, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab
Emirates promised Egypt a total of $12b. in loans, grants and fuel
shipments. The aid has kept the economy afloat and may give Egypt some
policy flexibility.
“Compared to Gulf aid, American aid is
peanuts. It won’t financially affect Egypt and could easily be filled by
Gulf countries,” said Abdullah al-Askar, chairman of the foreign
affairs committee in Saudi Arabia’s Shoura Council, an appointed
parliament that has only advisory powers. “People in the Gulf do not see
[cutting the aid] as a democratic message. Otherwise why is America
allowing the Syrian regime to continue killing people every day?” Both
Saudi Arabia and Egypt – America’s most important allies in the Arab
world – are frustrated with US policy and see Washington as an
indecisive superpower.
“The US position is not clear and not
understood and comes at a time when Egypt needs help,” a government
official said. “For sure the US will lose the support of the Egyptian
people and it is natural that the void it leaves by its loss of the
Egyptian people will benefit another power in the world.”
And you thought that Obama would improve American relations with the Arab Muslim world....
Labels: Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Barack Hussein Obama, Chuck Hagel, Egyptian army, Egyptian Revolution
Egypt to Obama: Take your aid money and stick it where the sun don't shine
The United States announced this week that it is withholding some aid money from Egypt. But what if Egypt just tells them to stick the aid money where the sun don't shine? That's what's happening, and it's another
epic failure for the Obama administration.
Most worrying for the United States is the possibility that the
Egyptian army -- the largest in the Arab world -- will turn to a rival
country for aid after decades of close ties to Washington.
The United States has long provided Egypt with about $1.55 billion in annual aid, including $1.3 billion for the military.
Military
officials told Reuters that the country's generals have grown
mistrustful of the United States throughout the political crisis that
erupted after Morsi's overthrow.
They were infuriated from early
on when the United States began hinting that action could be taken to
demonstrate Washington's displeasure at Morsi's removal. Military
officials said they were not surprised by the reduction in aid.
"There is a saying among us that 'whoever is covered by the Americans is in fact naked'," one military source said.
"Americans
shift their positions based on their interests and don't have
principles. But we also know that whatever they say or hint they would
do, in the end they will not want to lose Egypt."
Egypt's army is
exploring its options. "The military definitely has plans to diversify
its source of weapons which include going to Russia," said the military
source, who did not elaborate.
El Watan
newspaper, which is close to the army, quoted a military source as
saying that Egypt will soon announce deals for arms from "new markets
other than America" which are of the same standard as ones from the
United States.
American efforts to sell democracy in Egypt and
return the Brotherhood to politics have deepened long-standing mistrust
of the United States.
Read the whole thing.
Obama's backing of the Muslim Brotherhood could destroy American interests in the Arab world for generations. What could go wrong?
Labels: Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Barack Hussein Obama, Egyptian army, Muslim Brotherhood, Russia, Saudi Arabia, US foreign aid
Sharp decline in turnout for Muslim Brotherhood protests in Egypt
Asharq al-Awsat reports a
sharp decline in turnout for Muslim Brotherhood protests in Egypt (Hat Tip:
IMRA).
The Muslim Brotherhood’s attempts to organize protests to demand the
reinstatement of ousted president Mohamed Mursi on Friday ended quietly
as the total number of protesters declined markedly from previous weeks.
The small turnout prompted speculations over a drop in the group’s popularity among Egyptians.
Pro-Mursi protests were met with public condemnation across Egypt,
and anti-Brotherhood protesters reportedly attacked Islamists and tore
down their placards.
Those overseeing the situation in Egypt attributed the small turnout
to the absence of communication among Brotherhood members and protest
organizers, as well as the heightened security measures.
...
Marches did go through the streets of Cairo, with protesters
denouncing defense minister Abdel-Fatteh El-Sisi as a ”traitor.” They
also chanted: “It is not about the Brotherhood. . . . It’s a war against
Islam.”
But despite fewer protesters taking to the streets, Egypt witnessed
several acts of violence on Friday. At least one Mursi supporter was
reported killed and 25 injured in scuffles between pro- and anti-Mursi
demonstrators.
In Al-Sharqia Governorate, violence broke out as Mursi supporters
were pelted with stones and empty glass bottles for shouting slogans
against Sisi.
In the Suez Governorate, explosives experts detonated a hand grenade, a security source told Asharq Al-Awsat.
Law and order can be restored when the authorities want badly enough that it be restored. It's kind of like 'yes, there is a military solution' in a different context.
Labels: Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Egyptian army, Egyptian Revolution, Mohammed Morsy, Muslim Brotherhood
Last Jews in Egypt happy with army takeover
My grandmother a"h (peace be upon her) was in Israel in 1980 while I was studying in yeshiva. In the post-Camp David euphoria, she suggested that we visit Egypt together during my Pesach vacation. And so, we did. We flew Tel Aviv to Cairo on El Al, spent three days staying in the Sheharezade Hotel along the banks of the Nile (right near the 6th of October bridge you've all seen in the news and probably not far from Tahrir Square), spent a day in Cairo, flew to Luxor one day to see the tombs of the kings (50 degrees Celsius in March - my grandmother dehydrated in the heat), and then were taken by a driver to Alexandria on the third day. Everywhere we went (and we had private tour guides for the entire trip), my grandmother begged them to take us to a synagogue. So we saw the outside of Cairo's main synagogue and the outside of the Rambam (Maimonides) synagogue, and we drove past a Jewish square in Alexandria. The only Jew we met was the caretaker at the Maimonides synagogue.
I mention all this because I was surprised to discover that there are still 14 Jews - all women - left who live in Cairo. Not surprisingly, they are all
happier to have the army in charge than the Muslim Brotherhood.
Haroun, the president of the Egyptian Jewish community, doesn’t enjoy
hearing anti-Semitic slurs on the street. She gets nervous when she
hears Egyptians are burning the churches of Coptic Christians, a much
larger religious minority than the country’s tiny Jewish community.
She
assumes that most of her compatriots have forgotten there are any Jews
left in Egypt.
But when protesters filled Cairo’s Tahrir Square at
the end of June calling on President Mohamed Morsi to step down, she
was right there with them.
“The amount of people in Tahrir was
breathtaking,” Haroun told JTA. “The unity between people was
breathtaking. Some of the people recognized me because I was on TV. They
were shaking my hand and telling me, ‘God bless you. You are a real
Egyptian.’ ”
Haroun, 61, is the youngest of the 14 women who make
up Cairo’s dwindling Jewish community. Most are now in their 80s, living
off charity and rental income from properties the community has owned
for generations.
But though small in number, Haroun says the
community is proud of its country and, like many Egyptians, supportive
of the army’s campaign to quell Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood.
...
Jews have lived in Egypt for millennia. Around the time of Israel’s
founding in 1948, the community was estimated to number 75,000, but in
the decades that followed the vast majority fled.
Those that
remain are happy to call Egypt home, Haroun says. Although she has
relatives in several European countries, she vows to “never, never,
never” leave.
“I’m very proud to be here,” she said. “I want to do
whatever I can to help. We are a strong people. I am very happy now
that people [are] in the street. Instead of talking about football, they
are talking politics. There is more awareness about the importance of
our country.”
On Tuesday, CNN reported that the White House was
withholding some military aid to Egypt in protest of the military’s
violent crackdown on Morsi supporters. But for Haroun, the army’s
assertion of control is a welcome development she sees as “fighting
terrorism.”
Haroun says the Jewish community thus far has not
experienced any anti-Semitism as a result of the fighting — probably,
she says, because it’s so small.
Under Morsi’s rule, however, it was a different story.
Read the whole thing.
Labels: Cairo, Egypt, Egyptian army, Egyptian regime change, Islamic anti-Semitism, Jews, Mohammed Morsy, Muslim Brotherhood
What's realistic and desirable in Egypt?
In the Wall Street Journal, Bret Stephens
has it right.
Releasing deposed President Mohammed Morsi and other detained
Brotherhood leaders may be realistic, but it is not desirable—unless you
think Aleksandr Kerensky was smart to release the imprisoned Bolsheviks
after their abortive July 1917 uprising.
Restoring the dictatorship-in-the-making that was Mr. Morsi's elected
government is neither desirable nor realistic—at least if the millions
of Egyptians who took to the streets in June and July to demand his
ouster have anything to do with it.
Bringing the Brotherhood into some kind of inclusive coalition
government in which it accepts a reduced political role in exchange for
calling off its sit-ins and demonstrations may be desirable, but it is
about as realistic as getting a mongoose and a cobra to work together
for the good of the mice.
What's realistic and desirable is for the military to succeed in its
confrontation with the Brotherhood as quickly and convincingly as
possible. Victory permits magnanimity. It gives ordinary Egyptians the
opportunity to return to normal life. It deters potential political and
military challenges. It allows the appointed civilian government to
assume a prominent political role. It settles the diplomatic landscape.
It lets the neighbors know what's what.
And it beats the alternatives. Alternative No. 1: A continued slide
into outright civil war resembling Algeria's in the 1990s. Alternative
No. 2: Victory by a vengeful Muslim Brotherhood, which will repay its
political enemies richly for the injuries that were done to it. That
goes not just for military supremo Abdel Fattah Al Sisi and his
lieutenants, but for every editor, parliamentarian, religious leader,
businessman or policeman who made himself known as an opponent of the
Brotherhood.
Question for Messrs. Graham, Leahy and Paul: Just how would American,
Egyptian, regional or humanitarian interests be advanced in either of
those scenarios? The other day Sen. Paul stopped by the Journal's
offices in New York and stressed his opposition to any U.S. policy in
Syria that runs contrary to the interests of that country's Christians.
What does he suppose would happen to Egypt's Copts, who have been in
open sympathy with Gen. Sisi, if the Brotherhood wins?
...
It would be nice to live in a world in which we could conduct a foreign
policy that aims at the realization of our dreams—peace in the Holy
Land, a world without nuclear weapons, liberal democracy in the Arab
world. A better foreign policy would be conducted to keep our nightmares
at bay: stopping Iran's nuclear bid, preventing Syria's chemical
weapons from falling into terrorist hands, and keeping the Brotherhood
out of power in Egypt. But that would require an administration that
knew the difference between an attitude and a policy.
Read the whole thing.
Labels: Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Barack Hussein Obama, Egypt, Egyptian army, Lindsey Graham, Mohammed Morsy, Muslim Brotherhood, Rand Paul
Israel pushing United States to back Egyptian army?
In an earlier post, I reported that 'out friends the Saudis' were pushing the United States to continue to support the Egyptian army and that Israel was trying to
stay out of the picture. Now, the New York Times reports that Israel is getting into the picture, and may begin
openly pressing the United States to support the Egyptian army.
With the European Union planning an urgent review of its relations with
Egypt in a meeting Monday, the message, in part, is that concerns about
democracy and human rights should take a back seat to stability and
security because of Egypt’s size and strategic importance.
“We’re trying to talk to key actors, key countries, and share our view
that you may not like what you see, but what’s the alternative?” the
official explained. “If you insist on big principles, then you will miss
the essential — the essential being putting Egypt back on track at
whatever cost. First, save what you can, and then deal with democracy
and freedom and so on.
“At this point,” the official added, “it’s army or anarchy.”
Israeli leaders have made no public statements and have refused
interviews since Wednesday’s brutal clearing of two Muslim Brotherhood
protest encampments. But even as the death toll climbed in ensuing
gunfights in mosques and on streets, officials spoke frequently to
members of Congress, officials at the Pentagon and State Department, and
European diplomats.
While Israel's concerns are obvious, not everyone in Israel agrees with the idea of openly supporting the Egyptian army.
“This is a very big mistake to interfere in what happens in Egypt,” said
Mordechai Kedar, a lecturer at Bar-Ilan University and director of its
new Center for the Study of the Middle East and Islam.
Dr. Kedar invoked an old joke about a lifeguard kicking a boy out of a
pool for urinating — from the diving board. “You can do things, but do
them under the water,” he said. “Israel, by supporting explicitly the
army, exposes itself to retaliation. Israel should have done things
behind the scenes, under the surface, without being associated with any
side of the Egyptian problem.”
But Eli Shaked, a former Israeli ambassador to Egypt, praised Mr.
Netanyahu’s government for “acting very discreetly,” and Yitzhak
Levanon, Israel’s ambassador to Egypt until 2011, said the lobbying had
not been aggressive.
“We are talking to a lot of friends,” said Mr. Levanon, who teaches a
course on Egypt at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya. “Pushing? I
don’t think that this is the word. We are expressing what we believe is
best for the region.”
Mr. Shaked said that unlike the Obama administration and the European
Union, Israel did “not have any illusions about the possibility of a
democracy in Egypt.”
“I understand Washington and Europe with their criticism, but there is
no alternative to letting the army in Egypt try by force,” he said. “We
have to choose here not between the good guys and the bad guys — we
don’t have good guys. It is a situation where you have to choose who is
less harmful.”
Read the whole thing.
That Israel would support the Egyptian army in this case seems obvious. I'm not sure it needed to be said.
Haaretz's Barak Ravid tweets that the source for both Rudoren's story and for another one by
Herb Keinon in Monday's JPost
is Prime Minister Netanyahu's close adviser and future ambassador to the United States,
Ron Dermer. Maybe Ravid is jealous that Dermer didn't call him, but I disagree with Ravid's assertion. Given past Obama administration efforts to expose things Israel does quietly (see Syria), I suspect the source is someone in Washington.
Labels: Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Binyamin Netanyahu, Egypt, Egyptian army, Egyptian democracy, Jodi Rudoren, Mohammed Morsy, Muslim Brotherhood, our friends the Saudis, Ron Dermer
Where is Israel's Tamarod?
Interesting comment from Dan Friedman in New York City.
There is something to be said for the anger and courage of the Egyptian
people. Even though their motivations, and their goals, may not be our own,
still, they are willing to give it their all. So where is Israel's Tamarod ("Rebel") movement? Where is Israel’s
appreciation that it has everything to lose if they stay on the current
path? Where are the masses of Israelis who are organizing to oppose Obama's
obvious meddling in Israel’s political affairs? Where are those who are willing
to rise up against Netanyahu’s scheme to betray his own people living in our
biblical heartland, Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria? The quick answer: nowhere to
be found.
Hmmm.
Labels: Egypt, Egyptian army, Egyptian Revolution, Judea and Samaria, Muslim Brotherhood, revenants
Al-Jazeera Commentator, Former MB Official, Gamal Nassar: Al-Sisi Is Jewish, Implementing Protocols of Elders of Zion in Egypt
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, de facto head of state of Egypt is... Jewish?
Let's go to the videotape.
Labels: Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Egyptian army
Europe tries to outdo Obama, 'urgently reviewing' relationship with Egypt
The Europeans are determined to outdo US President Hussein Obama. Europe, which sent foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to
visit Mohammed Morsy in his jail cell, announced on Sunday that they will be '
urgently reviewing' their relationship with Egypt over the coming days.
In a statement, the President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy
and the President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso called
on all sides in Egypt to show restraint and prevent further escalation
of the violence.
To this effect, together with its member states, the EU will urgently
review in the coming days its relations with Egypt and adopt measures
aimed at pursuing these goals," the statement said.
The crackdown
has, however, drawn messages of support from wealthy Arab allies such
as Saudi Arabia, which have long feared the spread of Brotherhood
ideology to the Gulf monarchies.
Israel Hayom has more of the
European Union's statement.
"Together with its member
states, the EU will urgently review in the coming days its relations
with Egypt and adopt measures aimed at pursuing" the goals of promoting
an "end to violence, resumption of political dialogue and return to a
democratic process," they said.
They added that calls for democracy and
fundamental rights "cannot be disregarded, much less washed away in
blood," saying further that "the violence and the killings of these last
days cannot be justified nor condoned."
I wonder whether they've seen the videos with the Muslim Brotherhood gunmen standing among the 'protesters.'
Labels: Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Catherine Ashton, Egyptian army, Egyptian democracy, Egyptian Revolution, European Union, Mohammed Morsy, Muslim Brotherhood
Report: Morsy didn't really win the elections
How reliable is Yossi Beilin as a source? Beilin, a far-Left Israeli former politician claims that deposed Egyptian President Mohammed Morsy and his Muslim Brotherhood party
didn't really win the June 2012 elections, but that the army feared the consequences of announcing what truly happened.
According
to my source, who asked to remain anonymous, Ahmed Shafik, the former
air force commander and former president Hosni Mubarak's last prime
minister, actually won the race by a narrow margin. But the army
generals -- wanting to ensure that law and order would be upheld
following the elections -- feared that if Morsi was defeated, the Muslim
Brotherhood would refuse to recognize the results and would end up
conducting themselves just as they are now.
The official results,
51.73 percent for Morsi and 48.27% for Shafik, were almost the exact
reversal of what actually happened at the polls. After the results were
published, we barely heard any calls for protest or opposition among the
secular-liberals, while on the religious side -- loyal either to the
Muslim Brotherhood or the Salafi parties -- voters were happy with their
achievement.
Officials thought that
the inexperienced Morsi would accept help from the army and would avoid
crossing any red lines -- regarding Israel, for example. In reality,
what happened was a combination of a pathetic lack of management skills
and a string of efforts to rule by the same ideological orientation
espoused by a quarter of Egypt's population. Morsi tried running the
operation with the help of several associates who were completely
incapable of managing anything.
Many of Col. Gen.
Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi's fellow generals tried to convince him to spring
to action several months ago already, but Sissi wanted to give Morsi,
who favored Sissi over other generals as defense minister and commander
in chief of the armed forces, the opportunity to prove that what had
happened stemmed from the fact that the Muslim Brotherhood president was
an amateur.
Hmmm.
Read it all.
This actually sounds plausible. The problems are that it's too convenient a narrative in light of what has happened, and I don't consider Beilin a particularly reliable source.
Labels: Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Egyptian army, Egyptian democracy, Egyptian elections, Egyptian Revolution, Mohammed Morsy, Muslim Brotherhood, Yossi Beilin
Must read: Crush the Muslim Brotherhood
Daniel Greenfield writes that the Egyptian army should not be stopped from
destroying the Muslim Brotherhood.
In the streets of Egyptian cities, Muslim Brotherhood activists
achieved their highest hope. They died in their Jihad against the
liberal opposition and the military, fighting against human rights for
women and Christians, against multi-party rule, freedom of speech,
museums, libraries and the future in the way that the armies of Allah
have died for over a thousand years.
Some died trying to kill Egyptian soldiers and police officers.
Others were killed by their own people in order to maximize the death
toll and spread shock and horror through the international community.
Like their Hamas outlet in Gaza, like their Syrian brigades who have
wrecked entire cities and filled them with corpses, and like Al Qaeda,
whose leaders have always been Muslim Brotherhood members; the
Brotherhood does not care whose blood it spills.
When your highest hope is dying for Allah, then everything else is a
detail. The Muslim Brotherhood’s leaders, men like Morsi and Khairat
el-Shater, are far less eager to die for Allah. Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the
Brotherhood’s mad genocidal preacher, is still hiding out in Qatar and
spewing calls for violence from under the skirts of the equally cowardly
Qatari Emir, who finances the Brotherhood’s wave of death and terror in
the region while living it up in his palaces.
In his final speech, Morsi boasted of his willingness to sacrifice
his blood for power. The Brotherhood’s preacher of hate, Qaradawi, urged
Jihadists from around the world to come and be martyred in Egypt.
For the wealthy titans of the Brotherhood, their followers are pawns to
be disposed of, human shields for their political ambitions. The Muslim
Brotherhood spent their blood generously during the clashes with
Egyptian police the same way that Hamas and Hezbollah spill the blood of
their own people.
...
Responding to the carnage with new calls for an end to foreign aid is
an explicit form of collaboration in the Muslim Brotherhood’s
atrocities and the surest way to ensure that they will be repeated.
Egypt may deserve to lose its foreign aid, but issuing such calls now is
handing a victory to the world’s worst terrorist organization and
giving it every incentive to up the body count next time around.
The calls for Brotherhood participation in an Egyptian government are
senseless insanity. Is there room for a movement that seeks nothing but
death in the ranks of any government? Should murderous madness on such a
scale really be the currency that purchases power? Should the burners
of churches and the torturers of peaceful protesters be rewarded with
power a second time?
Western governments fear escalation in Egypt. And that fear is the
secret weapon of every terrorist group. The terrorist groups always
escalate, spending their currency of blood cheaply to break the will of
their enemies. The only way to break that cycle is to out-escalate them
by showing that their currency of blood is worthless because the people
and governments they are terrorizing will not be bent under its terrible
weight.
Wars aren’t won through de-escalation, but through escalation.
America lost in Afghanistan because it wasn’t willing to fight harder
and bloodier than the Taliban. The Egyptian government has shown that it
is willing to match the Muslim Brotherhood’s ruthlessness without
backing down.
To reward the courage of the Egyptian soldiers and police who fought
the Muslim Brotherhood in the streets by forcing their government to
stand down and surrender to the terrorists who nearly turned Egypt into a
second Iran is an unmitigated crime. It is a crime whose consequences
will not only be felt by the women and Christians of Egypt, but by all
of us.
Read it all.
Labels: Egypt, Egyptian army, Egyptian democracy, Egyptian Revolution, Mohammed Morsy, Muslim Brotherhood, Yusuf al-Qaradawi
With Egypt turning to Russia, Western diplomats accuse Israel of 'undercutting' Obama
Violence continued in Egypt on Saturday, as the Egyptian army
attempted to shut down the Muslim Brotherhood. The Egyptians are so frustrated with the Obama administration that they are sending a
diplomatic mission to Moscow, possibly signalling the undoing of a 35-year alliance (Hat Tip:
Weasel Zippers).
As the situation in Egypt escalates, a source with very close ties
to the Egyptian government tells Breitbart News that the country is
preparing to send a diplomatic mission to Russia. While the Obama
Administration sends conflicting messages about the conflict, Russia,
China and Saudi Arabia have issued strong statements in support of the
government's crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood. America's influence in
the region is waning.
"They're terrorists," the source told Breitbart News in reference to
people protesting in support of the Muslim Brotherhood. "They have
machine guns, they have weapons...Hamas and other outside groups are
pushing guns to them. Where is America?"
Breitbart News has also learned that Russia is offering the Egyptian
government fighter jets and other military equipment. This week,
President Obama announced that the US is suspending its planned joint
military exercise with the Egyptian army. It seems the Russians are
jumping in to fill the void left by the Americans.
"Sadat threw Russia out of Egypt," the source told Breitbart News.
"Peace came from that. If Russia reenters Egypt, they reenter the
world."
It's not just Russia, China and Saudi Arabia who are supporting the Egyptian army. The New York Times reports that Israel is quietly supporting the army as well, and that 'Western diplomats' are accusing the Jewish state of '
undercutting' Obama's efforts to rein in the army.
The Israelis, whose military had close ties to General Sisi from his
former post as head of military intelligence, were supporting the
takeover as well. Western diplomats say that General Sisi and his circle
appeared to be in heavy communication with Israeli colleagues, and the
diplomats believed the Israelis were also undercutting the Western
message by reassuring the Egyptians not to worry about American threats
to cut off aid.
When Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, proposed an amendment
halting military aid to Egypt, the influential American Israel Public
Affairs Committee sent a letter to senators on July 31 opposing it,
saying it “could increase instability in Egypt and undermine important
U.S. interests and negatively impact our Israeli ally.” Statements from
influential lawmakers echoed the letter, and the Senate defeated the
measure, 86 to 13, later that day.
Israel has been trying to stay out of the mess in Egypt - that may soon no longer be possible, at least verbally. Haaretz reports that Prime Minister Netanyahu's cabinet had a
two-hour session about Egypt on Friday afternoon.
A senior Israeli official said that Israel's policy is to keep as low
a media profile as possible regarding Egypt. Netanyahu reiterated that
ministers and governments spokesmen should not discuss events in Egypt with the media.
Nearly 800 people have died in four days of violence, 173 just on Friday, with over 1,200 injured across the country.
You have to wonder how another President, who was not sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood, would have handled this situation.... Oh wait, if there was another President in Washington, Hosni Mubarak might still have been in charge in Egypt. Looking for Obama to start blaming Israel for his utter failure in Egypt in 3...2...1....
Labels: Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Egypt, Egyptian army, Egyptian Revolution, Mohammed Morsy, Muslim Brotherhood, Russia
Egyptians support army crackdown
Shavua tov, a good week to everyone.
Even the New York Times admits that
most Egyptians support their army's crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood.
“It was necessary,” Akmal William, standing in his auto-detailing shop
on Talaat Harb Street, said of the raid by soldiers and police officers.
“They had to be strict.”
Witnesses described a disproportionate, ruthless attack. Condemnations
came from human rights advocates, a few Egyptian political figures, and
from abroad. But many Egyptians viewed things differently, focusing on
what they said were continuing threats from Mr. Morsi’s supporters, who
were frequently referred to as terrorists. In their view, the army was
the only force standing in the Islamists’ way.
Between the parallel realities, others were torn between the claims of
the security forces of violent demonstrators who threatened the country —
a view parroted by the state news media — and what they heard from
Islamist friends about how the battle on the streets had unfolded on
Wednesday morning.
In Imbaba, a neighborhood that seems to catch all the nation’s political
currents in its congested alleyways, many people regretted the
bloodshed. But they asserted that the alternative was worse. The Muslim Brotherhood,
Mr. Morsi’s political party, was holding back the country with endless
sit-ins and protests, many said. And the longer the army waited to act,
the weaker Egypt seemed to them.
That conviction only grew stronger amid reports about Islamist violence,
including the storming of a government building in Giza early Thursday.
Mr. William, a Coptic Christian, was preoccupied by a spate of attacks
on churches and Christian homes across the country, a spasm of
collective scapegoating by some of Mr. Morsi’s supporters.
“They won’t go easily,” he said, adding that churches “are still being burned.”
Egyptians were fooled by the Muslim Brotherhood. They may not get another chance, and for now at least, many of them don't seem to care.
Labels: Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Egyptian army, Egyptian democracy, Egyptian Revolution, Mohammed Morsy, Muslim Brotherhood
What America's interest in Egypt ought to be
Stanley Kurtz urges the United States to give up its pipe dreams of democracy and to
look out for its own interests in Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East.
No peace without including the Muslim Brotherhood, which represents
so much of Egypt? Quite right. No peace. What this argument fails to
recognize is that the image of a national reconciliation that
encompasses all parties in Egypt — the goal the Times and the Post
want us to work toward –- is a chimera. The minimum consensus on social
fundamentals necessary for democracy to function is simply not present
in Egypt, and there is no reasonable prospect that it will be any time
soon.
Play out scenarios of a “democratic transition” in Egypt in
any serious way and you will see that the solution America’s
right-thinking establishment is working toward in Egypt is no solution
at all. (I’ll have more to say about this in the forthcoming issue of The Claremont Review of Books.)
What we ought to be doing now is tending to America’s key interests and giving up ill-founded fantasies of liberal democracy in a still thoroughly illiberal region. In any case, Times and Post notwithstanding,
our capacity to influence events in Egypt is fast disappearing. With
their literal and political survival at stake, the actors on the ground
are no longer much subject to what we have to say. The Gulf states are
giving more money than we are, and they want the Brotherhood crushed. So
whether the military stabilizes Egypt or we get a civil war, it’s now
largely out of our hands. The best we can do is keep the treaty with
Israel intact and the Suez Canal open and secure.
Indeed.
Shabbat Shalom everyone.
Labels: Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Egypt, Egyptian army, Egyptian democracy, Egyptian Revolution, Mohammed Morsy, Muslim Brotherhood
Disturbing images from Egyptian riots
Once again, there are pitched battles between supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and Mohammed Morsy, on the one hand, and the Egyptian army, on the other hand. These images are from today (Friday).
Here's an image of a
Morsy supporter carrying a gun in the middle of a demonstration in downtown Cairo.
And here are
two images of Egyptians jumping off bridges in Cairo (and there's nothing underneath the but roadway) to escape gunfire.
Here's a video report from CBS News from before the riots started.
Let's go to the videotape.
Hot Air points out that the lines between the Egyptian Army and the Muslim Brotherhood are
not as clear-cut as was the case in
Tiananmen Square in China in 1989.
Bloomberg wonders whether this is Egypt’s Tiananmen Square moment:
...
You have to ask: How would the world be reacting if the victims in Cairo were secularists or anti-communists?
Well, they’re not, and as Bloomberg notes, the indications
from the first year of Muslim Brotherhood control wasn’t that the
country was headed for a pluralistic, tolerant self-government. In the
wake of the massacre, the Brotherhood and its Islamist allies are
torching Christian churches all over Egypt, part of a campaign against
the Copts that had been simmering ever since Mohamed Morsi took power.
That doesn’t mean that the Egyptian military should be slaughtering them
in the streets, or that they’re much better in practice than Morsi’s
coalition was. The lines are nowhere near as clear as they were in
Tiananmen Square.
Of course, we also didn’t fund the Chinese military back in 1989,
either. Like it or not, this week has American fingerprints on it, and
even with the murkier battle lines, that’s an embarrassment for the US.
Yes, it has been. Obama and Kerry have no clue what to do. The only thing they really care about in this region is the 'Palestinians.'
Labels: Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Cairo, Cairo demonstrations, Egypt, Egyptian army, Egyptian Revolution, Mohammed Morsy, Muslim Brotherhood
Obama golfs, Egypt burns
Hat Tip for the image to
Now the End Begins via
Jack W.
Jennifer Rubin sums up
Egypt's civil war President Obama's monthly vacation.
Obama was briefed, said nothing and went back to golf. Secretary of
State John Kerry took a break from his fruitless obsession with the
nonexistent “peace process” to condemn the violence, but took no
questions and had no policy announcement. This, in a nutshell, is the
White House’s approach to the Middle East — the absence of any policy
and a lot of empty words.
Sam Tadros, a Egyptian expert at the Hudson Institute who is also
affiliated with the Hoover Institution, is not optimistic. Late
Wednesday he remarked to me on the military’s assault on its opponents:
“In a sense this was inevitable. You don’t ask the people to give you a
mandate and then sit by idly. The timing was only delayed because of
Ramadan and the Eid celebrations.”
Unlike the administration, he is
looking ahead — and doesn’t like what he discerns. “The question no one
seems to be asking is where the MB [Muslim Brotherhood] is supposed to
go after they end the protests,” he said. “They certainly won’t be going
home. Instead of one protest you will have smaller ones throughout the
country.” The victims will include non-Muslims as is so often the case
in the Arab world. He told me, “Christians will of course take most of
the damage. Already there are reports of many churches attacked. This
will continue.”
Indeed, it is continuing. Fox News reported on Wednesday that Muslim Brotherhood thugs
burned down three churches.
The assailants threw firebombs at Mar Gergiss church in Sohag, a city
with a large community of Coptic Christians who comprise up to 10
percent of Egypt's 84 million people, causing it to burn down, the
official MENA news agency said.
Security officials told AFP that
another two churches were attacked in El-Menia province, leaving them
partially damaged by fire.
Coptic rights group the Maspero Youth
Union reported the same information, accusing Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood
movement of "waging a war of retaliation" against the country's
Christians.
Dozens of Morsi supporters were killed on Wednesday as
security forces moved in to disperse them from two major protest camps
in Cairo that they have occupied since around the time the army ousted
him six weeks ago.
The Coptic church backed Morsi's removal, with
Patriarch Tawadros II appearing alongside army chief General Abdel
Fattah al-Sisi as he announced the military coup on July 3.
The question now is what can be done and what role the United States
should play. Tadros is blunt: “As to outside powers, I am afraid it is
too late now. This is a zero-sum game and one side has to win.”
If the Egyptian military is, as most contend, far more effective than
Bashar al-Assad’s troops and makes quick work of former
government officials and their supporters, the Muslim Brotherhood
problem hardly goes away. Not without justification they will likely
conclude democracy is a dead end and will resort to other means to
assert their vision for Egypt. The military will have succeeded only in
driving MB members to return to violence and terrorism instead of
ballots and government ministries.
And so Jennifer Rubin concludes, Obama may as well play golf.
In a sense, then, Obama might as well play golf. He’s dropped the ball
on Egypt and the entire region, leaving the United States with few
options and the Egyptian people to a bloody future in the short run and a
repressive authoritarian junta in the longer run.
Yes, but they got the 'peace talks' going.... Maybe the Muslim Brotherhood can escape to Gaza.... What could go wrong?
Labels: Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Barack Hussein Obama, Egypt, Egyptian army, Egyptian democracy, Egyptian Revolution, Mohammed Morsy, Muslim Brotherhood
