Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: Egypt

Showing posts with label Egypt. Show all posts

Monday, April 28, 2014

Muslim "human rights expert" slams Judaism as an extremist, violent religion

Here is the cover of a new book on human rights in Islam.

Really.

The author of the book is Amna Nasir, and on Sunday she gave a talk to promote the book at a library in Egypt. According to this article, however, she didn't speak about human rights in Islam, but about how evil Judaism is.

The Jewish religion is violent and extreme, and this is because of the nature of the Jews of Biblical times who were marred by violence and aggression, she said.

Nasir noted that Jews kept complaining to Moses in the desert about not enough food and water, and they worshiped the golden calf. There are many examples of "grumbliong Jews," she notes.

Nasir added that when Jesus came on the scene his message of peace was like a slap in the face to the extremist Jews, but they refused to come to terms with their inherent violent nature.

We've spoken before about Arab projection, but this is off the charts.

It is also interesting that in so many of my recent stories about Egyptian antisemitism, the haters are women.

Egypt paper lets readers decide if Holocaust was real

Egypt's Masrawy newspaper decided to perform a public service and tell its readers what the Holocaust was.

The beginning of the article isn't bad at all. It gives a fairly good overview of the highlights of the Nazi attempt to destroy Jews and others.

However, the article ends with "But there are many who deny the Holocaust and who provide evidence to prove their opinion, including that the extermination of 6 million Jews is grossly exaggerated, and the lack of a single document that talks about the details of what was done in the gas camps or concentration camps." It then lists the names of some Holocaust deniers and their qualifications ("famous historian," "philosopher," etc.)

So thanks to Masrawy, Egyptian readers can decide for themselves what the truth is.

Given the endemic antisemitism in Egyptian media, it isn't hard to figure out what most of them would decide.

Another day, another Egyptian blood libel

Egyptian newspaper Al Talyia News has an article by columnist Ghada Abd El Moneim (translated by Shawarma News):

We received news of a (classified) CIA report that was leaked by the Egyptian General Intelligence, the report points to the truth of the information circulating in the Arab region about the brutality and secret rituals practiced by the Jews in their festivals such as Passover and Chanukah, including the slaughter of non-Jews and offering human sacrifices to the God, and confirming that Jewish extremists of Palestinian origin did kill a number of children to mix their blood (for the baking) of matzos for Chanukah every now and then, as well as confirming their killing of foreign children from African countries, Palestinian, Egyptian, Moroccan children, Egyptian prisoners of war, Palestinian prisoners to use their blood for the baking of matzos for Chanukah.

The article links to a lengthy YouTube video that purports to prove how Jews ritually murder Christians.

Moneim also posted the article on her Facebook page.

As usual, it is impossible to find any articles in Egypt - or even comments to these articles - that say that the blood libel is a lie.

Oh, and a major Egyptian newspaper, Al Masry Al Youm, had an article on Sunday about how the Holocaust is just a means for Israel to blackmail the world and oppress Palestinians.

Today's Egyptian antisemitism/blood libels

Al Wafd is starting a series of articles by Ramsey Zikilma about, what else, Jews.

And the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

And the Talmud.

He starts off by recommending that people read the Protocols, and something called the "fifth edition of the Talmud."

He talks about the bogus "Benjamin Franklin prophecy" warning about how Jews are evil and would take over the US. Naturally, the Jews and their Freemasons are trying to destroy Egypt.

The second article introduces his idea of the Talmud, which we are told is a book that was taken by the Zionist gangs to control the world and and not only Arab peoples. And he goes on to say that Jews killed Christians in Egypt to use their blood for the cakes used in the "Feast of Yom Kippur."

Can't wait to see what he comes up with next.

The writer has written for other mainstream Arabic media like Asharq al-Awsat and El Shorouk.

Hating Israel is a good career move in Egypt

Here is a tweet from Wael Mansour a couple of days ago, who says that he was the voice of Donald Duck in Arabic-dubbed Disney films:

Here is the tweet that lead Disney to end my role as Donald Ducks official voice in Arabic dubbed cartoons in the ME pic.twitter.com/ZLdpN1NrMF
— Wael Mansour (@Wa2elMansour) February 6, 2014

In Arabic, he tweeted much the same thing, saying that Disney dropped him because of his anti-Zionist tweet, and he said both in English and Arabic that he is proud about this.

He received thousands of retweets for this.

Here's the funny part: His anti-Israel tweets were last August. The Washington Free Beacon got hold of Disney:

Mansour has previously done Donald Duck voiceover work but is no longer under contract with the company, a Disney spokesperson told the Washington Free Beacon.

“He was a third party contractor,” the spokesperson said. “He doesn’t represent the company in any way.”

Mansour was not under contract with Disney when he made his controversial remarks about Israel, the spokesperson said.

Asked if Mansour would be hired for future voice over work, the spokesperson said, “What do you think?”

In other words, he was not fired from Disney - he wasn't working for them at all. However, they won't hire him again, for obvious reasons.

Now, this all happened six months ago. Apparently, Mansour decided to turn himself into a martyr now, and he (correctly) assumed that thousands of Egyptians would rally to support his desire to see Israel destroyed.

In other words, to publicly say you hate Israel in Egypt is a great career move!

Not that we didn't know this already.

In 2001, an overweight, third rate Egyptian singer made a hit record called "I Hate Israel."

In 2012, another Egyptian singer made a sarcastically titled song called "I Love Israel" with lyrics like “May it [Israel] be destroyed. May it be colonized. May it be wiped off the map. May a wall fall on it. May it disappear from the universe. God, please have it banished....May it dangle from the noose. May I get to see it burning, Amen. I will pour gasoline on it. I am an Egyptian man. I am not a coward...May it be targeted. May it go up in flames that will never subside. From the bottom of my heart – may a wall fall on it.”

This is what "peace" looks like.

Egyptian media upset over Israeli 2nd graders singing about Passover

Egyptian media on Thursday got hold of a shocking video.

Popular Egyptian site Youm7, as well as other media outlets, say that this is a video of Jewish extremist children who are being taught that they were slaves in Egypt - and that they must return to Egypt.

Here's the offensive video, of the second grade class in the Binyan Olam school, singing songs about and play-acting the Passover story. (It's a pretty bad video. You can skip the first 1:10 of musical introduction to get to the other five minutes of watching kids repeat songs and verses they memorized.)

And here's how Youm7 describes this video:

Jewish extremist Rabbi Eliyahu Yisraeli published a video clip on YouTube of a group of Jewish children, students in one of the Jewish "yeshiva" schools. They do rituals to commemorate the holiday of Passover, where they are celebrating the anniversary of the Exodus from Egypt.

The video clip shows the young children on a trip to a village located on the Sea of Galilee, which was created to serve as a model of what was experienced by the children of Israel in Egypt, since Moses split the sea and took the children of Israel out from Egypt.

The video shows the children reading some passages from the distorted books of the Torah which tell the full stories of the children of Israel, and it used the word "slavery" in a reference to Egypt.

It presents to the children during their studies in the "yeshiva" the extent of the suffering experienced by both the children of Israel during the era of Pharaoh, and the miracles of God known in the Torah as the "ten plagues" in addition to the years of wandering in the Sinai.

Israeli extremist Jewish schools in this video indicate their incitement of hate for Egypt and Egyptians, saying that it was the land of bondage, and the Jews must return to Egypt again because it is a religious duty.

The last phrase, that Jewish children are being taught that they must return to Egypt, is the headline in every version of this article.

Almost certainly that ridiculous interpretation is a result of a couple of stories in Egyptian media last year. One was that a Muslim Brotherhood leader said that (after Israel is replaced with an Arab state) Jews should be allowed to return to Egypt. He was mercilessly attacked for months afterwards, and the idea still rankles Egyptians, worried that the Jews might sue them for the huge amount of land and capital that were stolen from them when they were expelled.

Another crazy but related rumor in late 2012 was that US ambassador Anne Patterson said that DNA evidence showed that Jews owned Egypt, King Tut was Jewish and by the end of 2013 Egypt would be under total control of the Jews.

One other fact that might be making the Egyptians so nervous about Jews taking over Egypt: It says so in the Quran! Chapter 44, verse 28, has been interpreted to say

Thus (it was)! And We made other people inherit them (i.e. We made the Children of Israel to inherit the kingdom of Egypt).

Given that Egyptians are so sensitive to the idea of Jews returning to and taking over Egypt, that fiction is apparently what is fueling so much interest in this video. Egyptians believe that Jews want to rule over their country - and they think that these second graders' songs about the Passover story prove it.

"Muslim Brotherhood women worse than Jews, Christians"

A female Egyptian expert named Suad Saleh advised a man during a TV show to break up with his Muslim Brotherhood fiancee.

The reason? Because Muslim Brotherhood women are even more vicious and harmful to the community than Jews and Copts. She said, "At the moment, under the difficult conditions seen in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood is more dangerous than Jews and Christians, because they are shedding blood, and consider themselves to be exclusively right."

Saleh, who is a professor of comparative jurisprudence at Al Azhar University and is apparently some type of advice guru, told the young man that if he breaks up with this undesirable girl, he will earn many good deeds from God, and will maintain the stability of the family.

It must be super comforting for Jews and Copts to know that they are no longer the most hated people in Egypt.

Egyptian jihadists blow up gas line to...Jordan

File photo

AFP reports:

Suspected militants blew up a pipeline in Egypt's Sinai that transports gas to Jordan late Monday in the third such attack in less than a month, security officials said.

The officials said there were no immediate reports of injuries, but witnesses said thick flames rose into the sky from the spot where the pipeline was struck. Witnesses also said that ambulances had rushed to the scene.

Egyptian security officials said the pipeline was blown up in an area called Muqtadiba, south of Al-Arish.

On 17 January and 31 December, militants had blown up a section of a pipeline supplying an industrial area in the restive Sinai peninsula.

As far as I can tell, this is the first attack in years that was purely against the Jordan pipeline.

In the past, it was assumed that the attacks on the pipeline to Israel and Jordan were meant purely for Israel and hurting the Arabs in Jordan was a necessary byproduct of their hate for the Jewish state. Now that the target is Jordan itself, it could mean a few things.

Maybe the jihadists hate Jordan for its anti-Islamist policies.

Maybe the jihadists were targeting an internal pipeline to hurt the Egyptian government and made a mistake.

Or maybe, just maybe, these jihadists are addicted to violence itself. When they can direct their anger at Jews they are happy to claim that they are doing it for righteous reasons, but when they can't target Israel they have to attack anything that does not meet their standards of Islam.

Maybe their anger and desire to destroy things has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with the type of Islam that they have been taught all their lives.

Which means that nothing can ever make the Islamists happy.

Which is something that Westerners simply cannot wrap their heads around.

Egyptian cook starts fight with TV hostess over prank (video)

Somewhat off topic, but it is funny:

Egyptian TV host Noha Abdeen was hit by her guest cook after a seemingly harmless prank got out of control.

Abdeen, who added vinegar to the dish to tease her guest, was hit on air by the chef after an argument in which the two ladies exchanged insults.

“Little girl, I swear to god I am going to pull off your hair,” the cook said.

“You are obnoxious,” she added.

Rockets to Eilat - but from where? (updated)

Times of Israel reports:

Eilat rocket from April 2013

Two Grad rockets were fired at the Red Sea resort town of Eilat Monday evening, striking an open area close to the city.

Initial reports had indicated the blasts were centered near the Le-Meridian hotel in the city’s crowded waterfront area.

The cause of the explosions was not immediately known, and Israel Defense Forces troops were dispatched to the area to search for the source of the blasts.

The explosions came just as Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was finishing a speech at Israel’s Knesset.

It is unclear how the newspaper knows they are Grad rockets if the remains weren't found.

AFP has an unnamed source:

At least one rocket struck the outskirts of Israel's southern Red Sea resort of Eilat on Monday, a security source told AFP.

"At least one rocket was fired at Eilat and they found the remains on the outskirts of the city," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity, adding the searches were continuing.

Neither the police nor the army could confirm rocket fire on the city, although residents had reported hearing several explosions earlier in the evening, a police statement said.

The Jewish Press guesses:

It was not clear if the missiles were launched from the Sinai or central Gaza, but in either case, Hamas, Islamic Jihad or their brethren probably were involved.

However, the idea that rockets reached from Gaza to Eilat is far-fetched. If it was true, then the range of Gaza rockets is much longer than previously shown and there is no way the terrorists would waste a "surprise" like that without a good reason. A rocket from Gaza that goes over 100 miles/160 km would invite an immediate and devastating IDF response, with or without damage.

Which means that the rockets likely came from Egypt and overshot, or from Jordan and fell short. Egypt is the far more obvious candidate.

I doubt Hamas would want to be involved in such an enterprise, but Islamic Jihad very possibly might. However, the Sinai Salafists don't need much of a reason to shoot at Israel and they know that Israel isn't likely to shoot back. So my guess is that, assuming that these were rockets, they were from one of the many Islamist groups in the Sinai.

UPDATE: I was right; the Salafist group "Ansar al-Bayt al-Maqdis" took credit for the rockets.

Their message was that this was to punish the Jews for desecrating holy places.

Former Egyptian minister on TV: Jews control the world, just read the "Protocols!"

From MEMRI:

In a January 10, 2014 interview on the Egyptian Sada Al-Balad TV, former Egyptian housing minister Hasaballah El Kafrawy said that he had read "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" and believed that the Jews "rule the world." In the past, El Kafrawi has expressed similar views (see MEMRI TV clip 3745 at www.memritv.org).

Following are excerpts the interview:

Interviewer: What made the Muslim Brotherhood turn into a hostile terrorist organization that throws Molotov cocktails? It has reached the point that even their women beat people up in the streets, and so on. Have they gone made, or what?

Hasaballah El Kafrawy: Let me tell you, I believe that there is a conspiracy. I have read The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. You follow me? According to The Protocols, one of the methods... By the way, there are 16 million Jews in the world.

Interviewer: That is the total number?

Hasaballah El Kafrawy: There are 16 million Jews in the world, out of a total of 6,000 million people.

Interviewer: Only 16 million of them are Jews...

Hasaballah El Kafrawy: Only 16 million out of 6,000 million. Those 16 control the 6,000.

Interviewer: The 16 million rule the 6,000 million?

Hasaballah El Kafrawy: That goes without saying. When you read The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, written in Basel, Switzerland, in 1895, you can see that it is all mentioned there.

Interviewer: Including what's happening to us?

Hasaballah El Kafrawy: Yes. Have you forgotten Morsi's letter to what's-his-name...?

Interviewer: Do you mean his "dear friend" Peres?

Hasaballah El Kafrawy: Right. He addressed him as "dear friend" and signed it with "your loyal friend."

Interviewer: He wrote that he wished progress and prosperity upon Israel.

Hasaballah El Kafrawy: Exactly.

Out of the 16 million Jews, six million live in Israel, four or five million live in the U.S., two or three million in Britain, two or three million in France, and approximately one million in what they call "the Diaspora" around the world.

They rule the world. There is no doubt about it. They monopolize... They excel in science, in technology, in the economy, and in the media.

They use the non-Jewish fools, and have them fight to prevent a holocaust of the 16 million Jews.

Report: Egypt will withdraw citizenship from Hamas leaders

Reuters reports:

After crushing the Muslim Brotherhood at home, Egypt's military rulers plan to undermine the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which runs the neighboring Gaza Strip, senior Egyptian security officials told Reuters.

The aim, which the officials say could take years to pull off, includes working with Hamas's political rivals Fatah and supporting popular anti-Hamas activities in Gaza, four security and diplomatic officials said.

Intelligence operatives, with help from Hamas's political rivals and activists, plan to undermine the credibility of Hamas, which seized control of Gaza in 2007 after a brief civil war against the Fatah movement led by Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

According to the Egyptian officials, Hamas will face growing resistance by activists who will launch protests similar to those in Egypt that have led to the downfall of two presidents since the Arab Spring in 2011. Cairo plans to support such protests in an effort to cripple Hamas.

"Gaza is next," said one senior security official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. "We cannot get liberated from the terrorism of the Brotherhood in Egypt without ending it in Gaza, which lies on our borders."

Really? Countries that border Gaza can say that Hamas is a terror group without derision?

It is worth reading the whole thing. This is a surprisingly good piece of reporting by Reuters.

Anyway, there have been a steady stream of anti-Hamas articles in the Egyptian media for months. The latest report says that Hamas leaders who received Egyptian citizenship recently - because of Egypt enforcing a law that children of Egyptian mothers can become citizens - will have their citizenship revoked.

These leaders include Mahmoud Zahar and Abu Marzouk.

In general, with the exception of Jordan in 1950, Palestinians in the Arab world were denied citizenship because of an Arab League directive #1547 from 1959 discouraging its member states from granting citizenship to Palestinians "in order to preserve the Palestinian entity and Palestinian identity." Egypt will reportedly review all the thousands of Gazans who flocked to become Egyptian citizens in the past two years and consider withdrawing citizenship from them as well.

For the good of "Palestine," of course.

At the moment no major human rights groups demand that Arab countries allow Palestinians to become citizens if they choose. On the contrary - they insist that the Palestinians remain stateless. Which shows you to what extent they will ignore human rights when they want to.

Will they protest Egypt's possible withdrawal of Gazans' citizenship? Or will they agree with the Arab League that "preserving Palestinian identity" is a more important concept than human rights are?

It will be interesting to see if they say anything.

Rafah closed yet again. NGOs still pretty quiet.

For the fourth day in a row, Egypt has closed the Rafah border to Gaza.

Here is a calendar showing how often the crossing was open in recent weeks:

Rafah, October-November-December

S	M	Tu	W	Th	F	S
27	28	29	30	31	1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30
1	2	3	4	5	6	7

Green- open

Red-closed

Even the days it was open the number of people who could cross were severely limited. While the average number of travelers allowed to cross in June averaged over 1800 people daily, during the days Rafah was open in November the number of people allowed across averaged closer to 100 a day.

Which means that, practically speaking, Rafah has been closed the entire time.

The handful of people who have been allowed to cross include medical patients.

By contrast, Israel has been allowing about a thousand people a week to cross through Erez.

Sometimes NGOs will mention Rafah. They might even betray puzzlement as to Egypt's arbitrary rules for opening and closing the crossing. But they never, ever condemn Egypt for its siege of Gaza.

Most popular Egyptian paper accuses Jews of using Freemasonry to take over world

Al Ahram is the most widely circulated newspaper in Egypt.

Here is the photo accompanying a story today about Jews, Freemasons, and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion:

Most of the article is the usual antisemitic stuff we're used to seeing, but it has some new twists.

Freemasonry started in Egypt in the late 18th century and, we are told, it is manipulated by Jews to create Israel and to ultimately build a new Temple. The Jews place Freemasons in major political roles to guide all nations towards their nefarious goals. The Jewish love of money also contributes to their decadence.

Freedom House, which promotes democracy worldwide, is really a Jewish Freemason organization that trains Egyptian youths in how to revolt. The Muslim Brotherhood is an arm of the Jewish Freemasons. Jewish billionaire George Soros is funding many of the activities to destroy the Arab world through revolutions.

The philosophy of the Freemasons comes, of course, from the Talmud.

One of the "experts" being interviewed is not certain that the Protocols are used by the Freemasons, and he says that some Freemasons might not be Zionist. But the professor of Hebrew literature at Ain Shams University says that the Jews are definitely the beneficiaries of the Masonic plots, though.

Egypt denies Israeli firm securing Suez Canal

The not-very-reliable Middle East Monitor reports:

A report by the Arab Organisation for Human Rights has revealed that an Israeli company, Seagull Maritime Security, provides maritime security services for cruises and cargo ships passing through the Suez Canal in Egypt. The Egyptian authorities have granted the company a license to work in the Suez Canal, the Red Sea and in Arab and African ports including Jordan, UAE and Oman.

According to the report the company is one of the few whose guards are allowed to disembark fully armed on the Egyptian Tiran Island.
The company's official site does not reveal its Israeli identity however several other sites connected to the company reveal the background of the company's directors and managers as IDF veterans from elite units. The company is a member of the Israeli Association of Private Security Companies. The company was founded by its CEO, Kfir Magen who served as an officer in the Israeli navy, in 2008.

According to related sites the company's directors were prominent leaders of the Israeli army, including Eliezer Marom who served as a navy commander between 2007 until 2011. Marom planned the attack against the Freedom Flotilla in 2010 and Operation Cast Lead in 2008.

Seagull Maritime Security is definitely an Israeli company. Although its webpage is currently down, while it didn't say Israel explicitly it didn't try to hide it much either:

Kfir Magen– CEO. Served as a commanding officer in the elite Naval Commando and has acquired years of maritime operational experience. Holds a BSc. degree from the Technion – Institute of Technology.

Jeremy Weiss– VP BD, Marketing & Sales Served for over 20 years as Senior Commander in the Special Forces. Following, he was an Executive Director at InSightec ,a Hi-Tech medical device company. Jeremy holds an Executive MBA from Northwestern Uni. Kellogg School of Management.

Yuval Brenner– COO, an officer in an elite scouts unit. Worked at Zim Integrated Shipping services as Senior Logistic and Equipment Manager. Joined Seagull in 2010. Holds a BSc. Degree from the Technion – Institute of Technology.

It specializes in securing commercial ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aqaba areas:

We hold a Weapon Storage at the port of Eilat. Together with our fast boats we can provide unique and flexible embarkation and disembarkation of our security teams throughout the Gulf of Aqaba and Red Sea (27°N Red Sea, port of Eilat and port of Aqaba).

So it is plausible that they work in the Suez Canal as well.

Of course, Egypt was quick to vehemently deny it:

Egypt’s Suez Canal Authority denied Wednesday allegations that Egyptian authorities gave permission to Israeli firm Maritime Seagull Security to secure ships in the Red Sea.

The Canal Authority insisted seven Egyptian security and military bodies only are in charge of securing the sea passage.

News that the Israeli company operates in the area based on an "official" permit using fully-armed personnel on the Egyptian island of Tiran in the Red Sea went viral on social media, Al-Jazeera reported.

Pro-Brotherhood riots at Al Azhar, other Egyptian universities

This is interesting:

Egyptian security forces stormed al-Azhar University campus on Wednesday to quell student protests against the military-backed government.

It was the first time police forces have moved onto a campus since a 2010 court ruling.

The interior ministry ordered the police intervention following a request by the administration of the prestigious university, Al Arabiya correspondent reported.

Students supporting ousted President Mohammad Mursi have been holding regular protests on campus, sometimes prompting the suspension of classes.

During Wednesday’s protests students smashed windows, hurled chairs and covered walls of an administrative building with graffiti insulting the military backed interim government and Minister of Defense Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sissi.

“Sissi is a dog. Down, down with the lord of the army,” one protester scribbled, according to Reuters. One police officer yelled: “Arrest anyone you see. Bring me those kids. If you see anyone just arrest them right away.”

Demonstrations at al-Azhar are a sensitive matter as the institution has historically taken the government side.

Islamists appear to have adopted a policy of choosing sensitive sites such as al-Azhar University to display their views instead of taking to the streets in big numbers, Reuters reported.

Video of the riots:

Al Azhar has been considered the center of "moderate Islam" for a while.

However, many Egyptians are claiming that most of those arrested were not in fact students, but outside Muslim Brotherhood agitators. In fact, one politician compared the Brotherhood infiltrating Al Azhar to Jews "storming the Al Aqsa Mosque." Nothing about Talmudic rituals, though.

Looks like the students disagree.

The rioting is spreading to other universities, like Cairo University, Alexandria U and Mansoura U.

Egypt arrests student for atheism

From Al Ahram:

An Ismailiya misdemeanour court has ordered the detention of a Suez Canal University student for 15 days, pending investigations on accusations that he insulted religion, the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE) said.

Sherif Gaber was arrested on Sunday after his university administration filed a report against him saying he formed a Facebook group for atheists.

Article 98 of Egypt's penal code says anyone convicted of offending religion in any form can face up to six years in prison.

That's funny. I never heard of that law being enforced against any insults to Judaism, Christianity or any religion besides Islam.

Egypt closes Rafah for fourth day, media still mostly silent

Egypt has now closed Rafah for four consecutive days, this time without even informing the Palestinian Authority as they used to do.

An Egyptian source told the German Press agency that the crossing would be closed "indefinitely."

France24, unusually, is calling Egypts actions in Rafah a "blockade." But for the most part the media has been muted in any criticism of Egypt for what would be considered a human rights violation when Israel does it.

Meanwhile, Israel allowed 250 trucks of materials into Gaza today - but the ban on construction materials remains in place.

I have yet to see any Western media outlet note that Egypt, under Morsi, allowed construction materials to be sent through the Rafah crossing less than a year ago. There is nothing physically stopping Egypt from fully supplying its fellow Arabs in Gaza with everything they need.

In related news, YNet reports that Hamas is building a huge arsenal of rockets that could reach Tel Aviv in anticipation of the next conflict.

Egypt's security concerns for closing off Hamas from its territory is essentially unquestioned by the West. Israel, which is Hamas' sworn enemy, gets no such understanding.

Egypt killing civilians, destroying houses. Media ignores it.

Did you hear any stories last month about a video showing the burnt bodies of four babies reportedly killed by Egyptian missiles and tank shells in their homes south of Sheikh Zuwaid, Sinai? (WARNING: Graphic)

It was reported by an obscure Egyptian news agency on September 15, and the story died there.

An Egyptian blogger visited the town and his report confirms that it certainly appeared that the reports of seven civilians killed , including the four children, was legitimate.

Ten days later, Al Monitor had a story about the fear of Sinai residents, taking care to make it look like any civilian deaths were either by Islamists or were innocent mistakes:

“We are not upset with the army, but it sometimes fires randomly killing a lot of people,” said a woman in her 50s, carrying a child. Indeed, one of the residents of Sheikh Zuwaid , who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that his 70-year-old father was shot by internal security forces snipers as he was heading to the pharmacy at 4:30 p.m. Given his old age, the man did not hear the warning of officers and received a bullet in the head.

Now, Al Masry al Youm does some real reporting from the areas that the Egyptian army established a news blackout:

Women cry and howl, and their children gaze with distant looks in their eyes as they clutch their mothers’ arms, telling journalist Mouna Elzamlout about the military strike in Mahdeya, a small village in North Sinai.

Elzamlout, managing editor of Wust el-Balad el-Ikhbary, a small news outlet working out of North Sinai, finds a sobbing woman at a loss for words. The woman reveals her elderly mother could not leave the house in time before the army obliterated the house. “They attacked with more than thirty tanks, armored vehicles and helicopters over them. They open fired and used missiles. They left nothing. Nothing is left at our place,” the woman cries.

In a 19 September press conference, the official army spokesman Col. Ahmed Mohamed Ali vowed the armed forces would continue its Sinai operation until all terrorists and outlaws were cleared. The military offensive on the village of Mahdeya is purportedly part of this campaign to root out terrorists taking refuge in the area.

When Elzamlout first heard of the military strike in Mahdeya, she grabbed her camera, jumped in her car and went to survey the damage. Elzamlout told Egypt Independent she found the villagers gathered in an open area, with all their houses destroyed and burned. “There was no other place for them to stand. Some cars were burned and animals as well,” she said.

Elzamlout then uploaded the videos to YouTube to show proof of the damage done. “I won’t be able to build another home for ten years,” sobbed another woman in one of Elzamlout’s videos as she shows Elzamlout her burned out garage. “We are poor people... I swear we are kind people!”

A man standing in front of his destroyed home, summed up the raid on the village to Elzamlout. “They put us all together over here, ” he said, pointing to an open field. “And they burned all the houses with helicopters and tanks. Then they drank their tea and left.”

The man tells Elzamlout that none of the villagers in the operation were arrested. “They just blew it up and left,” he said, exasperated.

As children play with what appear to be tank bullet casings below him, the man shows Elzamlout his brother’s house next door, which was burnt out, then counts up the houses destroyed as Elzamlout pans the camera to see. “Ten, including my mom’s house,” he concludes. “We are Egyptian citizens, we are not terrorists!”

Elzamlout also found villagers who claimed their houses were looted by soldiers and the gold was missing. One woman claimed 140 grams of gold was taken from her. The man also said gold jewelry was missing. “They didn’t even leave us clothes to wear,” he said.

Elzamlout points out this incident is just a small example of a wider problem with the armed forces campaign in Sinai. She also spoke to residents of el-Gouna and el-Moqata’ who told her the military has burned down many houses. “They said the security forces are burning every house that looks like a hut and they don't know it’s a house. They call them headquarters of terrorism,” she said.

Ibrahim Menai, head of the Sinai Tribes Union and one of the most powerful tribal figures in Sinai, told Egypt Independent that civilians die every day at the hands of the police and military. “I’m talking about the innocent, the unarmed,” he added.

Menai described an attack near his home a few weeks ago where he claims 50 people died, eight of them children. In Mahdeya village, he says about 60 houses burned down, and in El-Moqataa village, about 40 houses. In the villages of Toma and Helu combined, Menai says around 80 houses burned. “Two-hundred ten houses have been destroyed in an area of 10 by 10 kilometers squared,” he claims.

Unfortunately, due to the media blackout in Sinai, verifying Menai’s claims are particularly difficult. The Egyptian army has been restricting the entrance of journalists into Sinai as they continue their ongoing anti-terrorism campaign in the region. Giving an accurate account of events becomes especially difficult when both sides tell vastly different versions of the same story.

The military has refused to mention civilian deaths during their Sinai operations, only distinguishing between deaths in the armed forces and the deaths of militants or Palestinians. Col. Ali, the military spokesman, said in the 19 September press conference that military deaths had reached 125, while militant deaths 134, since January 2011.

Egypt Independent spoke to an informed source within the army, who denied any civilian deaths had occurred, and only those who had been killed at the hands of the army were those of the terrorists. “The troops are well trained and they know where they're going,” he said.

The Egyptian army also claimed that the video above was really from Syria. I have no way of confirming that:

A public outcry in Sinai was raised when a YouTube video, posted by Rasad news showed a group of four dead children, supposedly killed during a raid of Sheikh Zuwayid, a village in North Sinai, carried out on 13 September. In the video, a man holds up the body of a dead little girl, blaming General Abdel Fatah el-Sisi for her death.

A Sinai-based Islamist group called Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, who claimed credit for the assassination attempt of Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim and other recent attacks on the Egyptian military, posted a statement on jihadist forums, posted two days after the military raid, denouncing what they say was the killing of seven civilians, among them four children. It said the children, aged one to seven years-old, died from “tank bombardment.”

The statement, which listed the names of those allegedly killed, said a widowed mother and another woman also died in the military assault. The militant group added that a 23-year-old man was run over by an armored vehicle in front of his family in another incident that day, and warned retaliation for the “blood of innocent Muslims”.

The army official addressed the YouTube video, which had been widely circulated on Facebook, saying it was merely a propagandist response to Col. Ahmed Ali’s press conference. “There were some rumors of pictures circulating of children killed about four or five together,” he explained. “We found out that these pictures are from Syria. They’re not from here. They posted the video three days after the end of the operation. If there were an attack and children were killed, would you wait three days to show the video or would you post it the next day or the same day at night?”

Despite reservations about the military strategy, both Menai and Elzamlout said the people of Sinai in general support operations to arrest criminals and bring safety the Sinai region. Menai emphasized that after the killing of members of the army and police by militants, the armed forces should pursue the perpetrators. “The Bedouins naturally love justice and what’s right,” he declared. “We in Sinai condemn terrorism. If it comes from far away, or from groups, or from the government, we don’t like it. We are against terrorism everywhere.”

...“The Egyptian military follows a policy of scorched Earth,” Menai said, referring to the burning of houses and mass arrests. “It’s about disciplinary campaigns. Why do you punish the unarmed man in his house? This does not work. You create every day 100 terrorists. And if you kill people, you will create many terrorists. ”

The informed military source denied any issues with the operations regarding wrongful arrests of civilians or burning of homes, stressing that the military is merely clearing out terrorist nests. “There’s nothing hard about it. [The army] receives information about some terrorist groups in Sinai through military intelligence and state security. Then they reach their places and arrest them in their homes. They go to the terrorist hot beds and clear them,” he explained.

The situation has been further complicated by the arrest of one of more than one journalist in the Sinai, including Al-Masry Al-Youm reporter, Ahmed Abu Draa, who was known for his award-winning reporting in the Sinai, under the army’s charge of “spreading false news” and being within a prohibited military zone without a permit.

It is true that both sides in Egypt habitually lie to the media. Lurid rumors are all over the place from both sides.

But the media - and human rights organizations - certainly don't seem to be bothered enough to try to find the truth.

It isn't as though they reporters are that far away. They seem to find time to file multiple reports about a neighboring country that legally dismantles homes.

Gazans tell of life under siege. Egyptian siege.

From Ma'ariv, translated by Yoel:

The crisis between Hamas and the new regime in Egypt is worsening: in Egypt there is no intention in the mean time to scale down on the military operation in Sinai, which started after the toppling of the Muslim Brotherhood regime. The Egyptians accuse Hamas of collaborating with jihadi elements operating in the peninsula, and the foreign minister, Nabil Fahmy, declared that if the need arises the Egyptian army will use military force against the Gaza Strip. Military sources even said that a target list for Gaza was drawn up to allow an aerial attack.

After years of an Israeli siege, in the last weeks the residents of Gaza are dealing with an Egyptian siege due to the wide-scale military operation against terror infrastructures in Sinai and against the smuggling between Gaza to the peninsula.

"The reality we were used to has changed completely. Life was always hard, but now it is almost unbearable", one resident said.

The Egyptian activity is mostly focused on the smuggling between the strip and the Sinai peninsula, which is part of the struggle against the Hamas movement. According to reports, 95% of the tunnels are not functioning today. "The smuggling has almost completely stopped and the prices of the products that go through the tunnels have skyrocketed", says Hamdan Abdallah, a resident of the Gazan part of Rafah, in a conversation with NRG. He told me a liter of fuel costs more than seven shekels today, as apposed to three shekels before the military operation. [That's the price Israelis pay. - EoZ]

Abdallah even has some good words for Israel. "For years we were complaining about the Israeli siege of Gaza, but now it is the only one which lets in food and fuel through the Kerem Shalom crossing", he said. "Egypt has almost completely closed the Rafah crossing, which used to be the life line for the residents here. It's a one-way door. You can only enter Gaza. Exiting it is very difficult, it's almost an impossible mission".

A Rafah resident who preferred to stay anonymous said he couldn't understand why the residents of the strip of all people had to pay the price for the actions of radical groups. "The Egyptian security forces are dealing with armed groups in Sinai, and they also blame Hamas for collaborating with them. This may be true, but the question is why do we the residents have to pay the price. But that's the way it is, we've gotten used to it - when there are troubles in the world it's the Palestinians who are responsible for them, and it's they who are punished", he said sadly.

Too bad Ma'ariv didn't get a chance to ask the Gazans what they thought of their government building tunnels to kidnap Israelis instead of houses and apartments.