8/09 Links Part 2: Egypt Blockades Gaza Where Are the Flotillas?, Bizarre Egyptian Conspiracies

From Ian:

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Khaled Abu Toameh: Egypt Blockades Gaza Where Are the Flotillas?

Since the beginning of the year, nearly 34,000 trucks carrying more than 950,000 tons of goods entered the Gaza Strip through Israel.
The Egyptians, like most Arabs, do not care about the Palestinians. They want the Palestinians to be Israel's problem and to continue relying on handouts from Western countries.
The Arabs do not care if the residents of the Gaza Strip starve to death as long as Israel will be blamed.

Egyptians close down Gaza crossing for holiday

Egyptian officials have closed Rafah several times over the last month as tensions between the Egyptian military and the Strip’s Hamas rulers, backed by the ousted Muslim Brotherhood, have come to a boil.
Cairo recently elected to sharply decrease the number of operating hours at the terminal, from nine to four, leading to a drop in the number of people crossing over from about 1,200 to 150 a day, according to MENA, citing Egyptian officials.

Sydney U. against BDS, but not taking any action against BDS professor

“The University of Sydney does not consider the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions policy appropriate and it is not University of Sydney policy,” Dean Duncan Ivison of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences said.
He was responding to inquiries on the recent lawsuit filed by the Shurat HaDin Legal Action Center against Prof. Jake Lynch.
At the same time, said Ivison, “we encourage academics to contribute to public debate and deliberations on issues spanning local, national and international boundaries within their area of expertise, in conformity with the law and the policies and obligations of the university. For this reason the university does not intend to take any specific further action on this matter.”

Activists to Disrupt Celebration at Israeli-Owned British Shop

Anti-Israel activists are threatening to disrupt the birthday celebration of an Israeli-owned shop in Britain, and local police are preparing themselves accordingly.
The Jewish Chronicle reported on Thursday that Sussex police are preparing for potential trouble as hundreds of anti-Israel activists and members of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) are expected to picket outside the Israeli-owned EcoStream store in Brighton.

Palestinian Leaders Use Photo Ops to Hide Their True Intentions

Furthermore, according to Palestinian Media Watch, during Barcelona’s visit, a sportscaster on Palestinian Authority television stated that “Today Barcelona comes to visit Palestine and nothing else. Only Palestine and its capital Jerusalem, Eilat, Rosh Hanikra, and all the Palestinian cities in the north, south, west, and east.”
Who are the dreamers and who are the realists?

Egyptian NGOs Condemn Anti-Christian Violence

The NGOs urged security officials for higher protection and intervention during future clashes between Islamist groups targeting Christian civilians.
In a recent case, in the village of Minya's Beni-Ahmed, sectarian violence broke out last Saturday as many Christian-owned properties were destroyed and homes were torched.

Former Muslim Brotherhood MP: The Holocaust – The Greatest Lie Of The Modern Age

In an interview with the Egyptian weekly Al-Musawwar, published March 6, 2013, former Egyptian Shura Council member and current Muslim Brotherhood (MB) member Fathi Shihab Al-Din called the Holocaust "the greatest lie of the modern age and the gravest incident of organized historical international blackmail." Stating that while the rumor of the Holocaust was started by the U.S. intelligence apparatuses in order to ruin the reputation of Germany and its allies in World War II, and also to serve as a pretext for dropping atomic bombs, the seeds of this lie, which he claims now prevents criticism of Israel, were sown by the Zionists many years previously. He added that they had spread this rumor using the global media.

Army, Brotherhood Conspiracy Theories Try to Win Egyptian Hearts

The army has not stood by and let the Brotherhood get all the headlines; they, too, have theories about the Islamists, and according to one curious theory, Morsi, in an attempt to alleviate Egypt's financial situation, tried to “sell” most of Sinai to President Barack H. Obama. Egypt was to receive $8 billion for the Sinai. The U.S. would have set up bases and helped itself to Sinai oil, while part of the area would have been set up as a state for PA Arabs. It was only the intervention of the army that prevented Morsi from going through with the plan.

Turkish president calls for Morsi's release, slams Egyptian 'coup'

Gul said Turkey had supported the 2011 uprising against strongman Hosni Mubarak and the election that brought Morsi to power.
"Unfortunately, the historic step towards democracy failed in less than two years. The coup that ousted Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected president, was a clear derailment of the country's progress," he wrote.
His description of Morsi's overthrow as a coup is likely to rile the Egyptian military, who say they were enforcing the will of the people as manifested in huge demonstrations against his rule, and do not seek to exercise power.

Turkish pilots kidnapped in Beirut

Security officials say the two men, both Turkish nationals, were seized as they were traveling in a van with other crew members from the Beirut International Airport to a hotel early Friday.
The officials say six gunmen ambushed the car on an old airport road, snatched the two men from the vehicle and let the rest continue on. The incident occurred at about 3 a.m. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Amid the ‘deceptive quiet’ of the Lebanon border

He described the current situation as “a deceptive quiet” and said he had drilled into his soldiers the need to “go from 0-100 in a second,” assuring this reporter that, as opposed to the period before the Second Lebanon War, his men all understood that a conflict in this region could turn into war in an instant. “Our company’s motto is War Tomorrow,” he said. “That’s how we train them, so they are ready to make the mental switch, if necessary.”
For now, it would seem, it is not — with Hezbollah still deeply engaged in Syria — but the border region, which has produced little in the way of news in recent months, is far from peaceful.

Minister: Iran Nuclear Program Could be Destroyed in 'Hours'

The international community must make it clear to Iran that it has only two options: end its nuclear program voluntarily, or “see it destroyed with brute force,” Minister of Strategic Affairs Yuval Steinitz has said, speaking to the Washington Post.
Demolishing Iran’s nuclear program by force is entirely possible, he said, estimating that it would take “a few hours of airstrikes, no more.”
He was not overly concerned with the possibility that Iran could fire missiles on Israel in response to an international attack on its facilities. Such an attack would cause “very limited damage,” he said, explaining that Israel would be able to intercept most of the missiles.

Malik Amir Mohammad Khan Afridi dices with death for a moustache in Pakistan

PAKISTANI businessman Malik Amir Mohammad Khan Afridi has been kidnapped, threatened with death, forcibly displaced and lives apart from his family: all because of his enormous moustache.
Impeccably trimmed to 30 inches (76cm), Afridi spends 30 minutes a day washing, combing, oiling and twirling his facial hair into two arches that reach to his forehead, defying gravity.
"People give me a lot of respect. It's my identity," said the 48-year-old grandfather in the northwestern city of Peshawar, when asked why he was prepared to risk everything for his whiskers.