Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: Egypt

Showing posts with label Egypt. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 09, 2013

Egypt's siege of Gaza continues

For the fifth consecutive day, Egypt is not allowing anyone into or out of Gaza.

Palestine Today reports that Egypt is also not allowing Gazans to fly into the Cairo airport, including pilgrims visiting Saudi Arabia.

The World Bulletin has more:

Palestinians trying to return home to the Gaza Strip via Cairo airport are being deported by Egyptian authorities to the countries they flew in from, at their own expense, reported Electronic Intifada.

The Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza, which is a six hour drive from Cairo airport, has been closed indefinitely, ever since the Egyptian army overthrew elected President Muhammad Morsi on 3 July after days of street protests.

In recent days, militant groups in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula have repeatedly attacked Egyptian army posts and checkpoints.

Yousef M. Aljamal, a writer and occasional Electronic Intifada contributor, was among those deported. Aljamal was returning home to Gaza from New Zealand, where he participated in the recent Conference on Palestine in Auckland.

Aljamal tweeted about his deportation from Cairo, back to the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur, where he had stopped in order to obtain an Egyptian visa.

He reported seeing other Palestinians sent back to Algeria, Jordan, Tunisia and Canada, among other countries.

Ma'an adds:

Dozens of Palestinians are being held at Cairo International Airport after Egypt closed its border with the Gaza Strip.

Palestinians flying into Cairo airport have been forced to either return to the countries they flew in from, or wait in deportation rooms at the airport.

Passenger Ahmad al-Jamal was taken for medical treatment on Monday after going on hunger strike at the airport, other passengers said.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Palestinians are stranded on the Egyptian side of Rafah crossing, waiting for the terminal to reopen.

Over 900 pilgrims are stuck in Saudi Arabia after performing the Umrah pilgrimage. They are not allowed to fly into Cairo as they will be stuck there until Egypt reopens the Rafah terminal.

Travelers said Egyptian airlines were refusing to let Palestinians board due as they would not be able to transit to Gaza.

Meanwhile, Israel is sending 330 trucks of supplies to Gaza today.

Last week, 2,952 people crossed the Erez crossing between Israel and Gaza. Over one third of them were merchants and businessmen, far more than medical patients.

Some examples of the word "Jew" in Arabic media Sunday

Al Wafd links to a video of an interview with an Egyptian socialist leader who says that Egypt had been controlled by a tripartite threat: the Muslim Brotherhood, the Americans and the Zionist Jews.

Al Anba, in an article on Internet safety for children, mentions in passing that some Internet pages are from the enemies of Islam, namely the Jews, Christians and others.

Al Manara Link says:

One reason for the strength of the Jews and their success is because they possess money. They say, "The primary way to control the world is gold and the second way is the media," and they really are sincere about it. Money and the media are very important, and the media is what connects your voice to others; and Jews own money and the media.

Al Quds has a long article about the Jerusalem Festival of Lights. After being upset that many Arabs actually enjoyed the displays, the author goes into a crazed theory about why Jews specifically used the idea of light, bringing proofs from the Hebrew scripture and Jewish customs about the importance and symbolism of light. For reasons I couldn't fathom the article segued into the episode of David and Batsheva (Bathsheba) apparently making it sound like Jews fabricate stories about great prophets to make them look bad.

This is pretty much how Jews are discussed every day in Arabic media.

Arab media uncovers Madonna's secret Zionist plot

Al Wafd (Egypt) has uncovered the nefarious plot by Madonna to help Zionists take over the world!

The singer bypassed the entire idea of Christian Zionism by converting to Judaism itself, and encouraging thousands of followers to do the same. Using art, Madonna essentially helped Israel take over the US.

But that wasn't all. She established schools to teach Zionism to unsuspecting students, using the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as her playbook. Not that she would admit that out loud, of course.

Her second and more ambitious school attracts young people who are burned out on sex and drugs, and is meant to give them a spiritual awakening, which is of course Madonna's method of brainwashing them into Zionism.

Now, many of her disciples follow her on her trips to Israel.

Yes, the pop/rock division of my empire is doing very well, thank you.

Egyptian op-ed: "Muslims will not win"

Mohammed Dweik, writing in liberal Egyptian party paper Al Wafd, decries how the Jews are better than Muslims at just about everything.

A terrifying statistic indicates that Jews alone received a quarter of the Nobel prizes since its founding in 1901. The number of Jews in the world does not exceed 14 million. Almost less than the population of the city of Cairo.

[The world] does not hear anything from us in the field of scientific research and in the production of knowledge. Statistics say that the patents issued by the entire Arab world (22 countries) of inventions are less than what is produced by a small European country like Finland.

The question must be asked widely: Why are Muslims no longer capable of creativity in philosophy, literature and art? Why are we no longer offering something new in the field of empirical experimental sciences? I'm talking about a billion and a half Muslims occupying 57 countries in the world. A huge figure representing a quarter of the world. Yet the number of Nobel prizes received by Muslims is only 9 before adding Tawakul Karman. Only two of them are in the sciences. While Jews, who represent only one country, whose numbers in the whole world are tiny, not more than 14 million, received 200 prizes! Over 50 prizes in physics and a similar number in medicine and physiology. Each Jew's accomplishments is the equivalent of 2,000 Muslims!

Shame on us. God will not forgive us for what we did with the minds of people ... The problem is that some people still believe that religion will be victorious if only we apply hijab for women or beards for men...

In Al-Anfal, Allah said to the believers that one fighter-believer can triumph over ten of his opponents, because faith is a work of force and determination. ... If we apply the equation contained in the Koran, we must have left the faith of Islam long ago, even if some women wear headscarves and men pray constantly.

...There is a saying: You may find a poor Jew, but you will not find an ignorant Jew.

...Israel occupied the Sinai peninsula in 1956 during the tripartite aggression against Egypt, and in 1967 occupied the Sinai again using the same strategy which was carried out in 56. They asked Moshe Dayan, wasn't he afraid the Egyptians had developed countermeasures? He answered lightly: Arab people do not read!! This is dagger stabbed through to the handle on our honor. And then turned the dagger blade into the wound so it won't heal.

The story begins when 197 Jews met in the Swiss city of Basel, led by the journalist Herzl in 1897 and they set a specific target: to create a Jewish homeland in 50 years. Exactly fifty years later in 1947 the UN decided to partition the land of Palestine to a Zionist state that suddenly arose out of nowhere. With hard work they achieved the idea in half a century. Although the founding father Herzl died in 1904, his work and the struggle persisted under the leadership of Chaim Weizmann, a Russian-born chemist, who was able to to devise industrial acetone, and during World War I he helped the British manufacture gunpowder guns in large quantities, because acetone is a major ingredient in it, making the British feel grateful to the man who made a scientifically invaluable discovery that impacted the fate of the war, and they began to support the ambitions of Zionism. So said Lord Balfour and the British Foreign Secretary months later: "We have embraced Zionism at the hands of acetone."

Nuclear power that changed the fate of the world ... but all of the work in the U.S. initiative named the Manhattan Project, which produced the first atomic bomb and ensured victory for America against Japan, were done by Jewish physicists.

Victory [of the Jews] did not come as just a coincidence. Men of science are changing the world, as well as enlightened clerics .. The lovers and book of poetry, composers and novelists make glory of man. The novel Uncle Tom's Cabin was pivotal to launch a call for the liberation of slaves, and the novel A Doll's House was the beginning of the liberation of women, the enlightened "liberation theology" in Latin America were the engines that have liberalized their homelands from slavery.

Where are the Muslims in all of this? Often they are zero. If you want to win, embrace science, write a poem or a novel that enraptures the world... The Nobel Prize bears the name of a Swedish man who invented dynamite, and called for peace since a century ago; why is there not a Muhammad Award as the messenger whose name should be synonymous with peace? Muslims must be alert to the purposes of their religion. And to be aware of the world as a whole. And to create an award that bears the name of our religion and the name of the Prophet: Mohammed - peace - unification.

We are a nation doomed to either forgetting or defeat.

Egyptian army seizes military fabrics in Gaza tunnel; fears impersonation (update)

Every day the Egyptian media has a new story about how Hamas or Gazans cannot be trusted. Here's today's:

The military has started an investigation over fabric it says it seized in a tunnel to Gaza to find out why the fabric was smuggled, where it was being taken and how it would impact national security, a military source in North Sinai Governorate said.

A military spokesperson had said earlier Sunday that the Armed Forces seized fabric printed with patterns similar to security forces’ uniforms, warning people to be aware, in case the fabric is used to impersonate security personnel.

The military arrested two people present at the entrance of the tunnel, the North Sinai source told Al-Masry Al-Youm, adding that military intelligence officers formed the investigation team.

The source said preliminary investigations with the two suspects are under way at a military area in North Sinai. The military is also looking for five other Egyptian suspects, whom it said would be interrogated within hours.

The source said investigations could indicate whether Gazans were involved in Egypt’s ongoing security problems, as well as raise questions on whether Gazans were also involved in killing demonstrators during the 25 January revolution.

The announcement came after a military source told independent daily Al-Shorouk that the perpetrators of a deadly attack on a Rafah army camp last August, which killed 16 Egyptian soldiers, included 40 Palestinian jihadis.

That story about the 40 jihadis was yesterday's anti-Gaza story in Egypt.

Yet even after Egypt's crackdown on the tunnels at the Gaza border, one still isn't seeing any demonstrations on college campuses or UN resolutions or "human rights" organization reports about the Egyptian "siege" of Gaza.

Funny, that.

Hamas' leader Ismail Haniyeh, alarmed at the deterioration in its relationship with Egypt, reportedly told an Egyptian Wafd party leader that "Egyptian blood is more valuable than Palestinian blood" in an attempt to calm the situation.

UPDATE: A Hamas spokesman said that the materials "could" have been used for children's clothing.

Taher al-Nounou, a spokesman for the Hamas government, said in an interview with Egypt’s al-Mihwar television, “This fabric could be used in children’s clothing, and you know children tend to wear such [military] clothing in festivities.”

Yeah, that's convincing.

Egyptian "human rights committee" blames women for being sexually assaulted

From Egypt Independent:

Shura Council’s human rights committee members said on Monday that women taking part in protests bear the responsibility of being sexually harassed, describing what happens in some demonstrators’ tents as “prostitution.”

Major General Adel Afify, member of the committee representing the Salafi Asala Party, criticized female protesters, saying that they “know they are among thugs. They should protect themselves before requesting that the Interior Ministry does so. By getting herself involved in such circumstances, the woman has 100 percent responsibility.”

During the committee meeting on Monday, Afify called for penalizing children, even if it does not conform to international charters to which Egypt is signatory, and criticized foreign-funded organizations, which adopt western thought, he said.

Salah Abdel Salam, a member representing the Salafi Nour Party, said that as long as women protest in places full of thugs, they should take responsibility for the harassment they face.

Mervat Ebeid, member representing Wafd party, said all societal categories are to be blamed for sexual harassment. She also said that knowing there are many thugs present at demonstrations, women should take responsibility when deciding whether to attend protests.

Reda Saleh al-Hefnawy, member representing FJP, demanded penalizing those who incite sexual harassment. He also called on women not to stand among men during protests.

Major General Abdel Fattah Othman, vice-chief of the public security department, said Egyptian law doesn’t include the term ‘sexual harassment,’ but does legislate against indecent assault and rape.

Security presence in Tahrir or in places of protests in sensitive, Othman said, suggesting that security personnel would get attacked if they were present at demonstrations.

The Shura Council is the "upper house" of Egypt's Parliament. And these are members of its human rights committee!

All these years I thought that Arabs blaming the victim was only in relation to Jews, but now I see they blame women as well for having the audacity of being sexually assaulted.

The Muslim Brotherhood is using the stories of rape as a means to try to suppress anti-government demonstrations:

According to Brotherhood MP and committee deputy chairman Ezzeddin El-Komi, "as many as 24 incidents of rape have been reported in Tahrir Square in recent days."

"No one has made any effort to fight this disturbing trend," El-Komi added, pointing out that one recent rape victim in Tahrir Square had been a female correspondent for Sky News TV.

He went on to wonder "why local media isn't mentioning this phenomenon after focussing so intently on the protester who was beaten and stripped [by security forces] outside the Presidential Palace last week."

Ahmed El-Khatib, deputy chairman of Alexandria's Appeal Court, agreed, asserting that "anti-government rallies have become fertile ground for incidents of sexual harassment and the proliferation of vice."

"The growing phenomenon of sexual harassment puts the onus on the political forces that are calling for these demonstrations," said El-Khatib. "If these forces aren't strong enough to secure their rallies against acts of rape, they should stop calling for them."

He urged the government to expedite the drafting of a new anti-protest law while toughening penalties against convicted sexual offenders.

Abdel-Fattah Othman, deputy interior minister for public security, meanwhile, confirmed that Tahrir Square had become "the scene of collective rape incidents in recent weeks."

According to Othman, the total number of reported acts of rape in Egypt last year stood at 129, while incidents of sexual harassment reached 9,468 for the same period – with Cairo accounting for the lion's share.

Mervat Ebeid, for her part, a female Brotherhood MP, urged women "to think twice" about participating in political demonstrations "so as not to become prey to sexual offenders and armed thugs who commit rape."

However, non-Brotherhood MPs, such as Nabil Azmi, argued that increasing incidents of rape and sexual harassment should not be used as justification for attacking political demonstrations, asking women to refrain from joining them, or issuing draconian anti-protest laws.

"Some MPs are not so concerned with combating rape and sexual harassment as they are with tarnishing the image of anti-regime rallies and scaring women from joining them," argued Azmi.

He added: "I'm afraid that security forces are only concerned with arresting peaceful demonstrators and torturing them rather than rounding up armed thugs who commit rape."

Mona Makram Ebeid, an appointed Coptic member of the Shura Council (the upper house of Egypt's parliament, currently endowed with legislative powers), told Ahram Online that "by engaging in debates on rape and sexual harassment, Muslim Brotherhood MPs are trying to score political gains by tarnishing the image of democratic protests."

"I'm also afraid that these reactionary forces are trying to impose their code of conduct on women in Egypt, which includes intimidating them from participating in political activity," Ebeid added.

Egyptian newspapers, TV strike in protest of constitution

From Al Ahram:

Twelve Egyptian newspapers and five TV channels announced that they will go on strike for one day to object to both recently issued constitutional declaration and the draft constitution.

The newspapers will not print on Tuesday and the TV channels will go off-air on Wednesday.

The draft constitution, which was passed on 30 November by the Islamist-dominated Constituent Assembly and is set to be voted on in a referendum on 15 December, does not include articles against the imprisonment of journalists in cases related to freedom of expression as demanded by journalists.

The Journalists Syndicate's executive council had withdrawn its representatives from the Constituent Assembly in mid-November after its recommendations and suggestions were ignored by the assembly.

Later, the general assembly of the syndicate had threatened on 25 November to stage a strike against the constitutional declaration that president Mohamed Morsi issued on 23 November..

The newspapers that will go on strike on Tuesday include: Al-Masry Al-Youm, Al-Watan, Al-Tahrir, Al-Wafd, Al-Youm 7, Al-Dostour, Al-Shorouk, Al-Sabah, Al-Ahaly, Al-Ahrar, Al-Fagr and Osbooa.

The TV channels that will go on strike on Wednesday, with blank screens broadcasting in place of content, are: ONTV channels, CBC and Modern channels, Al-Hayat Channels and Dream TV channels.

Already on Monday, Al-Wafd newspaper, Al-Youm 7 newspaper, Al-Watan newspaper, Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper and Tahrir newspaper shared the same headline “No to dictatorship” with an illustration showing a prisoner made of newspaper sitting in a dark cell.

The draft constitution itself has verbiage supporting freedom of the press, but it is fuzzy because there is always the caveat that the press must adhere to community standards, which could mean anything.

But before you think that these liberal, secular voices are necessarily the "good guys," here is a poster at one of their anti-Morsi rallies (screen shot from here):

Because even among enlightened, secular Egyptians, there is no worse insult than "Jew" or "Zionist."

(Mohamed ElBaradei lost all his credibility in Egypt by telling a German interviewer that many of the Islamists are Holocaust-deniers; now he is being derided as "Mr. Holocaust.")

(h/t PTWatch)

Violent Islamist plan discovered to "conquer Egypt"

From Al Arabiya, and inexplicably not too many other places:

Egyptian security has recently uncovered a document circulated among armed groups and which details a plan to “conquer” Egypt and restore the Islamic caliphate.

The document, entitled the “Conquest of Egypt,” was handwritten by a militant called Karim Ahmed Bedeiwi, who was killed in a recent police raid on a flat in the district of Nasr City in eastern Cairo.

The flat was reportedly was used as a weapons warehouse and the headquarters of a terrorist cell, security sources were quoted as saying by the online version of the Egyptian newspaper al-Wafd.

This document, the sources added, was distributed among 22 jihadist cells that operate under an umbrella group, which later came to be known as the Nasr City cell, and together form an intricate terrorist network that connects Cairo to other Egyptian governorates.

The “Conquest of Egypt” offers a detailed account of a plan by militant Islamists to seize power in Egypt and establish an Islamic caliphate.

The document mentions a series of steps that need to be taken to achieve their goal to “conquer,” they include assassinating the president, the Coptic pope, and several political and security figures.

This plan would coincide with a series of simultaneous bombings in several vital establishments as well as the Suez Canal, while main roads between Cairo and other Egyptian governorates and communication networks are to be taken over by the militants.

The plan also revealed that in addition to the Pope, the militants were going to target the Coptic community in general whether by assassinating and abducting prominent Coptic figures or carrying out terrorist operations in areas densely populated by Copts or known as their favorite gathering places.

The purpose, the document said, was to ignite a sectarian strife that not only rids the country of its Christian minority, but one that also undermines the structure of the Egyptian society.

According to security sources, the main purpose of the bombings is terrorizing the people so that they would not take to the streets in protest.

Certain strategic cities like Cairo, Alexandria, Suez, Port Said, and Ismailia, according to the document, were to be turned into military barracks.

The 22 cells, sources explained, possessed large numbers of advanced weapons and bombs that were brought from the Sinai Peninsula and Libya.

So there is a detailed plan. There is an organization. There are advanced weapons.

Where is the coverage?

Arab media cover Jewish refugee conference more than Israeli media

Times of Israel reports:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon (Yisrael Beytenu) vowed Sunday to promote the issue of Jewish refugees from Arab lands despite the possible negative political implications for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Netanyahu, speaking via a pre-recorded message at the international “Justice for Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries” conference in Jerusalem, said he raises the issue of Jewish refugees wherever he goes.

“The Arab world has neglected Arab refugees for decades and has used them as a battering ram against Israel, while Israel, who was just born as a nation-state, has managed to absorb and resettle the Jewish refugees from Arab countries and turn them into productive citizens,” said the prime minister.

“This government has decided to promote the issue and therefore I raise this issue as well everywhere I go,” he added.

Ayalon, who last week launched an online advocacy campaign entitled “I am a refugee,” told the conference, “The issue of refugees from the Middle East has two sides. Granted, there are Palestinian refugees, but there is a larger number of Jewish refugees from Arab countries.”

Ayalon was referring to hundreds of thousands of Jews who fled Middle Eastern and North African countries at the time of Israel’s establishment, most of them heading to Israel. Ayalon’s campaign aims to raise this issue in part as a counter to Palestinian demands for a “right of return” for Arabs who left what is today Israel at around the same time. The Palestinians claim that millions of fourth generation descendants of those Arabs should be allowed to “return” to Israel under a peace agreement — a demand that would demographically end Israel as a Jewish state. Israel argues that Arab refugee descendants should be absorbed in the new “Palestine” under a peace accord, just as Israel absorbed the Jewish refugees.

Ayalon, too, emphasized the Netanyahu administration’s focus on the matter: “The Israeli government has decided to put its full force behind this issue, of which there are political implications, in particular regarding peace negotiations.”

There has been some coverage of this in the English-language Zionist media, the Arabic press has been treating this as a major story. In fact, the only place I found the full text of Netanyahu's speech was at an Arabic Israeli site!

The anger that Palestinian Arabs have at being equated to any other refugee group is palpable, and some of their comments are revealing. For example, Al Wafd reports that Ahmed Hannon, head of the refugee committee for the PLO, said that this is "Israel's strategy in questioning the right of return for Palestinians," adding that this mythical "right of return" is the most prominent of the sticking points that prevent the revival of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

Since that "right" is wholly meant to destroy Israel, that shows how interested Palestinian Arabs are in building their own state.

This conference is shining a lot of light on Arab hypocrisy.

Muslims upset at Hebrew translation of the Koran

Al Wafd reports about Ahmed Salah Albehnsa, a "specialistin Israeli affairs," who discovered a 2005 Hebrew translation of the Koran that was filled with "falsehood and lies."

According to Albehnsa, who revealed this important information at a conference in Egypt, this version of the Koran does the unspeakable.

It says that the text is not Divinely inspired, nor is it original, but the text is adapted from earlier books of Judaism, Christianity, and some of the myths that were prevalent in the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq and the Levant and ancient Egypt.

Moreover, this version says that the Jews have a right to Jerusalem and the Quran never mentioned any mosque or place of worship for Muslims in Jerusalem.

As any reader will have no doubt figured out by now, the Hebrew translation of the Koran is a scholarly, critical work, not a religious one. The author is Uri Rubin, who has taught at Tel Aviv University for over forty years.

But the al-Wafd article makes it sound like this is a Jewish plot to hijack the Koran.

It says "Intelligent and ambitious initiatives are continuously committed by the Jews to control human brains in order to reach their goal to impose complete control of the land, and they used all the methods to create an illegal and falsified history and to violate all conventions; ignoring the evidence and the cultural, religious and historical constants that can not be infringed."

I love performing Zionist mind control, myself.

Egyptian beats pregnant wife to death for not voting for Morsi

From Al Arabiya:

An Egyptian plumber in Alexandria beat his pregnant wife to death upon learning that she had not voted for Muslim Brotherhood presidential candidate Mohammed Mursi, reported the Egyptian daily al-Wafd on Sunday.

According to police reports, the initial argument between the couple who was not named escalated into violence, despite her pleas. Battered and bruised, she was reported to have died at the hospital from injuries sustained.

Egyptian TV host spouts about the Protocols. And he's hardly alone.

From MEMRI:

Following are excerpts from an address by Egyptian TV host Hussam 'Aql, which aired on Al-Nas TV on March 23, 2012 :

Hussam 'Aql : The Zionist entity and the Zionist movement are constantly "playing" with revolutions. What does that mean? After the revolutions, the situation is very fluid – the state is on its knees, and its institutions are shaky. This is the perfect opportunity for the Zionist entity to deal its blow and to play its little game.

Whoever does not believe me can look at The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. This is no book of poetry or stories. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a matter of undisputable science.

There was a meeting of the Freemasons in France, and a French woman managed to smuggle out some dangerous documents, which circulated in the meeting.

Between 1897 and 1951, the secret Zionist groups held nearly 23 meetings, one of which was a large gathering, which included over 50 Zionist groups. They issued several documents: How can we gain control over the world's minds? How can we gain control of the media? How can we turn the mighty national armies into cantons, which will fight one another? How can we gain control over the flow of capital? How can we gain control over the presidents and state leaders, and turn them into collaborators?

A French woman managed to smuggle out these documents, which serve as the backbone of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

When the world read these documents… A Russian scholar called Sergei Nilos was the first to read these documents. He looked at the documents in front of him, and then examined the political situation around him, and realized how the leaders of the Zionist entity were playing with the money, and with the means of pressure, and how they were trying to take over regimes and governments, as well as the nascent regional forces.

Look how Tel Aviv cannot keep its mouth shut when it sees Egypt on its way to become a regional power, and to restore the momentum of its activity and to lead the region. Tel Aviv cannot possibly keep its mouth shut. We do not want to be stupid or naïve.

Sergei Nilos issued a warning and wrote research. Then in the early 20th century, along came Victor Marsden and translated The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. We have read The Protocols, and we have detected the despicable, hellish, and Satanic plan to dominate the world and to humiliate the peoples and the nations.

Just like I am humiliating Mr. 'Aql right now by showing him to be an idiot! Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!

And if you think that this is somehow anomalous and that most Arabs know that the "Protocols" are a forgery, check out Al Wafd from two weeks ago with a long article on the topic that accepts the veracity of the work unquestioningly.

Or this recent article from pan-Arab newspaper Moheet. Or this even more recent article from a Jordanian newspaper As Sabeel.

All of which accept the Protocols as absolute truth.

All written by supposedly educated Arab journalists.

Egyptian paper says Jews make pastries from gentile blood on Purim

From MEMRI:

In a March 14, 2012 article in the Egyptian daily Al-Wafd, columnist Fikriya Ahmad wrote that the Jews, throughout their history, used to celebrate Purim by wreaking murderous vengeance on non-Jews and using their slaughtered victims' blood to make Purim sweets. She added that, today, they continue this custom by perpetrating attacks and assassinations against the Palestinians.

In ancient times, [around] 400 BCE or earlier, groups of Jews lived in Persia under the patronage of Ahasuerus, king of Persia and India. [These Jews] spread evil and destruction, as well as their dishonest and treacherous ways. Thus, they deservedly [incurred] the hatred of the state minister Haman, who incited the king of Persia against them and killed them. He picked a day by lottery on which to massacre the corrupt Jews and thus rid the country of their evil. The Jews, as is their wont, resorted to the cheapest trick [possible] and took revenge on him by ways of spying and seduction. Knowing that Ahasuerus couldn't resist beautiful women, they sent him one of their daughters, Esther, in order to trap and seduce him, and eventually the two of them got married. [Esther, now] controlling the king, caused him to quarrel with Haman, and persecuted Haman until he was [eventually] hanged and his 10 children were killed. That is how Esther saved her people, the Jews. Esther even persuaded the king to arm the Jews, so they could take revenge on their Babylonian enemies. The king did so, and [the Jews] exterminated the Babylonians, to the last one. The Jews defeated their enemies through cunning plots and by sparking internecine wars and quarrels.

[Later, the Jews] turned the anniversary of the lottery day, on which they escaped massacre, into a major religious festival... They dedicate this [festival] to murderous [acts of] vengeance against anyone who isn't Jewish. On this day, the Jews read one of their scrolls, the Scroll of Esther, and the flame of their hatred towards all non-Jews grows even hotter. Their children put on scary costumes, to fan their hostility and hate. The sweets they eat on this day are made from the body parts of Haman. There are sweets [shaped like] Haman's ear, hand or head, in order to take revenge upon him, [and celebrate] his execution and the delivery of their people.

Anyone who follows the murderous actions of the Israeli army, its intensive assassination [policy], and its physical extermination of the Palestinian owners of the land, as well as the cruel attacks by the Jewish settlers, will find that most [of the attacks take place] on the Jewish festival of Purim... They usually choose March 13 or 14 to perform their strange rituals.

Jewish history documents murderous actions [perpetrated as part] of Purim celebrations. On this festival, the extremists among them used to hunt down or abduct a non-Jew, slaughter him, and then hang him up like a sacrifice to drain his blood. Alternatively, they would subject him to barbaric torture by stabbing him deeply and letting him bleed into a container, while they took pleasure in his screams and his pain. The blood would be dried into a powder, which they would mix with flour to make into pastries..."

This is what peace looks like.

Here's the original article.

(h/t tall midget)

Egyptian "liberals" spin conspiracy theory around US medical research center

MEMRI summarizes an article from Egyptian Al Wafd daily:

On January 27, 2012, the Egyptian daily Al-Wafd published an investigative article on the Naval Medical Research Unit Three (NAMRU-3), a U.S. Navy biomedical research laboratory located in the Al-'Abbassia area in Cairo. The article, titled "NAMRU – The Pentagon's Unit for Killing Egyptians in Al-'Abbassia," claims that NAMRU handles pathogens that could "exterminate the entire Egyptian nation," and that it conducts research aimed at manipulating the Egyptians' genes in order to alter them and cause deformities. The article also alleges that NAMRU is conducting experiments on Egyptian children; that it might be responsible for an increase in infertility, impotence, retardation, and disabilities among the people; and that the data it collects is used to design harmful foods, seeds, and drugs that are developed in America and then sold cheaply to the Egyptians. The daily states that the unit operates freely in Egypt, with the approval of the authorities but without their supervision.

NAMRU's mission statement is to "Study, monitor, and detect emerging and re-emerging disease threats of military and public health importance; develop mitigation strategies against these threats in partnership with host nations and international and U.S. agencies in CENTCOM, EUCOM, and AFRICOM areas of responsibility."

Here are details from the Al Wafd article:

'Your health is in the hands of the American Department of Defense.' This is revealed by the following [facts], gathered from documents of the Pentagon's research unit NAMRU-3, which is the largest American military research unit in the Middle East.

Entering the NAMRU headquarters, you feel you have stepped into a horror film. The place is silent and shrouded in secrecy. Doctors and [other] employees [move about in] white robes, gloves, and caps, and sometimes also masks. The organisms they work with are a kind of bacterial biological weapon, which, if deployed, could exterminate the entire Egyptian nation, or any other nation.

Since the establishment of the NAMRU unit in Egypt, dozens of new and mutated viral diseases have been discovered. This indicates that these pathogens are imported. No research or medical [institute] has infiltrated Egypt to a greater extent than NAMRU, which controls the secrets of the viruses that are used in [weapons of] mass destruction and biological weapons...

NAMRU sees the Egyptian children as an opportunity to test new medicines. In its reports, it notes that the Egyptian children have the best immune systems, even in comparison with soldiers in the American army. NAMRU monitors our children when they are still fetuses by stationing American doctors and researchers in health centers in the [country's] villages, so they can come into contact with pregnant mothers, and the information [these doctors and researchers collect] is linked into NAMRU's network of databanks. [NAMRU] caused a stir when its doctors tried to conduct an experimental study on children in Al-Bahira, claiming they wished to develop a serum from diarrhea for a new vaccination. [As part of this effort,] gifts and money were handed out to the [children's] families in Farshut, Umm Al-Laban, Kum Al-Qanatir, and other villages in central Abu Homs, but the families adamantly refused to turn their children into lab rats...

This incident raised questions, which remained unanswered, over whether American hands in NAMRU were behind the increase in infertility, mental retardation, and disability among Egyptians born in recent years... as well as [instances of] impotence. [This, considering] the dangerous genetic information that NAMRU has collected on the Egyptians, especially patients in the Al-'Abbasia Hospital, and its ability to disrupt [the Egyptians'] natural genes and immune systems; [and also considering the fact] that it sends [Egypt] medicines, seeds, and fodder for animals, and is involved in all experiments [conducted in Egypt] in the fields of agriculture, livestock, water, food, etc.

NAMRU-3 controls the Egyptians' health, for better or worse, and has in its possession all the Egyptian genetic specifications and compounds and their hereditary traits, alongside an arsenal of components for lethal biological weapons, which it can hand over to Israel or any country hostile to Egypt if it ever becomes angry with the Egyptian people, in order to utterly destroy them.

As Barry Rubin notes in an excellent article, this bizarre conspiracy theory is not coming from the Muslim Brotherhood - but from the people considered "liberal" in the Egyptian elections! These people are the ones that Westerners were hoping would win because they supposedly reflect Western values.

In other words, the Egyptian "moderates" are almost as screwed up and anti-Western as the conservatives are.

And this does not bode well for the future of Egypt.

Sinai Egyptians rioting because butane cylinders smuggled to Gaza

From Al Masry Al Youm:

Minya residents protesting the shortage of butane gas cylinders blocked train traffic in Upper Egypt Thursday.

“Resident gathered at 9:50 am on Thursday on railways of Malateya station, located between Maghagha and Bani Mazar stations,” head of the Egypt Railways Authority Hani Hegab said in a statement.

Hegab called on citizens to end the protests, saying they hinder other people’s interests and cause the authority huge losses. Demonstrators in various towns have repeatedly disrupted rail traffic over the past year to call attention to various problems.

Hundreds of Gerga City residents in Assiut blocked the rails on Wednesday for almost seven hours, saying that gas cylinders are being sold for eight times their actual value of around LE6.50.

What the newspaper doesn't say is the reason for the shortage - because the cylinders are being smuggled to Gaza.

As Al Wafd reported earlier this week, there isn't so much a butane shortage as a cylinder shortage. Gangs have been forcibly taking the cylinders and smuggling them to Gaza, where the price is higher than even the Egyptian black market.

This is not a new problem. Here is a report from last June, where Assistant Secretary General for North Sinai Governorate Maj. Gen. Jaber Al-Arabi said that the reason for the continuing crisis of butane gas cylinders is due to the their smuggling through the tunnels into the Gaza Strip, which leads to shortages and increased demand.

Final results of Egypt elections: MB 47%, Salafi 24% of seats

From AFP:

Egypt’s Islamists led by the once-banned Muslim Brotherhood clinched nearly half of seats in parliament in historic polls after the ouster of strongman Hosni Mubarak, official results showed on Saturday.

The Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) won 235 seats in the new People’s Assembly, or 47.18 percent, electoral committee head Abdel Moez Ibrahim told a news conference, giving the final results from marathon polls.

The FJP secured 127 seats on party lists and its candidates won another 108 in first-past-the-post constituency votes.

The ultra-conservative Salafist Al-Nur party came second with 121 seats or 24.29 percent, and the liberal Wafd Party was third with nearly nine percent.

The liberal Egyptian Bloc -- which includes the Free Egyptians party of telecoms magnate Naguib Sawiris who is facing trial on allegations of insulting Islam -- came fourth with around seven percent.

It was only last April that the leading experts and polls were predicting a much different outcome:

The poll, conducted by the Pew Research Center and based on face-to-face interviews with 1,000 Egyptians, is the first credible survey since the revolution lifted many restrictions on free expression. It is also the first to directly address Western debate over whether the revolution might drift toward Islamic radicalism.

The poll found about 30 percent of Egyptians have a favorable view of Islamic fundamentalism and about the same number sympathize with its opponents. About a quarter have mixed views.

That range was exemplified by attitudes toward the Muslim Brotherhood, the previously outlawed Islamist group.

Many in the West have assumed that as the best-organized nongovernmental organization in Egyptian society, the Muslim Brotherhood might quickly dominate Egyptian politics — a view long espoused by the Mubarak government. The poll shows the Muslim Brotherhood is indeed regarded favorably by about three in four Egyptians, receiving very favorable ratings from 37 percent of respondents and somewhat favorable ratings from an additional 38 percent.

But that put the group roughly at a par with the April 6 Movement, a new and relatively secular and progressive youth group that played a leading role in organizing the revolution. Seven in 10 viewed that group favorably, with 38 percent viewing it very favorably and 32 percent viewing it somewhat favorably. The poll’s margin of samplinfg error is plus or minus four percentage points.

Only 17 percent of respondents said they would like to see the Muslim Brotherhood lead the next government. Al Ghad, a liberal party led by Ayman Nour, a formerly jailed presidential candidate, was favored to lead the new government by roughly the same number. And one in five supported the New Wafd Party, a secular liberal party that was recognized under Mr. Mubarak.

Nearly two-thirds of Egyptians said civil law should strictly follow the Koran, but then the existing Constitution of Egypt’s largely secular state said that it is already based on the Koran.

Sobhi Saleh, a prominent member of the Muslim Brotherhood and a former parliamentary candidate, dismissed the poll’s findings as wildly overstating the support for other parties. Only the Brotherhood has a broad organization and a well-known platform, he argued, predicting success at the polls. “These findings are wrong, and it’s only a matter of two months until you see that,” he said.

And now the major liberal parties combined to receive only 16% of the seats in Parliament.

The discrepancy is probably due both to bad polling methods (did Pew ask the right questions to Egypt's rural voters?) and to the importance of organization in winning elections. Initial enthusiasm is no substitute for grassroots organization and hard work to get out the vote.

But then again, I already said that - last February, in response to an overly enthusiastic column by Nicholas Kristof:

Kristof is making a major mistake. He is confusing bravery for political maturity.

No one doubts the protesters' bravery. No one doubts their integrity, or their desire for change, or even their desire for democracy.

But there are serious doubts at their ability to translate the raw desire for freedom into a functional, liberal, democratic government.

It is hard work to create the institutions necessary. More importantly, it takes time - and time is not on the side of the protesters.

It is now fashionable to pooh-pooh the dangers of the Muslim Brotherhood in Kristof's liberal circles, but no one can doubt that the Islamists are better organized and much more politically mature than the Facebookers of Tahrir Square. It takes time to set up an organization, to define a clear agenda, to build a fundraising mechanism, to attract volunteers, to build a means to communicate with all the people - including in rural areas, and to do all the myriad details from physical buildings to a phone system to a mailing list.

True freedom cannot flourish until Egyptians have been exposed to a wide range of ideas on a level playing field. The existing Islamist groups are running circles around the "Egyptian youth" we hear so much about. Kristof is so caught up in the emotions of the moment that he cannot think outside Tahrir Square, to the 99% of the country that is not as emotionally invested in who their leaders would be. To them, the nice people with beards who build a free Islamic school for their kids are the only game in town.

Enthusiasm does not ensure effective state building and true freedoms. Kristof, instead of spouting straw-man arguments, should be advocating ways for his jeans-wearing heroes to channel their sparks of enthusiasm and bravery into the hard, thankless and often boring work necessary to build a new Egypt from scratch.

How many times will NYT columnists keep making the same mistakes over and over again?

For as long as their adoring readers choose to forget those mistakes.

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood might get a majority of seats

The third and final round of Egypt's parliamentary elections have started today.

There have been some reports of illegal campaign activities at some polling places; one judge closed two polling stations because of violations by the Muslim Brotherhood FJP party.

After the first two rounds of voting, according to Wikipedia, the Muslim Brotherhood has taken over 48% of the parliamentary seats even though it won only 36.6% of the votes. This seems to be because of the runoff system, where the top two candidates - usually FJP and the Salafist Nour parties - go head to head.

Some areas where the voting is being held today are considered Islamist strongholds, like the North Sinai. It is possible that the Muslim Brotherhood will end up with an absolute majority of seats in Parliament, meaning that they will not have to rely on a coalition to rule and considerably weakening the role of any partners they choose to ally with.

According to The New York Times, the exact formula for allotting seats has not yet been determined by the military rulers of Egypt so things are a bit up in the air. They also quote MB leadership saying that they doubt that they will gain over 50% of the seats.

The Muslim Brotherhood has stated that they have not made any deals with any potential coalition partners. The Salafists said that they will refuse to serve in a coalition with the liberal parties in parliament.

Interestingly, in the second round of voting, the liberal Egyptian Bloc's share of the vote plummeted from 13.4% to 7%. The second liberal party, Al Wafd, went up a little from 7.1% to 9.6%, but altogether things are looking even worse for the liberals than they did in the initial round.

Egyptian tourism down; man cuts off penis

From Reuters Arabic:

An Egyptian newspaper reported that a young man from the city of Luxor in the south cut off his penis and buried in a graveyard after suffering depression as a result of the decline in tourism since the outbreak of popular protests that led to the removal of former President Hosni Mubarak in February.

Most residents of Luxor, about 690 km south of Cairo, work in the tourism trade as it has many of the most famous ancient Egyptian antiquities, including the Temple of Luxor and the Temple of Karnak, in addition to the large number of tombs of kings and queens of the Pharaohs from the era of the Egyptian empire (about 1567-1085 BC.)

The newspaper al-Wafd in the Sunday early edition reported that the man is 35 years old and married and that his psychological state worsened "due to lack of income due to tourism downturn."

The newspaper added that the Luxor International Hospital received the young man with heavy bleeding and they performed surgery, but attempts to re-attach his penis were unsuccessful.

That will definitely increase tourism!

Muslim Brotherhood leads Egypt voting, Salafists in 2nd place

From Al Masry al Youm:

The Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) is leading parliamentary polls across Egypt, according to early estimates Wednesday.

Egyptians cast their ballots Monday and Tuesday in the first round of parliamentary elections, held in nine governorates. Elections will continue over several phases into January.

With the backing of the Muslim Brotherhood and its ability to organize and mobilize supporters, many expected the FJP to dominate the polls.

In Luxor, where about 80 percent of ballots have been counted, FJP appears to lead the vote, closely followed by the Salafi Nour Party. The liberal Egyptian Bloc and moderate Wasat Party won far fewer votes in that governorate.

In Port Said, 70 percent of the votes have been counted... For the list-based candidacy seats, indicators show that the FJP leads, followed by the Nour, Free Egyptian and Wasat parties.

In Cairo's eighth constituency, which includes Dar al-Salam, Misr al-Qadeema, Sayeda Zeinab, Khalifa and Moqattam, ... The Salafi Nour Party and FJP lead the party list vote, with the Egyptian Bloc and Wafd trailing behind.

In Helwan, FJP leads for list-based candidacy seats while the Nour Party and the Egyptian Bloc and the Conservative Party are competing for second place.

In Assiut's first constituency, where 70 percent of votes have been counted, FJP leads, followed by Nour Party and the Egyptian Bloc. In the second constituency, FJP leads, followed by the Conservative Party....

In the Red Sea Governorate, FJP tops the polls, followed by the Egyptian Bloc and the Egyptian Citizen Party.

In Kafr al-Sheikh, Nour Party appears to lead the first constituency, followed by FJP and then the Wafd Party. In the second constituency, FJP leads, followed by Nour and then Egypt National and Wafd parties.

If the Muslim Brotherhood is correct in their claim that their FJP party is receiving some 40% of the vote, then it is possible that they would not need to rely on any secular parties to create a ruling coalition - the even more hard-line Salafists would seem to have enough votes to put them over 50%.

They are very keen on appearing moderate, so this might not be their first choice, but it is now a serious possibility, especially if the Salafists manage to get 15-20% - enough to make an unbreakable coalition.

Egypt and Israel both struggling with Al Qaeda

In the aftermath of the deadly attacks in Southern Israel, many are still wondering who was behind the attacks. Israel believes that the Popular Resistance Committees had a hand in the attacks and retaliated against them. The in Gaza based PRC denies involvement, but the PRC is obviously not only present in Gaza, but also in Egypt:

As the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs points out in an interesting article:

To stop the loosening of the Egyptian grip on Sinai, Israel agreed twice to significant Egyptian troop increases to their force deployment in the peninsula, thus changing the parameters set in the military annex of the Israeli-Egyptian Peace Treaty. The latest deployment of more than a thousand troops was made only a few days before the terrorist incursion into Israel and was meant to boost Egypt’s efforts to regain its hold on Sinai. Assessing that the main threat to Egypt’s authority was in northern Sinai, where the gas pipeline splits toward the neighboring countries, Egypt decided to deploy its forces in that area, thus leaving the southern part diluted of forces and open to infiltrations.
However, from day one of the operations against the extremist organizations in northern Sinai, the Egyptian authorities realized to their dismay that the phenomenon is not limited to Sinai but engulfs the whole of Egypt. Islamist cells have been created all over Egypt so as to topple the regime by force. The network of Palestinian organizations in Gaza has already proved to be a threat to Egypt itself. In January 2011 Egypt’s former interior minister, Habib el-Adly, charged that the Gaza-based Palestinian Islamist group Jaish al-Islam was responsible for a New Year’s Eve attack on a Coptic church in Alexandria that left twenty-three Egyptian Christians dead. Jaish al-Islam is an Al-Qaeda affiliate and was formed by members of the Popular Resistance Committees, the organization responsible for last week’s attack within Israel.

The blog also mentions what happened two days before the event on Road 12: Egyptian forces mounted an attack east of the town of el-Arish and revealed:

The members of the group were part of a Takfiri organization, that is, the same organization of Muslim zealots that assassinated President Sadat in 1981, some of whom subsequently joined the Al-Qaeda militants.
The group was trained militarily in Gaza and in the region of Jabal Hilal in central Sinai, which is now the area where most of the fundamentalists fleeing the Egyptian security forces have found refuge. Jabal Hilal has been a notorious base for Al-Qaeda in the recent past and the location of difficult battles between Al-Qaeda and the Egyptian army, in which, in one case, an Egyptian general was killed.
Those militants were part of the groups that sabotaged the gas pipeline to Israel.
The leader of the Palestinians who allied with the Egyptian members of the El-Arish group was a member of Islamic Jihad in Gaza. He managed to reach El-Arish by using one of the underground tunnels. He had been in prison in Egypt but was able to escape to Gaza in the wake of the Egyptian revolution.
The Egyptians associated with the Palestinians were highly educated (one a mechanical engineer, another with a BA in administration) and came from Suez, Alexandria, Qalyoubiah, and Suhaj. The Egyptian security forces were surprised, since this was the first time a Sinai terrorist cell included members from outside of Sinai.
The interrogations revealed that there was a Takfiri presence almost throughout Egypt. El-Arish was a convenient location because it is close to Gaza and Israel, making it easier to obtain weapons.
The group clearly had a theological, jihadist outlook. Basically they wanted to replace the regime by force according to the tenets of Takfir (in which one Muslim declares another an unbeliever) and of the Egyptian Salafist movement.
Most of the Egyptian detainees had been members of fundamentalist organizations for years.
Their main targets were Egyptian security forces (which they viewed as heretic) and strategic installations such as the gas pipeline.

The so-called Arab Spring might be - for the time being - refreshing towards former opponents of the Mubarak regime as they now seem to be able to express their views without fears; it did create an opening towards Islamist actors as legitimate political entities:

The rise of various Islamist factions (...) that are striving for power makes it difficult for jihadists to directly threaten the regime’s stability. Realizing that they cannot (...) confront the Egyptian state head-on, the jihadists are trying to undermine the regime indirectly by exploiting the situation regarding Gaza and Israel and through renewed militancy in Sinai, and also by reviving religious tensions between Copts and Muslims, (...)

And that's a serious reason for concern:

Particularly significant is that the cell captured in El-Arish shows that the Takfiri and jihadist movement in Egypt is very much alive and even gaining more terrain. It can be assessed that the Takfiri militants are either part of Al-Qaeda or working hand in hand with their Al-Qaeda operators.

Indeed, as the The Jerusalem Center concludes:

Only a tight, effective, but mostly tacit partnership between Israel and Egypt can help both parties, each for its own reasons, cooperate in eradicating the fundamentalist cells in Sinai and beyond.

I hope the Egyptians will understand.