Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: Egypt

Showing posts with label Egypt. Show all posts

Friday, August 09, 2013

Report: IDF bombs kill 5 jihadists on Egyptian side of Rafah (UPDATE)

From JPost:

An Israeli Air Force drone reportedly struck a jihadist rocket launcher in the Sinai Peninsula near the Israeli-Egyptian border, killing at least five suspected terrorists who were planning to launch shoulder-fired missile at Israel, Egyptian military sources told Palestinian news agency Ma'an on Friday.

Ma'an reported that a large explosion was heard on Friday afternoon in Rafah, near the Kerem Shalom border crossing.

An IDF spokesman said the army does not comment on reports published in the foreign media.

On Thursday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz ordered to close the Eilat Airport for two hours.

On Friday, Ma'an quoted an Egyptian security source as saying the IDF's decision to close the air[port] was a precautionary measure taken by Israel based on Egyptian intelligence that terrorists in Sinai planned to target the Jewish state with missiles.

The IDF instructed the Israel Airports Authority to close down the airport in the southern city which borders Egypt due to a "security assessment." The IDF did not release any specific details on the security reasons which prompted the closure.

According to the Egyptian official cited by Ma'an, Salafi terrorists in Sinai planned to target Israel with shoulder-launched missiles with a range of 70 km, which would put them in well in range of the airspace over Eilat Airport.

Al Ahram adds that "sources say that the air attack was in coordination with the Egyptian authorities."

Al Arabiya is quoted as saying that the IDF aircraft/drones were in the skies for a while before the explosion, and that the jihadists intended to shoot rockets at Israel.

Arab critics of Egypt's interim government will have a field day with this, saying that this is proof that the Egyptian leaders are Zionist.

UPDATE: Egypt denies Israel was involved. Which it would do whether it happened or not.

Lebanon barring Palestinians refugees from Syria

Once again, the Arab world shows its derision for their Palestinian brethren. And once again, the world ignores blatant discrimination against Palestinians - when done by Arabs.

From HRW:

The Lebanese government began on August 6, 2013, to bar Palestinians from entering the country from Syria. Refusing to allow asylum seekers to enter the country violates Lebanon’s international obligations.

Two Palestinians told Human Rights Watch that they were among about 200 Palestinian asylum seekers barred from crossing the border, after Lebanese General Security on August 6 abruptly changed its entry policies for Palestinians living in Syria.

The Palestinians stranded at Lebanon’s border include entire families, children, the elderly, and the sick. Some spent the night in the area between the two countries’ border posts, fearing for their safety if they returned to Syria, without shelter or bathroom facilities. Some have family members waiting for them in Lebanon. Others say they have no homes to return to in Syria as they have been destroyed during the war, or no money to return home, even if it were safe.

A Palestinian asylum seeker stuck at the border told Human Rights Watch that at approximately 6:45 p.m. on August 6, Lebanese border guards told him and other Palestinian asylum seekers waiting to enter that the guards had received a call from the Lebanese General Security office telling them not to allow any more Palestinians to enter the country. After this announcement, the only Palestinians allowed to enter Lebanon were Palestinians with Lebanese wives or mothers, or who had plane tickets to leave Beirut that day. General Security made no public announcement of the change in policy.

Lebanon is still allowing tens of thousands of Syrians to enter the country. It is only discriminating against Palestinians.

Jordan has a similar policy and Egypt also discriminates against Palestinian Syrians.

Blatant, explicit and rampant discrimination against Palestinian Arabs happens every day, and is indeed enshrined in the laws of every Arab country which does not allow them to become citizens while all other Arabs can.

Keep this in mind the next hundred times you hear Arabs say that the "Palestinian issue" is their number one priority, and the key to solving all the problems in the region. They don't mean that they care about Palestinians - it means that they regard the destruction of Israel is their number one priority, and the Palestinian Arabs are useful only as pawns in that goal.

In reality, the Arab world hates Palestinians nearly as much as they hate Jews.

But there are no "pro-Palestinian" groups that can be bothered to point that out.

Egyptian op-ed reminds readers that Jews are the real enemy

Al Mesryoon has an op-ed called "Have we forgotten the Zionist Snake?"

With all the turmoil in the Middle East, and especially how Egypt went from perceiving Hamas from being an ally to being an enemy, Egyptians need to remember who the real enemy is, according to Hisham al-Najjar.

He helpfully informs us that "The Zionist industry plots and feeds coups and wars and strife; and students of history know that they are responsible for most of the degradations in the world of pain and the killing of millions and unrest throughout the ages, which reached its peak in past four centuries."

You see, the French Revolution was started by Jews (here he discards the awkward "Zionist" label.) Same with the Russian Revolution.

Similarly, today "the Zionist snake" is presenting itself as a peace-loving friend of the Arab world while it schemes to destroy everything, and is hatching plots to incite hatred and cause strife and unrest and coups.

Everyone needs a gentle reminder of the big picture, and Jew-hatred is about as uncontroversial a position as one can take in Egypt nowadays.

Soccer player stunt "like an Egyptian bomb in Tel Aviv"

From soccer site 101 Great Goals:

Last week, during Basel’s home match against Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Champions League, Basel’s star winger, Egyptian Mohamad Salah, went to great lengths to avoid shaking hands with his Israeli opponents.

Salah positioned a pair of boots on the side of the pitch and avoided the pre-match handshakes under the pretense of changing his orange Adidas footwear.

That incident went viral, and ahead of the return leg in Tel Aviv on Tuesday night there had been planty of chatter whether Salah would even be arriving in the Jewish land for political reasons.

In the end Salah did turn up in Israel, despite telling reporters before the match:

In my thoughts I am going to play in Palestine and not Israel, and I am also going to score and win there. The Zionist flag won’t be shown in the Champions League.

As it turned out, Salah’s pre-match predictions played out according to his word. The Egyptian scored Basel’s second goal in a thrilling 3-3 draw, which saw the Swiss club knock out Maccabi 4-3 on aggregate.

Salah’s behaviour before the match in Tel Aviv also drew plenty of attention as, once again, the Basel player fudged the pre-game handshake pomp.

Rather than shaking his opponents hands like normal, Salah devised a trick to get around the customarily duty as he gave a fist-bump to the Maccabi players as he walked down the line.

Many reports in the Arab world seem to be celebrating Salah’s innovative way of not shaking the Maccabi Tel Aviv player’s hands, however these days it could be argued that a fist-bump is a normal method of displaying a greeting in public.

Will UEFA investigate this shocking lack of sportsmanship from the Egyptian?

Egyptian newspaper El Fagr described what Saleh did in heroic terms, even though he was the first Egyptian player to appear in Israel in nearly twenty years.

The newspaper's choice of an analogy to describe this so-called heroism?

A terrorist attack.

The headline says "Egyptian 'bombs' in the middle of Tel Aviv cause devastation."

The accompanying photo shows an Israeli flag being burned.

The article says that Saleh's actions "succeeded in landing several blows, like Egyptian bombs destroying central Tel Aviv." It adds that his actions were "a horrible nightmare that destroyed the Zionists."

It also said that his playing, coming during Ramadan, reminded the Israelis of the Egyptian "defeat of the Zionists" in the Yom Kippur War, which also occurred during Ramadan.

Yes, "moderate" Egypt considers a soccer player's antics to be as great as a major terror attack in Tel Aviv. Which says quite a bit about Egypt.

Pallywood training in Egypt as "protesters" pose for the cameras

This video is amazing.

It shows a Muslim Brotherhood "demonstration" in Egypt that was specifically staged to get the most dramatic poses, as the actors freeze their poses for the photographers. Injuries and even bloodstains are faked.

The actors and media are all complicit in the scam.

(h/t Ian, Tim Blair)

The best news out of Egypt

From Al Ahram:

Egypt's interim president, Adly Mansour, had amended the law regulating the punishment for the crime of insulting the president.

His presidential decree stated that if found guilty, the accused could pay a fine of up to LE30,000 ($4,290) but no less than LE10,000 ($1,430).

This amends Article 170 of the Egyptian penal code, which dictated that an insult to the president lands the offender a minimum of 24 hours in jail but not to exceed three years.

Several activists, political figures and civilians were detained or forced to pay a fine for allegedly offending deposed president Mohamed Morsi.

The number of "insulting the president" lawsuits during Morsi's reign exceeds those filed under all Egyptian rulers since 1892, reveals the Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) in a report issued in January.

Furthermore, it says 24 lawsuits for insulting then-president Morsi had been filed against journalists and activists since his inauguration in June 2012. Three of the lawsuits were filed by the president's office with the prosecutor-general.

Not too many national leaders, even interim leaders, would have the humility to pull this off.

Maybe the interim government can throw in laws that give women equal rights and other Western-style liberal laws that would be difficult for subsequent governments to overturn without looking bad.

Egyptian paper says Iron Man story is from the Quran

In the middle of a rambling article in Egypt's New El Fagr newspaper, we learn that the movie Iron Man was actually inspired by the Quranic story of the Prophet David.

You will recall that Tony Stark created his first Iron Man suit by painstakingly smelting and welding metal in the mountains of Afghanistan.

This is just like David, who, the Quran informs us, was the first to create armor! As Wikipedia notes:

Islamic belief holds that God taught David the making of armour. the Qur'an says the 'iron was made soft for him', through which David could make instruments for protection against enemies. However, the rule in this story is to use weapons of defense only in true war (e.g., if you are fighting for freedom of worship) and not to simply use weapons for degenerate violence. Later accounts in Muslim literature have references to David's armor-making abilities.God says in the Qur'an:

We favoured David with excellence, (and commanded): "O mountains and birds, glorify the greatness of God with him." And We made iron pliable for him.
"Make long coats of mail," (We said), "and fix their links, and do the right. I surely see whatsoever you do."
—Qur'an, surah 34 (Saba), ayat 10-11[9]

In addition, if i am understanding the article correctly, David was called "lion-hearted" - and Tony Stark replaced his heart with one that is not human either!

It's uncanny!

Egyptian siege continues - only two groups visited Gaza in July

Palestine Today reports that there has been a sharp drop in outside parties visiting Gaza over the past month, with only two delegations allowed into the Hamas-ruled territory during July.

In contrast, some 27 groups visited in June and 20 in May.

Officials said that this is because of much stricter Egyptian rules allowing people to cross the Rafah crossing.

According to Aladdin Batta of Hamas' ministry of foreign affairs, the lack of visitors hurt the education and medical sectors.

I still have not seen anyone referring to Egypt's near-total isolation of Gaza as being a "siege" or a "blockade."

Meanwhile, Israel isn't only allowing medical patients and their families to come into Israel from Gaza, but also some families to visit relatives in the West Bank:

Many other Gazans cross into Israel to visit relatives living in Judea and Samaria. Each month, IDF officials help more than 3,000 Palestinians pass through the crossing to visit their families. This month, as Palestinian Muslims observe the holiday of Ramadan, higher numbers of travelers are visiting Israel to celebrate the holiday with family members.

I almost feel bad for the Muslim Brotherhood

Sure, they were building a theocracy in Egypt. Yes, they were actively shutting down press freedoms. Of course, they were supporting Hamas terrorism. Certainly, they threw opponents off of roofs at times. Absolutely they incited against Copts and other minorities.

But the people replacing the MB are just as crazy and certainly just as willing to make up lies about the Muslim Brotherhood as the MB was when it was in power.

I noted a couple of weeks ago that a lawsuit was filed against the Brotherhood to determine whether it was making backroom deals with the American Jewish Committee to allow Jews to return to Egypt en masse.

Well, a reporter who obviously hates the Ikhwan has done some amazing investigative journalism and figured out exactly what the AJC and the MB were scheming in their "secret meeting." (Of course, AJC press releases at the time, saying that they discussed rights for Copts and women, cannot be trusted.)

Besides the deal to give a good portion of Egypt back to Egyptian Jews, we learn that the AJC includes Mossad members. Naturally. And the Mossad was working hand in hand with their Islamist allies to come up with ways to secure Israel.

This is besides the articles claiming that the founder of the MB was Jewish and other conspiracy theories that gain respected airings in mainstream post-Morsi Egyptian media.

I honestly think that if the Egyptian army completes the coup, cancels future elections and installs a military dictator, that would be the least bad of all options available for Egypt during the next five years.

Turkey upsets new Egyptian government

The changing political landscape in the Middle East from the Egyptian coup/revolution is nothing if not fascinating.

From Hurriyet Daily News:

Turkey’s ambassador to Cairo was again summoned by Egypt’s Foreign Ministry on July 30 due to remarks made Turkish officials on the military ouster of President Mohamed Morsi, which Egyptian diplomats describe as a “‘clear intervention’ in their internal affairs.”

Ambassador Hüseyin Avni Botsalı was previously summoned in early July, after the Egyptian authorities expressed unease over the Turkish leader’s criticisms about recent developments in the country.

Turkish leaders, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, have repeatedly slammed the military overthrow of elected Egyptian President Morsi, calling for his “immediate” release.

Egyptian liberal, secular party accuses the US of being a Nazi state

Being completely bonkers is not only the domain of the Islamists. Even the "good guys" are crazy.

Al Wafd, the newspaper of the liberal Wafd party, has already been shown to report a bizarre story about a US medical research center in Egypt that, they claim, is creating pathogens to kill Egyptians and cause birth defects, among other horrendous things.

On the lighter side, al Wafd also reported that Madonna was helping Zionist take over the world.

Now, the newspaper publishes an extended rant that says, repeatedly, that the US is a Nazi state, that it supported the Muslim Brotherhood, that it funds sedition, and that it supports terror groups and calls it a War on Terror. These terror groups are meant to take over Egypt.

The facta are crystal clear .. Egypt will not accept to be a field for experiments in failed U.S. policy .. We will not leave the future of our country, to an America anomaly that has fallen under the influence of the World Zionists .. It has also become clear to everyone that Egypt would not retreat from fighting terrorism .. terrorists and their presence in Egypt is unacceptable ..

Egypt imposes closure of ports from people coming from Syria, Iraq, Libya, Palestine and Yemen .. Egypt's security is more important than anything...

Those who chant slogans "To Jerusalem we go ... [martyrs in the milions]" are a Trojan "donkey" for the implementation of the Zionist scheme of transfer and the evacuation of Arab land to Jews ..

How can any Western country navigate an Arab world where each group is nuttier than the next? Especially when they seem to make it a competition!

Egyptian MB leader says Jews behind all anti-Islamist actions worldwide

I gotta admit, I enjoy seeing these people freak out.

Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie accused Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of carrying out massacres "only likened by those carried out by enemy Zionists and their treacherous agents."

In a message addressed to Sisi on Sunday, Badie said that Sisi is even worse than the Pharaoh who used to kill the children of the believers and let the women live. "You and your soldiers are worse, you kill everybody," he said.

...Badie also said that the current regime with its security, military, judicial, and media tools twists the truth such that communications with Gaza are portrayed a crime while communications with the Zionist enemy are considered an honor.

Badie accused "Zionist fingers" of meddling in the affairs of the Arab Spring countries the same way they are present in Egypt in order to build a Greater Israel.

He added that the Zionists have killers in Libya and Tunisia assassinate political activists opposed to the Islamist current to pave the way for the removal of Islamists from power.

Badie has no idea how deep the conspiracy goes.

After all, in Jew-owned Hollywood, movies are sent worldwide with Western/Zionist ideas of who is a good guy and who is a bad guy.

Someone named "Badie" never had a chance.

Hamas, spurned by Egypt, tries to get cozy with Iran again

Hamas spokesman Salah Bardawil, speaking to the Xinhua news agency, stated that Hamas is "ready and welcomes all forms of dialogue with Iran to strengthen relations between the two sides."

Bardawil said that relations between Hamas and Iran "had not been interrupted at all" but he admitted that "they have become frosty since the crisis in Syria ... but we emphasize that Hamas does not want to drop relations with any Arab or Muslim party that supports the Palestinian cause."

On Tuesday, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Araghchi announced that Iran and Hamas are resolving issues that caused "misunderstandings" between them.

This comes after the Egyptian public, and army, have come out strongly against the Gaza-based Islamist group that enjoyed close ties with the Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas needs a new patron that can help it pay its bills, and tacitly backing Assad is apparently a price it is willing to pay - a move that will, if made public explicitly, cause some serious damage to Hamas' reputation in the larger Arab world.

On the flip side, Iran has been having a hard time to position itself as the leader of the Muslim world when every major Sunni group bitterly opposes it. Hamas helps Iran as well.

It will be interesting to see if Khaled Meshal, Hamas "political" head who has been moving from country to country in search of a new permanent Hamas headquarters to replace Syria, will be on board with this.

Egypt's gas line to Jordan bombed again

At dawn today, the gas pipeline from Egypt to Jordan was bombed, for the second time this month.

Unidentified gunmen riding in a four-wheel drive car bombed the pipeline that carries natural gas from Egypt to Jordan in the Kharouba" area, east of El Arish.

While the Egyptian police arrested a Gaza man for the last explosion, the incentive to blow up these lines is unclear.

In possibly related news, ever since the Egyptian coup, the energy crisis in Egypt has apparently, temporarily, disappeared. Gas lines are gone and electricity shortages have been vastly reduced. Cooler temperatures may be responsible for less pressure on the electrical grid, and many are saying that the crackdown on illegal smuggling of diesel and petrol to Gaza is helping the situation in Egypt.

It could also be that people are not hoarding as much as they were before the revolution.

Egypt restricts fishing boats next to Gaza. Guess why?

There have been years of negative articles about Israel restricting Gaza boats for security reasons.

Which makes this article from Ma'an so interesting:

Egypt has prohibited fishing off the coast of northern Sinai as a security measure to stop militants entering the peninsula by sea.

Egyptian security officials told Ma'an that the decision aims to prevent Palestinians and members of militant groups from entering Egyptian territory.

The ban will continue indefinitely, officials said, and will affect fishermen in El-Arish, Rafah and other northern coastal areas.

Since a crackdown on smuggling tunnels two months ago, people have increasingly begun entering Egypt using fishing boats, usually at night.

Egyptian coast guards recently intercepted a boat carrying 10 Palestinians, six of whom managed to escape.

Four of the men arrested were said to belong to a militant Jihadist group in Gaza, officials said.

Hold on - you mean that terrorists do use boats to try to move in and out of Gaza?

Who knew?

Apparently, Israel did - but you wouldn't know that from the NGOs slamming Israel for protecting itself off the coast of Gaza.

Egypt says helicopter over Gaza was "to protect our sovereignty"

Last week I noted Arab reporters that an Egyptian helicopter hovered over Gaza for about an hour. The Times of Israel quoted Israeli sources as saying it accidentally strayed over Gaza for only a few minutes.

Now, an adviser to the interim Egyptian president is saying it was deliberate.

Al Ahram reports that Dr. Mustafa Hijazi, a political adviser to the president, said that the Egyptian overflights over the Gaza Strip comes as part of a security framework for the protection of Egyptian sovereignty. At a news conference Wednesday afternoon he said that there are military operations to clear the Sinai cleared of terrorists and to defend its "sovereignty of the homeland."

Clearly, Egypt is still regarding Gaza as a major threat to its own security, even though Hamas stresses that it has no desire to hurt Egypt.

Israeli moves to defend its own territory from threats from Gaza are a bit more likely to result in UN condemnations, though.

Egypt arrests a Gazan for blowing up gas line to Jordan

A week ago I noted that the gas pipeline from Egypt to Jordan had been bombed, and that this has happened just as often as it used to when the pipeline also went to Israel.

Which makes this story interesting:

Egyptian security officials arrested a Palestinian man late Friday in relation to a bomb blast which targeted a gas pipeline in Sinai last week, security officials said.

Mohamed Abu Hashem, 30, was detained in the Sinai peninsula while trying to return to the Gaza Strip, Egyptian officials said, and faces charges of blowing up a gas pipeline in north Sinai last Sunday.

Saboteurs blew up the pipeline, which supplied natural gas to Jordan, in two places.

One explosion shook the city of El-Arish, causing flames which could be seen from the distance, witnesses and security officials said.

A Jordanian government official confirmed that gas supplies to the energy-poor kingdom were cut.

"The gas supplies to Jordan stopped due to the attack," the official told state-run Petra news agency.

"The Egyptian authorities have informed us that they are currently evaluating the situation and the damage," he added without elaborating.

Egyptian gas covers 80 percent of electricity generation in Jordan, which imports 95 percent of its energy needs.

Why would Gazans want to disrupt gas to Jordan?

Are they being hired out as mercenaries by Islamists, knowing they can hide in Gaza?

Or perhaps hired by other Egyptians who are against subsidized gas deals with other countries while Egypt doesn't have enough for itself?

Perhaps the new anti-Hamas government in Egypt is using any Palestinian they can find as a scapegoat?

Or maybe terrorism is sometimes just a habit, and when Jewish targets aren't convenient then the terrorists turn to lower-hanging fruit?

Egyptian Sufi leader says Hamas is a satanic arm of the Jews

Sufi leader Mustafa Zayed defended Egypt's closing of the Gaza borders and smuggling tunnels. He expressed support for the Palestinian Arabs who are suffering, he says, under Hamas rule, an organization that seeks to split them into separate sectors.

"Everyone knows" that Hamas is really a satanic arm of the Jews, according to Zayed.

While he expressed sympathy for the Palestinians in Gaza, he also said that the problem is partially their fault, because they have allowed this rotten and demnonic organization to survive in their midst.

Report: Egyptian helicopter over Gaza this morning (update)

Palestine Press Agency reports that an Egyptian army helicopter flew at low altitude over Khan Younis and Rafah in Gaza at 2:30 this morning.

It hovered over the Gaza neighborhoods for nearly an hour, before it returned to Egyptian territory.

It appears that this was in conjunction with an operation to destroy tunnels under the border between Egypt and Gaza.

A security source said the helicopter was said to have come from the eastern region of the border with Egypt and entered Rafah where it flew for about half an hour, before it went to Khan Younis, without being approached by Israeli aircraft.

Ma'an seems to be the one that broke the story, and it is being picked up by many Palestinian and Egyptian Arabic media.

UPDATE: Times of Israel confirms it but says it was inadvertant and only for a few minutes.

Antisemitic "Khaybar" series has begun broadcasting

The antisemitic miniseries Khaybar has begun its Ramadan broadcasts.

Already the first episode is available in multiple sites, including YouTube. Apparently it was broadcast Wednesday night.

I found episode 2 here; no doubt in a few hours it will be on YouTube as well.

The synopsis of Episode 2 sounds nearly identical to recent Arabic articles about what is happening in Egypt. Jewish leaders of Khaybar ignite war between Arab tribes to weaken their strength, as they set fires to the houses of the Arabs to incite them to fight each other.

I don't understand the Arabic, but the obviously evil Jewish characters are ugly and overact, while the "good Jews" who are disgusted by how their leaders act and the Arabs are attractive.

The Internet ensures that the entire Arabic-speaking world, including in Europe, will see this incitement within hours of the original broadcasts.

There are many competing Ramadan programs, but Khaybar is the only historical drama being broadcast. The media has played it up as an must-see TV event.

And still, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty refuse to comment on this clear mass incitement against Jews.