Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, February 04, 2011

Egyptian conspiracy theories involving Israel spread

On Wednesday night, the Egyptian satellite TV station al-Mehwar broadcast a live interview with Shaimaa, a former journalist, who claimed to be trained by Jews in the US to destabilize the political regime in Egypt. Shaimaa said on air that many of the anti-Mubarak protesters at Tahrir Square have received similar training and have been applying it over the past week through organized demonstrations.

Rumors about Israel being the mastermind behind the Egyptian uprising spread on al-Qasr al-Aini Street. This morning, a pharmacist on the street claimed to have seen Egyptian troops arresting two Israelis at Tahrir demonstrations.

Close to al-Qasr al-Aini Hospital, a juice seller refused to sell water bottles to two Al-Masry Al-Youm reporters, who wanted to deliver them with medical supplies to the injured at Tahrir Square. “Israelis are killing our children and destroying our lives. I will take no part in supporting them,” he exclaimed.

Nevertheless, it remains unclear how many Egyptians truly believe that Israel constitutes the mastermind behind recent events.

Sherif Younis, a historian, attributes the dissemination of the rumors to a group of National Security Services members, secret police, NDP members, businessmen and media agencies—both government-owned and self-claimed independents--whose interests are tied to the existing political regime.

...

The media has been spreading a culture of fear among the Egyptian public, highlighting events of vandalism, looting and violence due to the absence of security forces. “Protect Egypt” has become a recurring slogan across various TV stations.

Last week, the Muslim Brotherhood was accused of organizing the protests. When this narrative failed to gain popular support, the recurring scenario of Israel emerged, said Younis.

For decades, Israel has been blamed as the root cause of all evil in Egypt. Despite the 1979 peace accords, the public continues to perceive it as a “symbol of evil or even Satan,” explained Younis. Egyptian media has been nurturing this narrative for years, with Egyptian cinema and TV showing Israelis as villains in various scenarios regardless of the genre of the movie.

Conspiracy theories are commonly accepted in Egypt, Younis said. Accusations of conspiring with Israel are common among opposition parties as well as the regime, he adds. The allegation was even used during sectarian strife earlier this year.

...

“Israeli-phobia” has become a characteristic of Egyptian national identity, which the state has been building over the past decades, said Younis.

Peaceful relations with Israel remain unacceptable to the majority of the Egyptian public, something acknowledged by the Israeli government in wikileaks documents released last year to the Jerusalem Post. Despite Israel’s unpopularity in Egypt, however, the Mubarak’s regime has remained one of its main supporters.

(h/t Clark)

A selection of today's analysis about Egypt

David Rieff at TNR on how US aid to Egypt, supposed to promote democracy, utterly failed.

Shmuel Rosner in Slate on Israel's fears. I don't agree with all of it ("Israel can be a spoiled brat") but he makes some thoughtful points.

Charles Krauthammer is great, as usual.

Reports are now surfacing of a massacre of two Coptic Christian families in Egypt last Sunday. No doubt by pro-democracy Muslim Brotherhood activists.

Benny Morris on why we should not be complacent about the Muslim Brotherhood.

Barry Rubin uncovers how the Muslim Brotherhood is likely to destroy the peace agreement with Israel.

So will Israel be able to take back the Sinai? Somehow, while other countries can always rip up their agreements, Israeli concessions are one-way.

"Apartheid" irony

From TheJC:

University security officers were called to protect the most senior Muslim in the Israeli Foreign Ministry when pro-Palestinian protesters disrupted his appearance at a British campus.

Diplomat Ismail Khaldi, a Galilee Bedouin, had just started to speak at Edinburgh University on Wednesday evening when demonstrators began chanting and surrounded him.

The university’s International Relations Society had earlier pulled out of the event, saying the invitation to Mr Khaldi was “unjust to the Palestinian people who live under an apartheid regime”.

A security team encircled Mr Khaldi as the gang chanted “shame on you” and accused Israel of ethnic cleansing.

The lecture was held up for around an hour before the speaker abandoned the event.

Yes - an Israeli Arab/Muslim who has a senior position in an Israeli government ministry - whose very existence is proof that there is no "apartheid" in Israel - is stopped from speaking by people who are screaming "apartheid!"

I forget - which side of this incident demonstrated liberal values? It is so confusing nowadays to keep it straight.

Hezbollah terrorists escape Egyptian jail

Last year:

An Egyptian court has convicted 26 men of planning terrorist attacks on ships and tourist sites.

The 22 men given prison sentences - some with hard labour - were accused of working for the Lebanese Islamist group Hezbollah.

Sami Shihab, a Lebanese citizen who Hezbollah had confirmed was a member, was given a life sentence.

The sentences were issued by the State Security Court in Cairo and cannot be appealed, reports say.

Another four men, who are still on the run, were convicted in absentia.

Now:

The Hezbollah militant group confirmed Thursday that members of its cell jailed in Egypt on terrorism charges escaped their jails during the ongoing civil unrest and are now safe at a hideout.

Mahmoud Komati, a senior member of the Iranian and Syrian backed Hezbollah, reported that Sami Shihab , the leader of the Hezbollah cell in Egypt, ‘was out of jail and safe.’

This follows the Wednesday report by by Al Rai newspaper that the 22 Hezbollah detainees that were convicted of plotting attacks against ships in the Suez Canal and Egyptian tourist sites, among other charges, were able to escape from their jail in Egypt.

Another dividend of Egyptian "freedom."

Egypt detains human rights activists; Wikileaks explains

From Amnesty USA (h/t Zach N via Facebook)

Two Amnesty International representatives have been detained by police in Cairo after the Hisham Mubarak Law Centre was taken over by military police this morning.

Amnesty International USA called on President Obama to immediately demand the release of the Amnesty International staff members. In addition, we have asked for a meeting in Washington with the Egyptian ambassador to the United States.

The Amnesty International representatives were taken, along with Ahmed Seif Al Islam Khaled Ali, a delegate from Human Rights Watch, and others, to an unknown location in Cairo. Amnesty International does not know their current whereabouts.

There happened to be a couple of Wikileaks cables released today that talks about how Egypt treats NGOs.

From December 2007, about a meeting of HRW's Joe Stork with Egypt's state security service SSIS:

Stork told us that Abdel Rahman opened the ninety minute meeting by asking that the discussion be "informal" and "off the record." Substantively, Stork characterized Abdel Rahman's position as "we (SSIS) don't do bad things." Abdel Rahman said that he commands over 40,000 police officers and told Stork he could count on one hand the number who had committed abuses. Abdel Rahman objected to Stork's use of the word torture, saying it implied something "systemic" and said Egypt's security services were "badly maligned." Stork asked about the monitoring and harassment of NGOs, which Abdel Rahman said was necessary because such organizations are run by "anarchists" and people with prior arrests who need "monitoring."

And from May 2009:

The quasi-governmental organization, the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR), released its 2008 human rights report on May 6, criticizing the GOE for specific violations and offering 25 recommendations.

The report criticizes the GOE for human rights violations such as restricting NGOs, continuing the emergency law and reacting violently to the April 2008 Mahalla strike. It also expresses concern over tensions between Christians and Muslims.

The most prominent of the 25 recommendations focus on ending the emergency law, combating torture, abolishing prison sentences as penalties for journalists, and easing restrictions on NGOs and political parties.

...Under the existing NGO law, the GOE is able to shut down NGOs, limit their activities and refuse to register them, and often utilizes these prerogatives.

Mubarak to Obama: "You don't understand Egypt's culture"

An article by Christiane Amanpour on her interview with Hosni Mubarak:

He said he's fed up with being president and would like to leave office now, but cannot, he says, for fear that the country would sink into chaos.

...While he described President Obama as a very good man, he wavered when I asked him if he felt the U.S. had betrayed him. When I asked him how he responded to the United States' veiled calls for him to step aside sooner rather than later, he said he told President Obama, "You don't understand the Egyptian culture and what would happen if I step down now."

In this case, Mubarak is telling the truth: Egypt will sink into chaos and Obama doesn't understand Arab culture.

Soros blames Israel for Egypt (NewsRealBlog)

At NewsRealBlog, I go into more detail on the ridiculous op-ed that George Soros wrote in today's Washington Post.

The most moderate PA leader blames Egypt situation on - Israel!

From Arab News (and AP):

PARIS: Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Thursday that the failure to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has helped fuel unrest in Egypt and elsewhere in the Mideast.

During a visit to Paris, Fayyad said protesters’ complaints stem not only from internal problems in their own societies, but also from “a frustration, a desperation because of the failure of efforts to solve the Palestinian problem.”

Fayyad, the darling of the West and the most moderate, reasonable leader that Palestinian Arabs are ever likely have, just can't wrap his head around the fact that the entire world doesn't revolve around Ramallah..

He also cannot seem to grasp that the Arab world has paid nothing but lip service to the Palestinian issue for years. They gave up because the Palestinian Arabs couldn't get their own act together and they continue to act like babies who want everything handed to them on a silver platter.

Babies who think that...the whole world revolves around them.

When a Western-educated, so-called moderate leader of Palestinian Arabs doesn't make any sense, it makes it very unlikely that any real peace deal could ever happen.

Peace cannot be built on lies, and that is all that the Palestinian Arabs have been fed for over sixty years.

For more clear-eyed views, see David Suissa and John Podhoretz. (h/t Michael in FL)

Gazans smuggling food OUT - to Egypt

From JPost:

The tunnels under the Philadelphi Corridor between Gaza and Egypt, used in the past to smuggle arms and supplies from Sinai into Gaza, are now an important lifeline of supplies for Sinai residents facing acute shortages because of the turmoil in Egypt, the Lebanese daily Al Akhbar reported Thursday.

According to the paper, which supports Hizbullah, traders in control of the tunnels have "been working for days" smuggling bread and food in the "opposite direction" - from Gaza into Egypt – because of "supply disruptions" from Cairo to the Sinai.

The paper acknowledged something that Israel has been arguing for months, that "Gaza's markets are no longer experiencing a shortage in most food" products since Israel eased the blockade of the region in June.

The smuggling out of Gaza does not impact on the supplies inside the Strip, those running the tunnels were quoted as saying.

This is not the first time the tunnels have been used to smuggle goods into Egypt, with western officials having said in the Fall that Israeli products, specifically fruits and vegetables, were making their way through the tunnels to Egyptian markets.

Isn't it amazing that in only one week of riots, Egyptians are in worse shape than Gazans after years of being besieged and imprisoned and suffering a slow genocide?

(h/t T34)

Guardian defends its "Palestine Papers" coverage

In the Jewish Chronicle, the Guardian defends itself against the accusations that their coverage of the Palestine Papers was biased and anti-Israel.

I think the record speaks for itself - the Guardian and Al Jazeera misinterpreted and misrepresented the papers to put Israel in the worst possible light, and they weren't above lying to do so.

But I found this part of their defense curious:

Examining the haul of 1600 documents, there were a number of passages that the Guardian's team of reporters agreed are highly significant.

These included the offer by Palestinian negotiators – in the context of an overall peace agreement – that Israel would annex all but one of the settlements in East Jerusalem. PLO negotiators also agreed to a remarkably low number of returning refugees.

These are two of the stories we ran, and almost a week after the rest of the world's media gained access to the documents – all of which are now publicly available – no one has found a major story that we missed. We were led, in other words, by the source material. It is no surprise that the majority of the stories concern the PLO, as most of the documents come from the PLO's negotiations unit.

I've been searching for the entire set of documents since the story broke. At the Guardian website, only 26 of the documents are available - no new ones since January 26th. I similarly cannot find a list of all the documents at Al Jazeera.

So the Guardian is claiming that they only highlighted the papers that are newsworthy, and they bring as proof that no one else has found any newsworthy papers - when they can't be found!

I would prefer to decide for myself what is newsworthy, thank you very much. (I've been doing that with Wikileaks.) Let the Guardian put all 1600 documents on their site and then we can truly decide.

UPDATE: Found them. I'll see if there is anything else newsworthy.

Israelis plan to occupy 14 million square miles of prime lunar real estate

From Ha'aretz:

If Yariv Bash, Kfir Damari and Yonatan Winetraub succeed and send a robot to the moon, they'll donate their millions in prize money to promote science among Israel youth. Yesterday the trio announced their participation in the Google Lunar X Prize competition - an effort to send an unmanned vehicle to the moon and beam back high-quality photos and short films.

The competition seeks to encourage space scientists and engineers from around the world to develop cheap technologies for robotic space exploration. To win, a team needs to raise private funding; the first team to achieve the mission gets $13 million; second prize is $5 million. The other prizes total $5 million. So far 13 groups have registered for the competition; prizes can be won up to the end of 2015.

The X Prize gained publicity in 2004 when Burt Rutan, who led a group in cooperation with Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, built and flew the first private manned spaceship.

The Israeli group's official declaration was issued at a space conference held by Tel Aviv University's Yuval Ne'eman workshop for science and technology. The group goes by the name SpaceIL and is registered in Israel as a nonprofit organization. It's the only Israeli team in the competition.

The three young men are not motivated by money; they view the competition as a national mission to develop Israel's ability to explore space.

The group has a website, http://www.spaceil.com, in Hebrew. "Our mission is to put the Israeli flag on the moon. During the next two years, we intend to build a small space robot that will make the long journey from the earth to the moon. The vision is to promote technological education in Israel," the website states.

Those Israelis, always trying to grab land.

Israeli technology behind Jeopardy computer contestant

From Israel21C:

A team of about a dozen IBM employees from four countries -- the United States, Israel, China and Japan - have built an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered supercomputer, "Watson," which could be the world's smartest question-and-answer machine.

On February 14, 15 and 16, Watson will take on Jeopardy champs on national TV in North America. The long running, prime-time program poses answers to which contestants must provide the correct trivia question.

Watson, though he's just a machine, will attempt to win a $1 million prize by playing against two of the brainy game show's most celebrated contestants, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, in two matches over three days. IBM has pledged that if Watson wins, all the prize money will go to charity.

Named after Thomas J. Watson, the founder of IBM, and the assistant to Sherlock Holmes, the supercomputer will have a fan club watching. Dafna Sheinwald from the IBM Haifa Lab in Israel will be at the taping, excited to see how man will compete against machine.

It was a huge mission to develop a computer that could rival a human's ability to answer spoken questions posed as answers. Sheinwald and her research partner, David Carmel, say the contribution from the Israeli team was search algorithms that help sort out meaningful information from reams of heterogeneous data. That's their specialty at the IBM R&D facilities.

I found a poor-quality video of a test run showing Watson against the same two contestants - and it was very impressive:

A YouTube commenter wrote:

Welcome back to Final Jeopardy.

Our category is "Integers divided by zero".

The state of human rights at the UN (UN Watch)

UN Watch's Hillel Neuer testified before Congress about the state of human rights at the UN:

The transcript is here. Excerpts:

The urgent problem that I wish to address is the state of human rights at the United
Nations.

As you know, the primary U.N. body in this area is the 47-nation Human Rights Council,
which was created in 2006 to replace the Commission on Human Rights and redress its
shortcomings. Under its founding resolution, the council was required to review its work
and functioning after five years. With this review now underway at the U.N., our own
discussion here is particularly timely.

Let us consider, then: How has the council performed in its first five years?

Methodology

Let us measure the council’s performance by the yardstick of the U.N.’s own standards.
These were set forth in 2005 by then-U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. In calling to
scrap the old commission, he identified its core failings:

 Countries had sought membership “not to strengthen human rights but to protect
themselves against criticism or to criticize others.”

 The commission was undermined by the “politicization of its sessions” and the
“selectivity of its work.”

 The commission suffered from “declining professionalism” and a “credibility
deficit”— which “cast a shadow on the reputation of the United Nations system as
a whole.”

Today, we ask: Has the council remedied these fatal flaws?

Looking ahead, the U.N. General Assembly made clear its expectations for the new
council. Resolution 60/251 of 2006 promised that the new council would elect members
committed to human rights. Serious violators would have their membership suspended.
The council would address the world’s most severe abuses, including by urgent sessions
that could be easily convened. The council’s work would be objective, impartial and nonselective.

Five years later, where do we stand?

...

Turning A Blind Eye to Victims

Apart from a handful of exceptions, such as resolutions on Burma and North Korea that
were inherited from the old commission, the council has systematically turned a blind eye
to the world’s worst human rights violations. The council has failed the victims who are
most in need of international attention.

Impunity for Worst of the Worst

o There have been no resolutions for victims in China, despite gross,
systematic and state-wide repression, the unjust imprisonment of Nobel
Laureate Liu Xiaobo, the massacre of Uighurs, and the killing of Tibetans;

o None for Cuba, where peaceful civic activists are beaten or languish in
prison;

o None for Iran, even as it massacred its own citizens while the council was
in session, and even as the regime continues to subject democracy activists
to torture, rape and execution;

o None for Saudi Arabia, where women are subjugated;

o None for Zimbabwe, despite ongoing brutality by the Mugabe regime;

o And the list goes on. In total, beyond the impunity for the worst of the
worst, approximately 180 out of 192 U.N. member states have never been
condemned by the council once for any human rights violations.

What is most troubling is that no resolutions have even been proposed regarding these
gross violators. For this the democratic minority cannot blame others.

Egypt ordered mobile phone companies to text pro-Mubarak messages

From Al Masry al-Youm:

In a press statement, international mobile operator Vodafone said that Egyptian authorities have ordered the network to send pro-government messages.

“Under the emergency powers provisions of the Telecoms Act, Egyptian authorities can instruct the mobile networks of Mobinil, Etisalat and Vodafone to send messages to the people of Egypt,” read the message posted on Vodafone’s website on 3 February.

According to the statement, the mobile network operators have no influence in the content or working of the messages.

“Vodafone Group protested to the authorities that the current situation regarding these messages is unacceptable. We have made clear that all messages should be transparent and clearly attributable to the originator,” read the statement.

Messages sent via Vodafone networks include a call to a protest on Wednesday in Mostafa Mahmoud square to support President Hosni Mubarak.

The funny part is that everyone is trying to use social media to frame what's going on to their advantage - but some do it more skillfully than others.

Even so, too many people are mindlessly believing everything they read on Twitter.