Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

The End of ‘Palestine'

2025-02-07

[TabletMag] Yesterday, President Donald Trump single-handedly collapsed the most destructive idea of the last hundred years—Palestine. During meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials, Trump said he was going to move 1.7 million Palestinians out of Gaza. And just like that, he broke the long spell that had captured generations of world leaders, peace activists, and Middle East terror masters alike, who had paradoxically come to regard the repeated failure and haunting secondary consequences of the idea of joint Arab Muslim and Jewish statehood in the same small piece of land as proof of its necessity.

Palestine was a misshapen idea from the beginning, engendered by an act of pure negation. The Arabs could have gone along with the U.N.’s partition plan like the Jews did, and chosen to build whatever version of Switzerland or Belgium on the eastern Med in 1948. Instead, they resoundingly chose war. That’s the storied "Nakba" at the core of the Palestinian legend—the catastrophe that drove the Arabs from their land and hung a key around the neck of a nation waiting to go home. The Arabs chose the catastrophe; they chose war, based on the premise that they would inevitably win and exterminate the Jews.

Yet despite repeated military failures, and the increasing distance between the first-world powerhouse that the Israelis built and their increasingly war-torn, third-world neighborhood, the global conscience was always predisposed to rebuilding what the Palestinians destroyed. Accordingly, the Palestinian Arabs became a tribe of feral children whose identity was carved out of the relentless vow to eliminate Israel and slaughter the Jews en masse—despite repeated failures, each one more crushing than the last.

Trump said, enough, we’re not rebuilding Gaza. Time for a new idea—the Gazans have to to go, they can try to start again somewhere else, in a land where every building still standing isn’t already wired to explode.
Personally, I believe that Arabs shouldn't live outside Arabian Peninsula.
What if they won’t go, or if the Egyptians and Jordanians won’t take them? They’ll take them, said Trump. Ah, he’s talking big, but it’s not real, say the experts—after all, he’s a real estate guy, and he’s pretending it’s just another property deal to pressure Hamas—Mar-a-Gaza. You can’t move a million people just like that, says an American electorate that elected Trump because he promised to deport tens of millions of illegal aliens who crossed the U.S. border in the last four years. He’s nuts says the D.C. foreign policy crowd: He’ll destabilize Egypt and Jordan, and undermine America’s best Arab friends and allies in the region.

Yet Trump is right to see both Egypt and Jordan as paltry constructions with little-to-no ability to project force on America’s behalf, and whose survival depends month to month on American aid. Cairo is useful to the United States only insofar as it, one, makes sure the Suez Canal is open and, two, observes the peace treaty with Israel—i.e., continues its campaign of repression against a populace of 112 million people who can barely afford to buy bread, and many of whose dreams are filled with the same insanity that drives Hamas. The only antidote to this misery that Egypt’s rulers have found is blaming the Zionists next door for the ills of their own society, while torturing religious extremists in their prisons. Maybe when Elon Musk is finished fixing Washington he can conduct an audit of where American money goes in Egypt. Somehow, I doubt he’d get in the door.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s problem is that he allowed Hamas to smuggle arms through the Philadelphi crossing into Gaza, thereby violating Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel—which is what we nominally pay him for. From the perspective of Trump, an American president keen to enforce treaty obligations, Sisi has a new chance to prove himself as a friend of America and not a grafting liar by adding a million Gazans—who in the past have been ruled by Egypt and have family names like al-Masri ("the Egyptian")—to Egypt’s existing population of 112 million, amounting percentagewise to roughly the same number of legal immigrants that the United States accepts per year. Sisi can deal with the Hamas members among the Gazan immigrants the same way he deals with Muslim Brotherhood militants in his own society—or he can give them all medals for their service. It’s up to him.

And if not? Well, he might remember that Hosni Mubarak’s regime collapsed not because of Muslim Brotherhood-led street protests during the 2011 Arab Spring but because Barack Obama withdrew his support from the longtime U.S. ally.

With money from the Gulf states, or even Israel, Sisi can afford to absorb Palestinians and might even volunteer to take all of Gaza—the average salary in Egypt at present being the equivalent of $5,000 per year. He can then leave Jordan’s King Abdullah responsible for the rest of the Palestinians in the likely event that Trump, as he did in his first term, encourages Netanyahu to annex the Jordan Valley, or goes a step further and acknowledges Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.

Since the CIA has long treated the Hashemite Kingdom as a key asset, we can expect within the next week The Washington Post’s David Ignatius to publish an article based on intelligence sources—i.e., U.S. and Jordanian spies—concocting a story about Trump’s rationale for "destabilizing Jordan." The reality is that the Jordanians, with U.S. help, put down a Palestinian rebellion in 1970. The country of a little more than 11 million is already estimated to be two-thirds Palestinian, the rest Jordanian tribesmen, and it’s hard to see how adding another 500,000 Palestinians will make it harder for Jordan’s notoriously effective security services to contain their neighbors, especially if the offer includes a few dozen more Black Hawk helicopters. After all, no one will expect the Jordanians to allow Hamas to build a giant tunnel-city stuffed with rocket factories beneath their encampments while giving them billions in foreign aid to pay for it all.

Re: Saudi Arabia: Moving millions of Gazans who have repeatedly attacked their Israeli neighbors out of what is now a shattered war zone is a sensible investment in the kind of stability that helps rich people get richer.

Again, the key players here aren’t Jordan and Egypt but the oil rich Gulf Cooperation Council states, especially Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and of course Qatar. Trump might make Saudi largesse in resettling the Gazans a precondition for the much-hyped prospect of normalizing relations between Riyadh and Jerusalem. Given the fact that Israel regularly attracts nine- and 10-figure investments from Silicon Valley’s biggest funds, the reality is that the Saudis have little to offer Israel except for money applied to exactly this type of local purpose. Moving millions of Gazans who have repeatedly attacked their Israeli neighbors out of what is now a shattered war zone is a sensible investment in the kind of stability that helps rich people get richer.

The Arabs and Democrats are only the most vocal of the many opposed to Trump’s initiative. Left-wing governments from Europe to Australia are lining up to pledge their allegiance to the fantasy of a Palestinian state, in the hopes of propitiating Muslim and Arab constituencies at home—whose understanding of "peace" means eliminating Israel. But even leaving the patent bad faith of those professing "peace" aside, moving Gazans out of Gaza is the only sane option 14 months after they initiated a campaign of rape, murder, and hostage-taking that brought their own house down on their heads.

After all, what’s more fanciful, moving 1.7 million people out of Gaza, a large portion of whom would simply be required to board air-conditioned buses or walk across the nearby Egypt border, or compelling them to live in a giant rubble field booby-trapped by an Iran-backed terrorist group? Estimates vary as to how long it would take to clear Gaza of explosives—half a decade or more? Fifteen years? Twenty? Are the Gazans supposed to live quietly in tents for the next decade or two while their homes are rebuilt next door? Where? In "temporary cities" made of Dwell Magazine-like rehabbed shipping containers built by graduates of Birmingham University? In Hamas’ tunnels?

Regardless, should the Palestinians remain in Gaza, they would invariably return to war no matter how much munificence the Gulf Arab states, the European Union, and perhaps even the U.S. might shower on the toxic sand castle built over the past two decades with billions of Western aid money. Proof the Palestinians can’t and won’t keep the peace is that even after they won a reprieve when Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff forced the Biden administration’s cease-fire on Jerusalem, Hamas and its NGO-supported human shields celebrated in the streets as if the Hamas space program had successfully landed Palestinians on Mars. Even as Israel released jailed murderers, the Gazans paraded Israeli hostages through the ruins of Gaza like trophies of war.

The Saudis, Qataris, Emiratis and others who now rend their clothes while lamenting the likely fate of their ant-farm death cult might well have counseled: Quiet brothers, you have been spared. Don’t bring attention to yourselves. For the winds of Gaza shift on a whim and who knows if you are not next to be swept away by fate—or the American president.

Here is the stark reality: Gazans, not just the enlisted members of the Hamas brigades, waged an exterminationist campaign against Israel, and they lost. At virtually any other time in history, save the last 75 years, they would be lucky to lose only territory and not have their legend and language permanently deleted from the book of the living.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Lebanon arrests late Muslim Brotherhood leader’s son wanted by Egypt: source

2024-12-30

[IsraelTimes] Judicial official, speaking anonymously, says Beirut will ask for file on Abdul Rahman al-Qaradawi before deciding on extradition; Cairo convicted him in absentia for terrorism

Lebanese authorities have arrested Abdul Rahman al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian opposition activist wanted by Cairo and son of the late spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, a Lebanese judicial official told AFP on Sunday.

Qaradawi, also a poet, was detained on Saturday as he arrived from Syria at the Masnaa border crossing due to an Egyptian arrest warrant, the official said.

The warrant was “based on an Egyptian judiciary ruling” sentencing Qaradawi in absentia to five years’ jail on charges of “opposing the state and inciting terrorism,” the official added.

His father was prominent Sunni scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is outlawed in Egypt.

The late scholar was imprisoned several times in Egypt over his links to the Muslim Brotherhood. He died in 2022, after decades in exile in Qatar.

Lebanese authorities “will ask the Egyptian authorities” to transfer Abdul Rahman al-Qaradawi’s file for examination, the judicial official said, requesting anonymity, as they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The judiciary will make a recommendation on whether “the conditions are met for him to be extradited” and the matter will be referred to the Lebanese government, which must make the final decision, the official added.

Qaradawi was a political organizer against the government of longtime Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, who was toppled in 2011 in the Arab Spring uprising.

He later became a vocal opponent of current Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, who in 2013 overthrew elected president Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood.

A family friend told AFP that Qaradawi holds Turkish citizenship and was returning from a visit to Syria, where rebels led by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham toppled longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad on December 8.

Assad’s ousting came more than 13 years after war broke out in Syria with the brutal repression of anti-government protests in 2011.

Qaradawi had posted a video online taken at Damascus’s Umayyad mosque, celebrating Assad’s fall, expressing hope for “victory” in other Arab Spring countries including Egypt, and warning Syrians of “malicious regimes” in “the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt,” who he described as “Zionist-affiliated states.”

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

What Syria is made of. How a bomb planted by the French exploded 80 years later

2024-12-11

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Artemy Sharapov

[REGNUM] The flags flying over the Syrian embassies in Istanbul, Stockholm, Yerevan, and Moscow are being changed — a visible symbol of the fact that “power has changed.” The flag of the armed opposition that took control of the country was already the state flag — until 1958.

In a sense, time has turned back in Syria to the times before the rise to power of the secular Arab socialists, from whose ranks emerged the Assad “dynasty” that ruled the country from 1970 to 2024.

In order to understand the rapidly unfolding events now (after all, after 13 long years of civil war, the situation has changed dramatically in just 12 days), it is necessary to at least briefly glance at the recent history of Syria.

FOUR IN ONE
The word "Syria" ("Suriyya" in Arabic) is ancient, but the state with this name is only 78 years old. Until the end of World War I, this part of the Levant, that is, the Eastern Mediterranean, belonged to the Ottoman Empire. The Turks drew the borders of the provinces (vilayets) based on the convenience of governance, without regard for the diversity of ethnic groups and religions. Present-day Syria, Lebanon and the southern part of Turkey proper were divided between the vilayets of Damascus, Aleppo, Beirut and Deir ez-Zor.

When the Entente defeated Germany and its allies (including the Ottoman Empire) in 1918, the victorious powers divided up the Turkish Sultan's possessions. France — formally, under a League of Nations mandate — got the territories of modern Syria, Lebanon, and the Turkish province of Hatay. All of this was called Greater Syria.

Syrian centenarians – there are almost a quarter of a million of them in the country – can remember the times when the French assembled the country and drew its borders as they saw fit. Initially, the Mandatory authorities divided their possessions into six “states” along ethnic lines.

Thus, in the north, the state of Aleppo was allocated to the Kurds, Sunni Arabs, Turks and their relatives, the Turkomans. On the Mediterranean coast (in the present-day province of Latakia, where the Russian Khmeimim base and the Tartus base are now located) there was the Alawite state. It was intended for the compactly living Alawite religious community, whose religion is so different from orthodox Islam that many Sunnis and Shiites do not consider them to be true believers, as well as for Shiites and Christians.

Another unorthodox community, the Druze, living in southern Syria, was given the state of Jabal Druze. The Sunnis and Shiites of the southwest were given the state of Damascus. Finally, Greater Syria included what is now Lebanon.

But in 1926, the French separated Lebanon (which was distinguished by its high ethno-religious diversity, even by Middle Eastern standards) into a separate mandated territory. The Hatay region, after long interethnic clashes and complaints to the League of Nations, was given to the Turks (Syria, however, did not recognize Turkey's sovereignty over this territory until 2005).

And from the remaining lands, the French authorities, for the sake of convenience of governance, cobbled together a country that had never existed before. In one territory there were Sunni Arabs, Shiite Arabs, Alawites, Ismailis, Christian Arabs, Armenians, Druze, Kurds, Turkomans and Assyrians.

There is nothing special about this, however: the British authorities created the never-existent state of Iraq on the same principle. When leaving, the Europeans sought to ensure that their former colonies would always have ethnic and confessional tensions that would periodically “explode” into wars. And, it must be admitted, they succeeded.

ONE COUNTRY, TWO STARS, MANY REVOLUTIONS
Since gaining independence in 1947, Syria (like Iraq) has experienced a series of military coups, uprisings and has intervened in several wars with Israel.

The optimal way to keep ethnic groups, confessions, clans and influence groups in line (and to keep the interests of these warring groups in balance) was an army dictatorship. However, this type of government was traditionally unstable for the Middle East. Between 1946 and 1956, the country saw 20 governments and 4 constitutions.

In 1958–1961, the country lost its independence, becoming part of the United Arab Republic (UAR) for a time, the brainchild of the ambitious Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser. At that time, instead of the previous green-white-black flag, Syria adopted the black-white-red pan-Arab flag of the UAR with two green stars (the two stars originally symbolized the two "union republics", Egypt and Syria). In 1961, another coup took place in Syria, this time against Nasser. The country left the UAR, but the flag remained.

In 1963, the military changed power again. Now the country is "ruled" by the regional branch of the Baath Party - the Arab Socialist Renaissance Party (in the same year, Baath comes to power in Iraq). The word "Arab" was added to the name "Syrian Republic", which is unlikely to be to the taste of non-Arab ethnic groups, primarily the Kurds inhabiting the northeast of the country.

Three years later, in 1970, another coup takes place, this time within the Baathist leadership, and the leader of the country is the former commander of the Air Force, a native of the influential Alawite clan, Hafez al-Assad.

LIONS ON THE THRONE
The father and grandfather of the presidents of Syria, Ali Suleiman, the leader of a mountain clan in Latakia, changed his former nickname al-Wahsh (the savage) to a more harmonious one and one corresponding to his social status back in the 1920s: al-Assad (the lion).

Hafez al-Assad, who held the presidency from 1971 until his death in 2000, was called "the Sacred One" ("al-Muqaddas") and "the Immortal Leader." His son and successor, Bashar al-Assad, was titled a little more modestly upon ascending to the "throne" - "the Hope of the People."

It is hardly possible to reproach the Assads for a cult of personality: this was typical of Middle Eastern secular regimes - Baathist Iraq under Saddam Hussein, Egypt from Nasser to Hosni Mubarak, the Libyan Jamahiriya of Muammar Gaddafi, etc.

There is an opinion that the years of the Assad family in power were a dictatorship of the Alawite religious community, to which Hafez and his son Bashar belonged. According to a slightly more complex version, the Assads relied on a coalition of ethno-religious minorities: Alawites, Shiites, Druze, Christians, etc.

In fact, a regime was created in the country that was in many ways similar to Saddam's government: a group of authoritative military men in power, united by common interests with a division of spheres of influence.

ON THE BRINK OF SPRING
And it was this system that largely allowed the Syrian government to successfully repel the first onslaught of Islamists – the Muslim Brotherhood* uprising of 1976–1982. The storming of the city of Hama, which was commanded by the president’s younger brother Rifaat al-Assad, was considered a model for restoring order (it was this battle that pacified the radical jihadists for a long time).

Syria's loss of the Yom Kippur War with Israel did not shake the regime's position. Especially since the Assads waged a successful proxy war with the same Israel in Lebanon.

Compared to Saddam Hussein’s regime, which essentially fell victim to its own foreign policy adventures, the Assad “dynasty” demonstrated stability. But Soviet specialists who worked in the country in the 1970s and 1980s recalled that the situation was consistently unsettled. Explosions and shootouts “somewhere on the outskirts” were commonplace, and even family members of civilian specialists were trained in case of a terrorist attack.

The stability gained at such a high price allowed the country's economy to develop until the crisis caused by the US invasion of neighboring Iraq in 2001 erupted. The constant influx of refugees and the growth of radical sentiments in the region could not help but affect Syria.

At the same time, discontent grew among a part of Syrian society and the army, who had been removed from key positions. The political opposition demanded democratic reforms (essentially, a redistribution of power and property), while the Islamists demanded the introduction of Sharia law.

Therefore, the wave of unrest throughout the Arab world (the so-called Arab Spring) and the fall of governments in Yemen, Egypt and Tunisia in 2011–2012 and the outbreak of war in Libya could not but lead to similar events in Syria.

BEGINNING OF HALF-LIFE
In 2011, protests began across the country, quickly escalating into fighting. Some of the armed forces broke away from government control, forming the Free Syrian Army (FSA). They were joined by local Islamist militias known as the Islamic Front and a number of other groups.

The country, first assembled by the French and then by the Damascus military regimes, began to fall apart at the seams. A number of regions in the north, near the border with Turkey (where the Turkmen tribes live), and in the south, in the regions adjacent to Jordan and Israel, where the Druze live, have left the government's control.

At the same time, in the northwest, in areas of ethnic Kurdish residence, a local administration and armed structures were created that were equally hostile to the government in Damascus and the opposition.

By the beginning of 2012, the revolution and “democratization” were forgotten – a full-scale civil war broke out in the country.

WAR OF THE ENCLAVES
Unlike traditional wars, where the sides are divided by a front line and strive to break through it, the map of the war in Syria quickly took shape into a bizarre mosaic of several colors.

After the authorities managed to suppress the opposition and Islamists in most major cities, they were pushed out to the outskirts, where they strengthened their positions. For example, in Aleppo, the armed opposition retained part of the central districts of the city and the northwestern outskirts, in Homs – the northern districts of the city and the suburb of al-Rastan, in the vicinity of Damascus – entire oases of dozens of settlements, closely adjacent to the city quarters. In one of these enclaves – Eastern Ghouta, there were up to ten thousand armed people.

On the other hand, the successful opposition offensive led to the capture of large territories in the provinces of Raqqa, Idlib and Hama. But even here there remained enclaves that remained loyal to the government. First of all, areas inhabited by religious minorities.

For example, the cities of Fua and Kafariya in Idlib province; Nubl and Zahraa in Aleppo province have been fighting in complete encirclement for several years. The reason is simple: Shiites live here, “heretics” from the point of view of the militants who consider themselves devout Sunnis.

The history of the city of Deir ez-Zor stands apart, its garrison, together with local militia units, was able to withstand several years of siege and wait for help to arrive. Several airbases also remained completely surrounded, the garrison of which did not surrender and continued to resist. The Tabqa, Abu Duhur and Menang airfields were eventually taken by storm, and their garrison was killed.

However, the garrison of the Kweires air base, consisting mainly of cadet pilots, was able to repel attacks for several years and eventually received outside help. Such tenacity and sometimes, without exaggeration, heroism seem even more incredible against the backdrop of the events of 2024, when the army simply refused to participate in military operations.

In other words, military operations were conducted on dozens of fronts at once, and the decisive role was often played not by regular armed formations, but by local forces.

DIVERSITY VS. GENOCIDE
The semi-collapse of the Syrian state after 2011 went hand in hand with the internationalization of the conflict. Since 2013, Al-Qaeda* and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant* (ISIS, later the Islamic State*) have been actively involved in the war.

The Wahhabi IS*, which by definition does not recognize existing state borders, included part of the territory of Syria with the cities of Idlib and Raqqa into its “caliphate,” which continued further to the east, capturing part of Iraq.

It is noteworthy that even in a state of simultaneous war on ten fronts throughout the country, the Damascus government of Bashar al-Assad has not lost control of the situation.

Over the course of several years of military action, the troops managed to fully or partially hold all major settlements. This was partly possible due to the actions of the armed opposition itself, in whose leadership former politicians and military personnel were often replaced by radicals. Those groups that swore allegiance to the terrorist international directly stated that they were bringing death to representatives of other religious communities: Christians, Shiite Muslims, Alawites and Ismailis. For example, in March 2014, Islamist units stormed the Armenian city of Kessab, carrying out ethnic cleansing in it.

And in this case, the thesis about the “coalition of minorities” opposing the Islamists and situationally supporting Bashar al-Assad is correct.

Thus, a pro-government Druze militia was formed in the province of Suwayda, a Christian militia in the city of Maharda in the province of Hama (later one of the most combat-ready formations of the government forces), and an Ismaili militia from Salamiyah and Masyaf. These formations were created primarily for the survival of their communities. They waged war on the side of the Assad government as long as they considered this government capable of protecting the interests of communities and ethnic groups.

Also on the government's side were representatives of local businesses and/or criminals, who simply did not want to give up their positions to new people and created militia units with their own money. The most famous example of such formations is the "Desert Falcons", financed by the Jaber clan from the Latakia province.

One should also not forget about the loyalty of some army commanders who refused to go over to the opposition for one reason or another. Among them are the commander of the defense of the encircled Deir ez-Zor, General Issam Zahreddine, and the hero of the defense of Aleppo, Suheil Hassan. Therefore, Bashar al-Assad managed to avoid the fate of Gaddafi and retain power, albeit having lost control over part of the country's territories.

But this could not go on forever.

START FROM SCRATCH
With access to almost inexhaustible human, financial and military resources from abroad, the Islamists have organized a series of successful military operations.

Government forces, on the contrary, began to gradually “run out of steam” and give up their positions by the mid-2010s. In the circumstances, the Syrian government turned to foreign military assistance.

Russia's involvement in ending the Syrian conflict since 2015, including support for the government army and other anti-ISIS forces "on the ground" and in the air, has radically changed the course of the long-standing war. Russia's peacekeeping efforts require a separate description. For now, several important points should be noted

The Russian leadership has always supported the Assad government in its fight against terrorism, while emphasizing that intra-Syrian reconciliation, the restoration of the balance of interests of the various communities, faiths and ethnic groups living here is the business of the Syrian people themselves. As President Vladimir Putin noted back in 2015, “we are not going to be more Syrian than the Syrians themselves.”

Moscow has always advocated for the normalization of dialogue between Syria’s political and religious forces and organizations, speaking about the need to conduct the most fruitful negotiations under the auspices of the UN.

Now that the government has collapsed, the danger of the conflict becoming "Somalizatsi" is growing, with a complete collapse of statehood and intercommunal wars. Therefore, now more than ever, dialogue is needed between the constituent parts of Syria, from the Kurds to the Druze and from the Alawites to the Sunnis.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

The history of Hamas' lifeline: 20 years of broken Egyptian pledges along Philadelphi Corridor

2024-08-14

[YNet] Nearly 20 years ago, a conversation took place between Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz that outlined a plan for deploying 750 Egyptian police officers along the Philadelphi Corridor within months to prevent arms smuggling.

The plan also included coordination between Egyptian and Israeli battalion and brigade commanders to thwart smuggling activities. However, this discussion did not occur recently or during the current war in Gaza but rather in March 2005, as part of the preparations for Israel's disengagement plan, which was implemented later that summer.

...An Israeli military source told The Washington Post in June that an estimated 20 tunnels in the area remain undetected. The source emphasized that before any IDF operation, contact is made with Egypt to coordinate activities. Just a few days ago, the IDF released footage of a 10-foot-high tunnel capable of accommodating large vehicles, which was discovered last week along the route.

Despite this, Egyptian officials continue to deny the existence of such tunnels. An Egyptian source recently denied "Israeli media reports about tunnels between Egypt and Gaza," describing them as "an Israeli attempt to escape the failure in Gaza." The source added, "Israel's failure to make progress in Gaza leads it to publish claims about the existence of tunnels to justify the continued attacks in the Strip."

The things people tend to forget is our system of morality is based on judging actions as right and wrong. Arabs' is based on relatedness: any conflict between brother & cousin, the brother is right. Any conflict between Muslim and non-Muslim - the Muslim is right. Any promises given are taquia.

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Africa North

Wary of harming Israel ties, Egypt looks to bury popular praise for border attack

2023-06-14

[IsraelTimes] After deadly incident leaves 3 IDF soldiers dead, Cairo has attempted to prevent gunman Mohammed Salah Ibrahim from being worshiped as a martyr, with limited success

At 4:20 in the afternoon of October 5, 1985, an Egyptian soldier manning a checkpoint in the Red Sea resort town of Ras Burqa raised his gun and began firing into a crowd of Israeli tourists. Seven Israeli civilians, including four children, were slain in the attack. At the time, Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
’s government moved quickly to keep the soldier, Suleiman Khater, from becoming a national hero and jeopardizing the peace treaty with Israel that had been signed only six years before.

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Africa North

Egypt 'national dialogue' kicks off with wave of arrests

2023-06-10

[An Nahar] One month into a much-touted program to heal the country's deep political rifts, Egyptian authorities have arrested dozens of dissidents, opposition supporters and football fans in a wave of repression.

That’ll do it, fer shure.

Cairo inaugurated its long-delayed "national dialogue" on May 3, promising to give a platform to opposition voices that have been largely silenced since President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi took office in 2014.

Critics have denounced it as a public relations stunt designed to burnish a dismal human rights
...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty...
record.

The launch coincided with World Press Freedom Day and that same morning authorities arrested journalist Hassan el-Kabbany.

He was released later the same day, with dialogue coordinator Diaa Rashwan saying the detention was an unfortunate case of "mistaken identity".

The public should "distinguish between isolated cases and broader phenomena" such as the opening of space for free expression, Rashwan said.

But the same week, police arrested 16 relatives and supporters of Ahmed al-Tantawi, after the former opposition politician announced he would run in next year's presidential election.

The national dialogue is merely a "maneuver to appear as if they are trying to start a new page, when in fact they are just trying to improve their image," Human Rights Watch's Amr Magdi told AFP.

"There's really no change at all."

- 'TERRORIST' ULTRAS -
In the face of persistent criticism of Egypt's human rights record, Sisi announced plans for the national dialogue in late 2021, followed by the revival of the executive pardons committee in April last year.

Since then, authorities have released 1,000 political prisoners amid much fanfare, but almost 3,000 more have been detained, Egyptian rights monitors said.

In recent weeks, arrests have become more frequent.

On April 22, police detained 20 fans of Al Ahly SC, Africa's most successful football club, during a home game in Cairo, the Egyptian Front for Human Rights (EFHR) said.

The club's ultras played a central role in the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
and have been consistently targeted by authorities.

Calls for fans to burn their supporters' cards and boycott subsequent matches prompted 39 more arrests, the EFHR said.

Police alleged that those detained "belong to the terrorist ultras group" and intended to "vandalize the Cairo stadium", the EFHR added.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

U.S. defense secretary aims to reassure Mideast allies, deliver tough message

2023-03-07

[Shafaq News] U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, in Jordan to begin a three-country Mideast visit, is aiming to reassure key allies of American commitment to the region despite Washington's recent focus on Russia and China, officials said, but plans frank messages for leaders of Israel and Egypt.

The Pentagon chief, who arrived in Amman on Sunday, is expected to press Israeli leaders to reduce tensions in the West Bank and work to strength ties in talks with Egyptian leaders while touching on human rights
...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
concerns.

"Austin will convey enduring U.S. commitment to the Middle East and provide reassurance to our partners that the United States remains committed to supporting their defense," said a senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...
The United States has about 30,000 troops in the region and is seen as pivotal in helping counter Iranian influence.

Retired U.S. Marine Corp General Frank McKenzie, who headed American forces in the Middle East until last year, said the region is significant to the United States in part because of China's growing role.

"I think this trip is an excellent example of an opportunity to continue to tell people in the theater (region) that they remain important to us," added McKenzie, now leading the University of South Florida's Global and National Security Institute.

Ties between China and Middle Eastern countries have expanded under the region's economic diversification push, raising U.S. concerns about growing Chinese involvement in sensitive infrastructure in the Gulf including in the United Arab Emirates.

The United States last week demanded that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repudiate a call by his hardline Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for a flashpoint Paleostinian village to be "erased" - a comment that Netanyahu on Sunday called "inappropriate." The U.S. State Department has called Smotrich's comment "repugnant."

"He (Austin) will also be quite frank with Israeli leaders about his concerns regarding the cycle of violence in the West Bank and consult on what steps Israeli leaders can take to meaningfully restore calm before the upcoming holidays," the U.S. defense official said.

With the Moslem holy month of Ramadan and the Jewish Passover holiday weeks away, foreign mediators have sought to reduce tensions that rose after Netanyahu regained power at the head of a hard-right coalition.

Austin is poised to send a clear message on the need for Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi to respect human rights, underscoring Washington's concern on the issue.

"I fully expect him to bring up human rights, respect for fundamental freedoms," the U.S. defense official said.

Under Sisi, who as army chief led the 2013 ouster of Egypt's first democratically elected president, there has been a long crackdown on political dissent that has swept up liberal critics as well as Islamists.

The United States has withheld small amounts of military aid to Cairo, citing a failure to meet human rights conditions. Advocacy groups have pushed for more to be held back.

The United States, long an important player in the Middle East, has been preoccupied with other international matters during President Joe The Big Guy Biden
Joe <q>The Big Guy</q> Biden

...46th president of the U.S. Old, boring, a plagiarist, fond of hair sniffing and grabbing the protruding parts of women, and not whatcha call brilliant. Just look at the competent way he dumped Afghanistan...
's administration including Russia's invasion of Ukraine and concern over Chinese military activity near the self-ruled island of Taiwan.

The United States has committed more than $32 billion in weapons to Ukraine including sophisticated air defense systems and tanks.

Mistrust toward the United States among some in the Middle East has built up since the 2011 "Arab Spring" uprisings when Gulf rulers were shocked at how President Barack Obama
My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it...
's administration abandoned the late Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
after a decades-old alliance.

The United States pulled out the last of its troops from Afghanistan in a chaotic withdrawal in 2021, further raising questions in the broader region about Washington's commitment.

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Africa North

Egypt says it found large natural gas deposit in eastern Mediterranean

2022-12-22

It would be helpful if Egypt required less outside support just to remain viable economically. Especially when world supplies of natural gas and petroleum are under strain.

[IsraelTimes] Petroleum minister tells parliamentary committee well in Nagris block still being evaluated; energy newsletter reports its size as 3.5 trillion cubic feet

Egypt has formally announced it discovered a large reserve of natural gas in one of its eastern Mediterranean Sea offshore blocks.

Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla told a parliament committee last Thursday that the well — located in the Nargis block — is still being evaluated, Rooters reported Monday.

However,
a woman is only as old as she admits...
the Middle East Economic Survey newsletter earlier this month said the well contains 3.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

The Nargis block is one of four offshore sites in which US energy giant Chevron has operating rights.

Egypt’s extensive natural gas facilities in the Mediterranean have stood largely inactive since the country’s 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
In recent years, the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi rehabilitated and modernized the facilities. In 2018, Egypt signed a $15 billion deal with Israeli company Delek Drilling and its US partner, Noble Energy, to transport natural gas there.

Egypt’s petroleum Minister Tarek el-Molla arrives at the presidential palace for a meeting Nicosia, Cyprus, September 18, 2018. (Petros Karadjias/AP)
Egypt is aiming to position itself as an energy hub and the new Nargis find is expected to contribute to those efforts.

Chevron is also one of the partners in Israel’s Tamar natural gas reservoir, located some 90 kilometers (55 miles) west of Haifa.

Last week, the operating partners announced they had okayed a final investment decision (FID) needed to proceed with the first phase of expanding natural gas production from the Tamar field to meet growing domestic demand and boost exports to Egypt.

Chevron provided details of a two-stage plan aimed at expanding production to about 1.6 billion cubic feet (BCF) of natural gas from the Tamar field to meet Israel’s energy needs and export gas to Egypt and neighboring countries.

In June, Israel, Egypt and the European Union

...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
signed a memorandum of understanding that will see Israel export its natural gas to the bloc for the first time.

The landmark agreement will increase liquified natural gas sales to EU countries, which are aiming to reduce dependence on supply from Russia in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine.

The agreement will see Israel send gas via Egypt, which has facilities to liquefy it for export via sea.

Link

-Obits-

Influential Muslim religious leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi dies

2022-09-27

[ShabelleMedia] Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi
...Egyptian Islamic theologian and teevee preacher, well-known for IslamOnline, a website he helped found in 1997 and for which he now serves as chief religious scholar. Al-Qaradawi has also published more than 80 books, including Islam: The Future Civilization. He is considered one of the most influential Moslem Brotherhood scholars living today. Al-Qaradawi is banned from entering the United States, Israel and Great Britain. In 2004, 2,500 Moslem academics from Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Paleostine accused him of giving Islam a bad name....
, one of the Sunni Moslem world’s most influential religious scholars, has died.

Al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian who was based in Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
, was the chairman of the International Union of Moslem Scholars, and also a spiritual leader for the Moslem Brüderbund. He was 96 years old.

His death on Monday was announced on his official Twitter account.

Al-Qaradawi, who formerly made regular appearances on Al Jazeera Arabic to discuss religious matters, hosted a popular TV program, "Shariah and Life," in which he took calls from across the Moslem world, dispensing theological rulings and offering advice on everything from global politics to mundane aspects of daily life.

Al-Qaradawi was highly critical of the coup that overthrew Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi, in 2013.

Morsi had been a member of the Moslem Brüderbund before he became president, and was backed by the movement.

Al-Qaradawi was unable to return to Egypt following Morsi’s overthrow due to his opposition to Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

The religious leader had previously been in exile from Egypt prior to the 2011 revolution that overthrew former President Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
His death sparked strong reactions across the Moslem world, as people took to social media to mourn his death.

The Moslem Brüderbund, which was founded in Egypt and had branches across the region, played a considerable role in the 2011 uprisings that rocked the Middle East and led to widespread demonstrations in several countries across the region.

Al-Qaradawi had been tried and sentenced to death in absentia in Egypt.

Al Jazeera’s Jamal El Shayyal, said Qaradawi authored "more than 120 books and more than 50-60 other publications that spoke to a large section of the global Moslem community".

"He was probably the most internationalised Moslem scholar that Islam had in modern days — probably the single most influential in that he didn’t limit his teachings to a specific section of Islam," he said.

Qaradawi often spoke about modern day issues, including everything from the "permissibility of relationships to elections and democracy to social justice issues," El Shayyal added.

Born in 1926, while Egypt was still under British colonial rule, al-Qaradawi combined religious education with anti-colonial activism during his youth. His activism against the British occupation and later, his association with the Moslem Brüderbund led to his arrest several times during the 1950’s.

He moved to Qatar in the early 1960s when he was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Shariah at Qatar University and then later granted Qatari citizenship.

Ibrahim Salah al-Nuaimi, chairman of the Doha international centre for interfaith dialogue, described Qaradawi as a "moderate, great scholar".

"He worked closely with many representatives of different faiths to bring together harmony and to really put down the hate speeches" that would sometime arise between different faiths," al-Nuaimi told Al Jazeera.

One of his early famous works was the 1973 book Fiqh al-Zakat (The Jurisprudence of Zakat). al-Qaradawi also sought to reinterpret historical rules of Islamic law in order to better integrate Moslems in non-Moslem societies.

He supported suicide kabooms against Israel in the Second Intifada and also voiced support for the Iraqi insurgency that erupted after the US-led invasion of 2003 toppled Saddam Hussein. His stance on both issues won him a long standing infamy in the West.

In 2009, Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency accused al-Qaradawi of allocating $21 million to a charity funded by Hamas, a regional Iranian catspaw, to set up turban infrastructure in Jerusalem. Hamas, which rules the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
Strip, denied the allegations.
No, no! Certainly not!

Link

Africa North

Explainer: Who is Egypt’s Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya that the US is removing from its terrorism blacklist?

2022-05-17

Expanding on this story from yesterday.

[AlAhram] The US is set to remove five inactive turban groups from its foreign terrorist organizations list, including al-Jamaa al-Islamiya

... the State Department at the moment prefers to spell it Gama’a al-Islamiyya...

...The Islamic Group. Sunni Islamist alignment in Lebanon. The group was founded in 1952 as the Leb branch of the Moslem Brüderbund. Its current leader is Faisal Mawlawi. The party has a military wing known as the al-Fajr Forces. Currently they have 1 seat in the Lebanese Parliament...
, which is blamed for terrorist attacks that have killed hundreds of coppers, civilians and tourists in Egypt.

Active since the late 1970s, the group has been blamed for a campaign of violence in Egypt, especially in the 1990s, and is designated by the country as a terrorist group.

The five groups are expected to be formally removed from the US blacklist next week, the US State Department said in notices to politicians, according to the News Agency that Dare Not be Named.

Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya has been on the US foreign terrorist organizations list over the past 25 years, since 1997. This was the same year that saw a massacre by Islamist bully boyz of 71 people, including tourists, outside the Temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor.

Although investigations have proved the group members were behind the massacre, the group denied in 2013 its involvement in the attack.

MAJOR ATTACKS
The Egyptian Islamist movement surfaced in the eighties and nineties with a spate of terrorist attacks aimed at overthrowing the regimes of Presidents Anwar El-Sadat and Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
The group is believed to have been involved in the liquidation of President Anwar El-Sadat in 1981 during the commemoration ceremony of the 1973 victory over Israel in the October War.

The group is also believed to have been involved in the liquidation attempt against President Hosni Mubarak in 1995, along with the Islamist group Egyptian Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
, and the liquidation of parliament speaker Rifaat El-Mahgoub in 1990.

Other terrorist operations have also been blamed on the group, including the murder of well-known columnist Farag Foda in 1992. In 1996, the group killed several Greek tourists mistaken for Israelis outside the Europa Hotel in Cairo.

Following years of confrontations with security forces, the Islamist group's presence has been barely felt over the past decades.

In the late nineties, the group launched a non-violence initiative, where its members formally renounced violence and bloodshed.

Following the 2011 revolution, the group took the political route, establishing El-Benaa Wel Tanmia (Building and Development) political party. However,
women are made to be loved, not understood...
the Supreme Administrative Court issued a final ruling in 2020 to dissolve the party and confiscate its funds for funding terrorist groups.

Link

Africa North

Egypt arrests 13 teenage boys after video of them ‘harassing two female tourists' at the Giza Pyramids sparked outrage

2022-05-11

[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Egyptian boys practicing to be that extra special kind of Egyptian man.

A video surfaced on social media showing teenagers harassing female tourists

The young women were visiting the Giza Pyramids in the Egyptian capital Cairo

The boys jeer at the women and some press close to them as they try to get away

According to a statement from the prosecutor's office, the arrested boys are between 13 and 15 years old. The statement did not provide any details on the women tourists.

If charged, the boys will be tried before a juvenile court.

Visitors to the Pyramids at Giza and other famous archaeological sites in Egypt are routinely approached and followed by young men offering tours, souvenirs, carriage or camel rides.

The problem of sexual harassment in Egypt gained worldwide attention during and after the 2011 uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak, when women were harassed, groped - and in some cases, beaten and sexually assaulted - during mass anti-government protests.

In recent years, women inspired by the #MeToo movement have spoken out on social media about the problem.

Authorities have increased penalties for sexual harassment, which is now punishable with up to five years in prison.

They have also intensified efforts to combat harassment and aggressive touts at tourist sites.

Related: Al Ahram has more on this event which occurred a few days ago.

Link

Africa North

PA leader's son accused of aiding terrorism released from Egyptian jail

2022-01-08

Much more about this story from a few days ago.

[Jpost] Ramy Shaath, 50, was arrested in 2019 together with several Egyptian activists and businessmen on suspicion of assisting a terrorist group: the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

Egyptian authorities have freed Egyptian-Palestinian rights activist Ramy Shaath after more than 900 days of arbitrary detention, a statement from Shaath's family said on Saturday.

Shaath, who was a member of several secular political groups in Egypt and a co-founder of Egypt's pro-Palestinian BDS movement, had been forced to renounce his Egyptian citizenship and was on his way to France, his family said.

"If we are glad that the Egyptian authorities heard our call for freedom, we regret that they forced Ramy to renounce his Egyptian citizenship as a precondition for his release that should have been unconditional," the family statement said.

"No one should have to choose between their freedom and their citizenship."

Shaath, 50, a co-founder of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement in Egypt, is the son of Nabil Shaath, a former Palestinian Authority foreign minister and veteran member of the Palestinian leadership.

He was arrested in 2019 together with several Egyptian activists and businessmen on suspicion of assisting a terrorist group, the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, in the case known as Al-Amal (Hope) Cell.

He also faced charges of disseminating false news about political and economic conditions in Egypt.

The younger Shaath is on his way to France, where he will join his wife, French national Celine Lebrun, who was deported from Egypt after her husband’s arrest, according to Palestinian and Egyptian sources.

An Egyptian court had added Shaath and 12 defendants linked to Al-Amal Cell to Egypt’s terrorism list for a period of five years.

“[Muslim] Brotherhood fugitive leaders, including Mahmoud Fathi, Ahmed Mohammed Abdel Hadi and Ali al-Sayed Ahmed, plotted to provide financial support [to the defendants] for their hostile actions against the Egyptian state with the aim of harming national interest and economic security and carrying out aggressive actions against the army and the police,” the court ruled.

The Brotherhood leaders allegedly recruited Shaath and other activists and provided them with weapons and firearms to carry out schemes against the Egyptian authorities, according to the court.

Shaath, who was born in Lebanon, moved to Cairo with his family in 1977, his family said in a statement after his arrest.

“He dedicated his entire life to the defense of Palestinian rights and to freedom and justice in the region,” the statement said.

“He served as a political and strategic consultant to former PA president Yasser Arafat,” it said. “From Cairo, he played an active role in the negotiations for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state; after the negotiations failed, he withdrew from politics in the late 1990s.

“Much later, in 2010 as a movement for democracy and social justice was growing in Egypt, Ramy joined the coalition of activists who led the popular uprising that led to the ousting of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011.”

The family accused the Egyptian authorities of “persecuting Ramy for many years for his public positions against all forms of political repression in Egypt, as well as his defense of Palestinian rights against Israeli occupation and apartheid.”

Link

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