In this mailing:
- Hisham Jarallah: The "Pro-Palestinians"
- Mudar Zahran: The Muslim Brotherhood's Egypt
The "Pro-Palestinians"
by Hisham Jarallah
August 28, 2012 at 5:00 am
August 28, 2012 at 5:00 am
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Once again,
it has been exposed that Americans and Europeans who claim to be
pro-Palestinian are actually just Israel-haters. For them, the Palestinian
issue is just a vehicle for vomiting their hatred for Israel, and most likely
all Jews. They are closer to Hamas and Islamic Jihad than to moderate Arabs and
Muslims. The Palestinians need support from people who promote democracy,
moderation, accountability and co-existence with Israel.
Some 100 "pro-Palestinian" activists from different countries
arrived in Jordan during the past few days on another anti-Israel mission.
The activists did not come to Jordan to:
- Visit or help thousands of Syrian and Palestinian refugees who are being held in miserable conditions along the Jordan-Syria border.
- Hear information about the daily massacres in neighboring Syria. Had they wanted, the "pro-Palestinians" could have interviewed dozens of Syrians and Palestinians who fled the violence and bloodshed in Syria and heard horrific stories about how both the Syrian army and the "revolutionaries" have been slaughtering innocent civilians, including women and children.
- Protest against the kingdom's official policy of discrimination against Palestinians -- an issue that has drawn sharp condemnations not only from Palestinians, but also from some Jordanians.
- Demonstrate against the government's recent decision to impose severe restrictions on media outlets.
- Hear about the harsh conditions of Palestinians living in a number of refugee camps in Jordan.
- Protest against the Jordanian government's decision to revoke the Jordanian citizenship of tens of thousands of Palestinians.
- Hear how thousands of Palestinians have been expelled from Iraq and other Arab countries in recent years.
- Promote the rights of women under Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
- Protest against the Palestinian Authority's crackdown on journalists and bloggers.
They did not come to Jordan because they were planning to visit Lebanon and
see for themselves how Palestinians are subjected to apartheid regulations that
prevent them from working in many professions.
Instead, the activists spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a mission
whose only purpose is to provoke Israel, and not help Palestinians.
The activists came as part of the Welcome to Palestine Campaign to demand
the "right of return" for millions of Palestinians to their former
villages and cities inside Israel.
They came to Jordan knowing that Israel would not allow them to cross the
Allenby Bridge into the West Bank. Yet, they chose to go ahead with their trip
so that they could later accuse Israel of banning them from expressing
solidarity with the Palestinians.
Organizers of this anti-Israel campaign say they were only hoping to donate
school stationery to Palestinian children. But who ever said that Palestinian
children in the West Bank are lacking in schoolbags and pencils? Even the
Palestinian Authority and UNRWA have not complained of any shortage.
Once again, it has been exposed that Americans and Europeans who claim to be
pro-Palestinian are actually just Israel-haters. These activists seem to have a
problem only with Israel. For them, the Palestinian issue is just a vehicle for
vomiting their hatred toward Israel, and most likely all Jews. They are your
grandmother's recycled anti-Semites.
For most of these international activists, Palestinian leaders such as
Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad are "traitors" because they say they
believe in the two-state solution and conduct security cooperation with Israel.
These activists are on the side of the radicals in the Palestinian camp.
They are closer to Hamas and Islamic Jihad than to moderate Arabs and Muslims.
The Palestinians do not want support from Westerners who pretend to be more
Palestinian than the Palestinians.
The Palestinians need support from people who promote democracy, moderation,
accountability and coexistence with Israel. It is time that the
"pro-Palestinian" activists leave the Palestinians alone and search
for another cause to advance their messages of hate and violence.
Hisham Jarallah is a journalist based in the West Bank.
Related Topics: Hisham Jarallah
The Muslim Brotherhood's Egypt
by Mudar Zahran
August 28, 2012 at 4:30 am
August 28, 2012 at 4:30 am
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"They
said the constitution is their Quran; I say the Quran is our
constitution." — Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi
Egypt's new president, Mohamed Morsi, using an alleged terrorist attack in
the Sinai Peninsula as a pretext, has been able to fire senior army generals,
increase extensively his presidential power and send
troops into the Sinai Peninsula in direct contravention of what the peace
treaty with Israel permits.
Egypt's state-run TV reported that Islamic fundamentalists from the Sinai
and the Gaza Strip were suspected of carrying
out the attack, but why would Islamists do that? Logically, Islamist
fundamentalists would be supportive of the Islamist president Morsi, who made
his pro-Islamist agenda clear during his campaign: he wants Sharia law for
Egypt .
At the same time, when the Muslim Brotherhood official website blamed the
Israeli intelligence agency, the Mossad, for the attack, Morsi never dismissed
the Brotherhood's allegations, thereby allowing the terrorist act to be used to
spread more anti-Semitism and radical views against Israel.
Shortly after the attack, Egyptian troops started pouring into the Sinai
peninsula in the name of cracking down on terrorists -- a move that compromised
the demilitarization of Sinai, a cornerstone of the peace agreement between
Egypt and Israel. Further, nothing Morsi said then or since suggests these
troops are there only temporarily.
Ironically, it was Israeli troops who killed the terrorists and prevented
them from doing any more damage. After the attack, Israel's Minister of Foreign
Affairs, Avigdor Lieberman, initially expressed Israel's willingness to provide
assistance to Egypt in countering terrorism, although since then there has been
increasing Israeli nervousness about the Egyptian redeployment, in which the US
also helped. .
Barely a week after the attack, Morsi fired
Egypt's Defense Minister and Chief of Staff, Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, who had
served as Mubarak's Defense Minister for two decades. Morsi also cancelled the
constitutional amendments that gave the generals extra powers and also issued a
new constitutional declaration giving himself extensive presidential powers
that are both executive and legislative. He also gave himself the right to form
a constructional assembly to write the constitution, if the current
constitutional assembly fails to do so.
Morsi made clear his view of the Egyptian constitution when he stated during
the campaign: "They said the constitution is their Quran, as if the
constitution is so great…and I say the Quran is our constitution".
In short, in one strike after the alleged terrorist attack in Sinai, which
has been said never even to have taken place, Morsi was able to strip the
military commanders of their powers, grant himself extensive presidential
authorities and insert troops into Sinai far above the limit the peace
agreement with Israel allows, with no outward sign of ever intending to remove
them should the crisis inside Egypt subside.
It is important to keep in mind, that, although not necessarily part of the
terrorist attack, Sinai's other neighbor, Hamas, is connected to the Muslim
Brotherhood to which Morsi belongs; as the Council of Foreign Relations notes: "Hamas grew out of
the Muslim Brotherhood, a religious and political organization founded in Egypt
with branches throughout the Arab world."
Whether or not it is eventually revealed who exactly was responsible for the
Sinai attack, the Muslim Brotherhood has achieved one of its decades-long
goals: controlling Egypt -- and is now a step closer to its ultimate goal:
creating a Muslim Empire.
Related Topics: Egypt
| Mudar
Zahran
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