Fatah Wants Egypt To Overthrow Hamas

by Khaled Abu Toameh
September 6, 2013 at 5:00 am

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3963/egypt-overthrow-hamas

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"The Egyptians are strangling the Gaza Strip. They are punishing the entire population of the Gaza Strip by depriving them medicine, food and fuel." — Fawzi Barhoum, spokesman for Hamas

As the Egyptian army continues to demolish houses and smuggling tunnels, Fatah leaders in the West Bank are hoping that they will soon be able to return to the Gaza Strip.
At one time, Fatah leaders had hopes that Israel would overthrow Hamas through military force. Now, they are hoping that the new rulers of Egypt will do the job.
Beleaguered Hamas officials claim that the Palestinian Tamarod group is operated and trained by Egypt's General Intelligence Service and Fatah, with the goal of toppling their regime in the Gaza Strip. Hamas security forces have detained several Palestinian activists and journalists as part of an effort to crush the new group.
Seven years after they were expelled by Hamas, the Fatah leaders have good reason to be optimistic regarding their chances of regaining control over the Gaza Strip.
A top Fatah leader this week went so far as declaring that he and his friends would not mind returning to the Gaza Strip "aboard an Egyptian tank."
The ouster of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi and the subsequent Egyptian security crackdown on terror groups in Sinai, as well as the tightening of the blockade on the Gaza Strip, have hurt Hamas so badly that its leaders feel they are in a state of war with the largest Arab country.
Morsi's election as president seemed to end Fatah's dream of returning to the Gaza Strip. While he was in power, Morsi did everything he could to bolster Hamas's standing and assist it in tightening its grip on the Gaza Strip.
Hamas leaders Khaled Mashaal and Ismail Haniyeh were invited, for the first time ever, to meetings in the Egyptian presidential palace, much to the dismay of Fatah leaders, including Mahmoud Abbas.
Morsi also eased travel restrictions along the border with the Gaza Strip, allowing Hamas leaders and members to move freely into Sinai and other Egyptian cities. Morsi also granted Egyptian citizenship to thousands of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, including some top Hamas officials -- a move that further infuriated Fatah.
But now that relations between Hamas and Egypt appear to have hit a new low, Fatah representatives believe that the countdown for the downfall of the Islamist movement has begun.
Not surprisingly, some Hamas officials are talking about a "conspiracy" to bring Fatah back to the Gaza Strip. They are convinced that the new rulers of Egypt, who despise Hamas for being part of the Muslim Brotherhood, are working toward undermining the movement's regime in the Gaza Strip to facilitate Fatah's return.
"The Egyptians are strangling the Gaza Strip," complained Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum. "They are punishing the entire population of the Gaza Strip by denying them medicine, food and fuel."
The new Egyptian regime considers Hamas a threat to Egypt's national security -- the reason authorities in Cairo have refrained since the ouster of Morsi from establishing any contact with Hamas representatives.
Last week, Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy arrived in Ramallah for talks with Abbas on the security situation along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.

An Egyptian army watchtower at Rafah, along the Gaza Strip border with Egypt, April 2009. (Photo credit: Marius Arnesen)

During the visit, Palestinian sources said, Fahmy made it clear that Egypt would like to see Abbas's forces return to the Rafah border crossing. Hamas expelled Abbas's forces from the border crossing in the summer of 2007.
Since the ouster of Morsi, the Egyptians have imposed severe restrictions at the border crossing, allowing through only a few dozen Palestinians every day.
The Egyptian minister's visit to Ramallah is seen in the context of Cairo's efforts to undermine Hamas's rule in the Gaza Strip.
Following the visit, these sources said, Abbas expressed deep satisfaction with Egypt's tough policy against Hamas. Later, Abbas told Fatah leaders that Hamas was acting against Egypt's national security by sending its militiamen to Sinai and other parts of Egypt.
Fatah representatives are also encouraged by the emergence of an anti-Hamas group called Tamarod [rebellion]. Over the past two weeks, Tamarod has issued five statements pledging to fight against Hamas's "repressive and suppressive" regime. Inspired by the anti-Morsi Tamarod movement in Egypt, the group has called for a series of protests, as of November 11, against Hamas
Fatah alone would never be able to return to the Gaza Strip. Unlike Egypt, Fatah does not have an army that would come to the rescue and remove Hamas from power.
But even if Egypt's tough security measures and blockade eventually bring down Hamas, it is not clear if Palestinians in the Gaza Strip will take to the streets to welcome Abbas and Fatah. Hamas, after all, continues to enjoy strong support among the Gaza Strip's population. Moreover, there is good reason to believe that Hamas's powerful armed wing and security apparatus would fight to the last man to stop Fatah from regaining control over their mini Islamist entity.

Related Topics: Egypt | Khaled Abu Toameh

Eurocrisis Haunts German Politics

Peter Martino
September 6, 2013 at 4:30 am

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3958/eurocrisis-germany

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Saving the euro would cost Germany so much money that it would bankrupt itself. " Germany cannot save the Eurozone. Those who believe that [it can] are denying reality." — German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble

All of a sudden the Loch Ness Monster of German politics has raised its ugly head. The eurocrisis, which so far had not been a theme in the campaign for the September 22^nd general elections, has become its central issue. At the same time, the campaign has turned nasty and violent.
Last week, a rally of Alternative for Germany (AfD), a conservative party established in February by a group of conservative economists, was attacked by a gang of thugs. Some 25 masked individuals stormed onto the stage, knocked down AfD leader Bernd Lucke behind his lectern and pepper-sprayed the public. 16 people attending the rally were injured, including two children. The attackers also stabbed an AfD sympathizer with a knife.
There were violent incidents, too, against the AfD in Berlin, Goettingen, Muenster, Giessen and Nuremberg. Following the Goettingen incident, where AfD campaign staff was physically assaulted, an AfD spokesperson said that the incident reminded her "of the worst time of the Weimar Republic," when Nazi gangs beat up rallies of political opponents.
Why is there such an outburst of hatred against the AfD, a party polled to get only about 1% of the total vote -- far below the electoral threshhold of 5% needed to enter Germany's parliament, the Bundestag?
The AfD differs from the other German parties in that it aims to dismantle the euro, the common currency of 17 European Union member states. The party advocates breaking up the Eurozone by forcing the debt burdened Southern European countries out of the monetary union.
Though a poll in April found a quarter of all Germans saying that they could imagine voting for the AfD, many consider the party too much of a one-issue-party to do so. There is a feeling among conservatives that a vote for the AfD is wasted when the elections are likely to become a contest between the current Christian-Democrat Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Social-Democrat challenger Peer Steinbrueck. For Merkel to be able to serve another term as Chancellor, her junior coalition partner, the center-right Liberal FDP, will need to take the 5% hurdle. This becomes difficult if the AfD draws too many votes away from the FDP.
As AfD leader Lucke, a 51-year old economist, recently explained in the Wall Street Journal, heavily indebted countries including Greece, Italy, and Portugal, should be kicked out of the euro zone before Germany goes broke trying to save the common currency. This would be the best option for everyone. The euro exit would help the Southern countries to regain economic competitiveness, while the economically healthier countries to the north, including France and Germany, could retain their currency union.
The AfD's critics claim that the party is catering to nationalist prejudices. The Green Party, which hopes to be able to form a coalition with the Social-Democrats after the elections, called on its members "not to allow the campaign of the AfD any room!" The Green activists who assaulted an AfD rally in Goettingen said that they were "fighting against right-wing populists and Nazis."
The Green Party is currently polling 12% in the surveys. Its hate-filled propaganda directed against the AfD might, however, be doing the latter a service. The more outrageously its opponents treat the AfD, the more people might be inclined to support it in the ballot box.
Ironically, Chancellor Merkel's current popularity is to some extent also derived from the sympathy of voters who are indignant about the unfair way in which she is treated. In countries such as Greece, Ms. Merkel is being depicted in Nazi uniforms and compared to Hitler, because she insists on governments in Southern Europe imposing austerity policies in exchange for German financial aid.
Nevertheless, even without winning a single seat, the AfD has already achieved the biggest political breakthrough in decades. It has overcome the most important political taboo in Germany, namely that there is no alternative to the policy advocated by both Merkel, Steinbrueck and the entire European political elite, who, to save the euro in its present form, all want to bail out Greece and other troubled Southern European countries.
The AfD has shattered the illusion that there are no other options for Germany than saving the euro. Voters have begun to wonder: Why are there no mainstream politicians who dare to suggest this alternative, especially as the financial risks of the huge bailout operations are mostly at the German taxpayers' expense?
The AfD has even managed to influence people at the top of Merkel's party. Kai Konrad, the chief economic advisor of Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, told the newspaper Die Welt recently that Germany cannot save the eurozone. Saving the euro, he said, would cost Germany so much money that it would bankrupt itself. "Germany is simply too small in comparison to the rest of Europe. Germany cannot save the eurozone. Those who believe that [it can] are denying reality." Rather than an exit of the Southern countries from the eurozone, as the AfD suggests, Konrad advocates a German exit from the euro. That, he says, is the only way to save the European Union.
No matter who wins the German elections later this month, the crisis engulfing the euro and the EU is far from over,

Related Topics: Germany

What Are We Muslims Doing to Ourselves?

by Raheel Raza
September 6, 2013 at 4:00 am

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3959/hizb-ut-tahrir-canada

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My fellow Muslims are allowing our faith to be hijacked from us -- into the hands of theocrats and thugs.

An email had come my way saying that the Hizb-ut-Tahrir was planning a meeting at a community Center in Mississauga, Ontario.
Hizb-ut-Tahrir [Party of Liberation] is a radical, international pan-Islamic political organization. It is commonly associated with the goal of all Muslim countries: unifying as an Islamic state or caliphate, ruled by Islamic law, and with a head of state (caliph) elected by Muslims. Hizb-ut-Tahrir [HT], established in 1953 in East Jerusalem, has been banned in Russia, several Central Asian countries and many Middle Eastern Countries. It has also been banned in Germany on account of its desire to use force for political ends, as well as its anti-Semitism. It is even banned in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, already cauldrons of extremism.
Hizb ut-Tahrir rejects democracy as being un-Islamic and a Western system. But it members seem to have no qualms about using Western freedoms to promote their expansionist agenda and aggressive goals. Article 56 of their draft constitution for the proposed state describes conscription as a compulsory individual duty, for all citizens: "Every male Muslim, fifteen years and over, is obliged to undergo military training in readiness for jihad."
As the leader of Hizb ut-Tahrir America, Dr. Mohammed Malkawi, remarked at a conference in Jordon in June 2013: "Let Britain, America, and the entire West go to hell, because the Caliphate is coming, Allah willing."
It was incomprehensible that they were hosting a meeting in Canada. Media inquiries received wishy-washy answers, as in, "We can't really do anything unless there is proof of violence." Further, as the HT meeting was scheduled to take place on a weekend, it was apparently of no particular interest to the media.
Were they really planning to establish a Caliphate even in the West? As a woman alone would arouse suspicion, my husband accompanied me. I pulled out the burqa I had imported from Afghanistan earlier in the year for a play. It would perhaps be the first and last time I adjusted a burqa around my body and even part of my face, with just my eyes showing – and dark glasses, and my husband in traditional Pakistani garb.
The heavily guarded community center in which the meeting was held was gender-segregated -- men and women separate. Most of the attendees were young converts, who had brought their children. When my husband sat with crossed legs, he was told that is not the Islamic way, so he immediately uncrossed them, in order not to attract attention.
Organizations such as HT are careful how they operate; their speakers are known for saying one thing in English and another in their own language. That way they can instill hardcore ideas and an ideology without being accused of using hate speech. At this meeting the message was clear: It is incumbent on every Muslim living in a non-Muslim land to impose sharia law; to work towards an Islamic state, and to convert people as is their mandate. According to the HT website, "The meaning of Jihad being a duty of sufficiency is that we initiate the fighting of the enemy even if he did not attack us. If the Muslims failed to initiate the fighting at any given time, they would all be sinful."
This by the way is totally against the teaching of the Quran, which advises Muslims to follow the laws of the lands in which they live. One young man in the audience asked who the Caliph would be, and was told it would be from among them.
I left the meeting trembling, partly with anger and partly with fear: anger because I saw a straightforward attempt to hijack our freedoms and, by turning them against us, to impose sharia; fear because my fellow Muslims are allowing our faith be hijacked from us -- into the hands of theocrats and thugs.

Related Topics: Raheel Raza

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