Official Egyptian daily slams Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah

[Fozzledick]

By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent

A lengthy piece published on Saturday in Egypt's official daily slams Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah, accusing them of attempting to overthrow the regime of President Hosni Mubarak.

The article, published in Al-Ahram - the official mouthpiece of the Egyptian government - blames Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, Hamas official Khaled Meshal and leader of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood Mahdi Akef, along with Iran, Syria, and Qatar for their efforts to destabilize Mubarak's government.

...

The piece continues by saying the attempt to overthrow Egypt's regime was set into motion by Hamas' violation of its cease-fire with Israel - a violation that was coordinated with all of the organization's allies.

According to the article, every side of the conspiracy had a designated role, aiding Hamas militarily or politically or through the media, while it was the task of Hamas - which the article dubbed "the military wing of the Muslim Brotherhood" - to instigate an unwarranted rocket attack on Israel.

Iran's role, according to the article, was to supply Hamas with weapons and ammunition as well as to lead the ensuing media onslaught. The Islamic Republic also allegedly cooperated with Hezbollah and its leader Nasrallah in operating an espionage network in Egypt as far back as 2005 geared at instigating a revolt within the Sinai Bedouin population and initiating attacks within the country.

...

The article reserves its most severe criticism for Hamas, which it says acted to afflict one Nakba after the other on the Palestinian people, by dragging Israel into military action that did not differentiate between Hamas operatives and innocent civilians.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1079098.html


One pointed reminder - Hamas' strategic goal in deliberately producing heavy civilian casualties in Gaza was to incite an uprising in Egypt, and they depended heavily on "useful idiots" in the West to help spread their propaganda placing the blame on Israel.

[Idealism]

1. Hosni is deathly afraid of Hamas, and fears for his own silly vainglorious crown

[bemildred]

2. He's afraid of all of them. He's just afraid. nt

[Idealism]

3. That blasted wobbly pedestal!

[Jefferson23]

4. Waaaa, I'm skeered!! says Mubarak...lol

[Kurska]

5. You are aware the the types of attacks Hezbollah was trying to pull off included suicide bombings

against civilian targets right?
Your childish humor at the outrage of a government disgusted by that kind behavior is very telling.

Then again, I guess it seems like anything would be acceptable to topple the moderate Egyptian government, bring into power a woman oppressing gay executing Iran clone, that would then wage a brutal and bloody war against israel right?
Thats the progressive thing to hope for after all, well apparently.

[kayecy]

6. Supporting autocrats is much more likely to bring in the Islamists.....

Then again, I guess it seems like anything would be acceptable to topple the moderate Egyptian government, bring into power a woman oppressing gay executing Iran clone, that would then wage a brutal and bloody war against israel right?

.
Most dictators/autocrats fall in the end. What follows them depends on who the 'people' suffering under them see as their friends and supporters against the autocrat. Israel & the US are propping up Mubarak which is, not surprisingly, enraging the Arab street and playing into the Islamists' hands.
.
For the sake of all the women, gays etc in Egypt for goodness sake stop supporting the autocrats!

[Kurska]

18. Right, So lets replace a moderate dictorship with a even worse one!

Because I'm sure Thsoe gays and women would love the Islamic republic that would result from allowing groups like Hezbollah, hamas and the Islamic brotherhood free reign in egypt right?

[Idealism]

7. Moderate Egyptian government? Come again?

Did you invent that phrase yourself or did you read it straight off the pages of Al-Gomhouriya? I mean honestly, Egypt has tortured more people in the last 20 years than practically any other country on earth (save potentially for North Korea), not to mention killed thousands of "dissidents" in brutal state police demonstrations against any and all opposition to their dictator and his military oligarchy.

[oberliner]

10. The progressive community is generally silent about this for some reason

One would think that progressive folks would be more upset that the US sends so much aid to a regime that has tortured more people in the last 20 years than practically any other country on earth. To say nothing of their role in closing their crossing with Gaza.

Thousands of dissidents killed, a dictatorship, a military oligarchy and billions of dollars of US aid.

Oddly there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of noise about this on DU or elsewhere.

Why do you think that is?

[Violet_Crumble]

11. No they're not...

I've seen plenty of people at DU state that they aren't happy that the US funds Egypt given its human rights abuses. Many of the people who say that also aren't happy that the US funds Israel, given its human rights abuses. I guess that second bit is what causes selective blindness to someone who thinks that progressives don't have a problem with the US giving aid to Egypt...

[oberliner]

15. Glad to hear that - I hope to see more!

I will continue to be on the look out for protests and other actions against the Egyptian government and our funding of their dictator.

It's sad that so many in the West view the Mubarak regime as a "moderate" one.

[Idealism]

17. We are made to think that way

Just because Hosni's oligarchy is secular, we are supposed to believe he is less oppressive than Islamic states. When you add Egypt being an ally of the US into the mix and helping us out in Desert Storm with logistics, etc., you can see why the US media gives Egypt a pass. I read many papers daily and have yet to come across more than a handful of criticisms on Egypt in the past few years because the official CIA line is that Egypt is alright with us... we like selling them weapons and they like buying our weapons, with a nice little $1 billion freebie attached for settling the Sinai issue.

The mainstream media in the US seriously blows. They just repeat CIA talking points: Chavez is a dictator, Iran will fucking kill you, et al, but they are surprisingly mum about Saudi Arabia's human rights debacles (even though they are making social progress) and Egypt's deplorable history. Yea, Chavez is the dictator, but Hosni seized power in the 1980s and has been ruling for 20+ years by Martial Law with nary a word from the press. I mean the guy wins the "Presidential Elections" with 98% of the vote... seriously.

[Kurska]

21. Foreign diplomacy is often a choice between the bad and the worse.

And siding with neither just means your position in that region if weakened and the worse faction tends to come up on top anyways.

Also To my knowledge chavez is just a elected president without term limits, meaning he can run as many times as he likes.

[Idealism]

24. Egypt, the same as Israel, are Cold War era strategic alliances

We wanted to dam the flow of Communism (or so the CIA line goes...) so we set up satellites essentially with anyone who would join on our side to fight the USSR.

As it stands, a truly democratic Egypt is certainly possible if Hosni just relented that iron grip. The only true contenders to his power, the Muslim Brotherhood, have come a long way in their journey. The oldest political movement in the country, they were once violent extremists and vehemently opposed to the past few Egyptian regimes, but recently they renounced Al-Qaeda style tactics and terrorism in favor of becoming the peaceful alternative to dictatorship. The Muslim Brotherhood obviously recognizes Mubarak's rule, they even have a decent chunk of MPs in Egyptian parliament, so that hurdle is passed. They have committed themselves to being non-violent in their resistance to tyranny, so more people willingly join their ranks to try to make a difference. They have put enough pressure on Mubarak that the parliamentary elections and local elections are actually on par with the level of corruption seen in Peru (which is a marked improvement, but still lacking). Mubarak is getting old too, I think hes around 80 now and his son is being groomed to take the role but I heard mixed reports about his willingness. The country could fall to an Islamic Revolution at this point, like Iran did after they threw out the vainglorious puppet known as the Shah, but it will be a democracy is the Brotherhood's new guard is in power.

And yes, Chavez is not a dictator. He is actually an interesting, albeit polarizing, and successful President. I was referring to the Venezuelan opposition (and the RW'ers in the US) claim that Chavez is a Communist dictator, but we never talk about a true authoritarian dictator like Hosni because hes on our payroll, so to speak.

[Kurska]

25. Muslim brotherhood=Sharia law, no matter how you try to sugarcoat it.

The Muslim brotherhood is no better then the wackos in charge of Iran now, and their regime would be just as bad as Saudi Arabia (Another terrible country).

[LeftishBrit]

12. I've certainly seen a fair bit of progressive opposition to Egypt, but you#re right that it's not

usually one of the 'top issues'.

I think there are two reasons.

(1) Probably not much seen in the way of an obvious progressive alternative to the current crap government. If Mubarak is toppled, there's the risk of either chaos and civil war, or something like the Muslim Brotherhood coming to power. And the example of Iraq and what happened when Saddam was toppled is still fresh in people's minds.

Of course, I fully admit that I am not an expert on all the groups and parties in Egypt; and if anyone on the board knows of something more potentially positive, I'd be very interested to know more.

(2) Progressives, even many outside America, tend to look at the world very much in terms of how America influences it, and how the different countries interact with America (especially since the Iraq war). Egypt is neither an enemy nor (at least popularly seen as) a big ally of the USA, so it tends to go a bit under the radar.

[oberliner]

16. I'd say they are a pretty big ally of the US

They do receive the second highest amount of foreign aid of any country in the world (not including Iraq which is sort of in its own category).

[Jefferson23]

14. Egypt's government is moderate to you, thats interesting.

Educate yourself on their long well documented brutality, and btw, I'll mock that bastard Mubarak anytime I choose.

[Kurska]

19. Moderate In respect to the region.

I'm perfectly aware of egypt's long history of bloodshed and Intrigue. I'm also not naive enough to believe that If Mubarak was toppled the people's republic of human rights is what would replace it.

[Jefferson23]

23. If you really believe that Egypt is moderate in respect to the region, you're

not paying attention. Don't forget that sum of money the US unfortunately gives too, as this has garnered nothing in regards to human rights changes.

[Kurska]

26. Whats your definition of a moderate?

[LeftishBrit]

8. self -delete (dupe)

[LeftishBrit]

9. Actually not such a strange emotion in those parts.

Remember what happened to his predecessor Sadat.

[Jefferson23]

13. Yes, but he is such a corrupt bastard, I don't ever hesitate to mock him.

[Kurska]

20. Are you talking about Sadat?

[Jefferson23]

22. The article is about Mubarak, as is my reply.