An innocent Egyptian soldier killed by PalestiniansComment on editorial titled “The Price of Egypt’s Silence on Gaza (published Jan. 3, 2009). An innocent Egyptian soldier was killed on the borders by Palestinians, leaving behind three little children. How come no one is talking about that? Who in the Arab world has been paying the price for the occupation of Palestine other than Egyptians? Why don’t you go and point your fingers on oil-rich Gulf countries that are watching these massacres from their big castles? It’s always Egypt, Egypt, Egypt. Why can’t it be Egypt and the entire Arab world? Where are the rest of the Arabs? Where are the Gulf Arabs who rushed to the aid of the idiot George Bush when the American economy collapsed? Where is Qatar that is promoting its Israeli agenda everywhere and turning the table against Egypt? At least, Egypt is doing something, while others are just watching comfortably.
Another Mish-mashComment on Decoding Egypt column titled “Egypt’s Pathetic Foreign Policy (published Jan. 1, 2009). This is another article mish-mashing the complex and intolerable situation. How about putting forward some ideas to resolve the issues? Every party in the Middle East has at least two agendas, the public one and of course the hidden one. With 80 million people in economic dire straits, the average Egyptian is struggling to feed his family. The next Egyptian regime (regardless of who it is) will not differ much from the current one or the prior one. No one is truly cooperating, apart from a bunch of rhetoric from all sides, innocent children and simple folk are being slaughtered and sacrificed for some political ideology. As the Israeli bombardment continues, Hamas refuses to stop the rockets across the border, even though they are completely ineffective, one would think that caring for your own people and stopping the bloodshed would make Hamas see the light and simply stop the rockets. But, in their isolated political cocoon, they would like to see hundreds die to enforce their political ambitions, and at the same have Israelis look like barbarians. Which doesn’t mean that they aren’t, but Palestinians are paying a hefty price for Hamas to orchestrate a propaganda show that simply says “Oh, look at those bad guys beating the hell out of common citizens. The blame for the misfortunes of Palestinians is always laid at the feet of Israel and Egypt, when in reality, much of the blame can be attributed to a bunch of hard lined unrealistic and corrupt political zealots who in reality don’t give a damn how many Palestinians die.
Spot on ‘Decoding Egypt’Comment on Decoding Egypt column titled “Egypt’s Pathetic Foreign Policy (published Jan. 1, 2009). Thanks so much for this column. It’s a relief to read something sane and honest amid the craziness that is coming out of the Egyptian press lately. Egypt’s foreign policy is as pathetic as its domestic one. Remember how the security apparatus blamed a 27-year-old Facebook user Esraa Abdelfatah for the nationwide April 6 strike of 2008? The woman was actually jailed for “inciting the Egyptian population and the workers in Mahalla! This is exactly the same impotent, incompetent and corrupt regime that is pointing an accusing finger at Hamas. One question should have been raised in the article though, that of Egypt’s scandalous and shameful refusal to open the Rafah border throughout the past 18 months. Egyptians are sad that 400 Palestinians were killed this week. Their media is not telling them that 400 Palestinians died as a result of the siege their own government is contributing to by shutting the border. Why hasn’t Egypt allowed the many aid convoys to enter Rafah? Why did security forces turn downtown Cairo into a military zone a few months ago when a convoy of judges, lawyers and activists sought to travel to Arish and send medical and food supplies across Rafah to the dying Palestinians on the other side? Why did the Egyptian government starve the Palestinians? What about Arab-Arab violence?Comment on editorial “The Assault on Gaza (published Jan. 1, 2009). Since Israel withdrew from Gaza two years ago more than 6300 rockets were fired at Israel. What would Egypt or any other Arab country have done when they would have had these missiles fired at their citizens? Example 1: On Feb. 2, 1982 the Syrian army bombed one of their own cities; Hama. An estimated 7,000-25,000 people were killed, according to Amnesty International. Example 2: Black September in Jordan when many thousands of Palestinians were killed by the Jordanian army. Example 3: Iran- Iraq war, with an estimated half a million casualties. Why is it that the Arab world falls silent when Arabs kill Arabs and that when Israel defends its citizens it is called a massacre when 51 citizens are killed. Hamas is always cowardly hiding under the civilian population (even using Mosques) it is almost impossible to avoid these so very unfortunate civilian casualties. RobAmsterdam
Response to ‘What about Arab-Arab violence?’Rob, while I completely agree with the instances you gave as legitimate examples of barbarity, I have to point out the fact that you used examples which are more than 20 years old. In those days there were no precision weapons and GPS/laser guided missiles. What you have today is the most advanced and most powerful army in the Middle East launching an all out offensive against a militia. It’s true that they’re using precision weapons but when you are bombing a region where the population density is 4,170 persons/km sq. and add to that the fact that most of the casualties (315 dead) occurred in the middle of the day when most people were out on the streets, then all the hype about laser guided bombs and the “humanity that goes into the bombings (quoting Donald Rumsfeld) can go out the window.Mohamed Canada
