Thread: Egypt - International reaction - Israel shocked by Obama's "betrayal" of Mubarak

rats coming out, time to cut loose the Israeli scums too

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/wo...mid=tw-nytimes

Palestinian Adversaries Unite, for Now, Over Egypt

By FARES AKRAM and ISABEL KERSHNER

Published: January 31, 2011

GAZA —The Hamas rulers of Gaza and the rival Palestinian Authority leadership of the West Bank rarely see eye-to-eye on anything. But with mass protests rocking Egypt, across Gaza’s southern border, the Palestinian adversaries have united in maintaining a cautious silence, hedging their bets given the unpredictability of the outcome and clearly concerned about a possible spread of popular unrest to their areas.

Both Hamas and the Western-backed Palestinian Authority have prevented popular demonstrations in support of protesting Egyptians and Tunisians in recent days, apparently preferring to show a front of Palestinian neutrality and worried that things could spin out of control.

In an early sign that people on both sides were seeking to capitalize on the regional turmoil, Palestinians inspired by how social networking sites helped to mobilize demonstrators in Egypt and Tunisia created two pages on Facebook over the weekend, one urging people to rebel against the Islamic militant rulers of Gaza, and the other against the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

By mid-Monday, several thousand fans had registered for the anti-Hamas page, Preparations for Al-Karama (Dignity) Revolution in Gaza, which called for mass protests in Gaza after Friday prayers on Feb. 11. The anti-authority page, Preparations for Revolution against the Zionist-Fatah Authority, called for protests after prayers in the West Bank this Friday, and had attracted a few hundred fans.

Apparently nervous, the Hamas police dispersed a handful of demonstrators who gathered in Gaza city on Monday afternoon to show support for the Egyptian people. The bearded plainclothes officers called in a group of female officers and arrested three young female demonstrators, a human rights advocate and another male demonstrator. The call for that demonstration was also made through Facebook.

The schism between the Palestinian sides deepened after Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006 then seized full control of Gaza a year later, routing pro-Fatah forces after months of factional fighting.

Hosni Mubarak, the embattled president of Egypt, has been a strong ally of the Palestinian Authority and a staunch supporter of the now-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, called Mr. Mubarak on Saturday to express his hope that calm and stability would be restored. Egypt has also brokered reconciliation talks, so far without success, between Hamas and Fatah, the party led by Mr. Abbas.

Palestinian leaders on both sides have been wary of speaking publicly about Egypt, aware of what some local observers were calling the Kuwait effect. They were referring to the mistake made by Yasir Arafat, then the Palestinian leader, who sided with Iraq when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990. Kuwait withdrew its support for the Palestinians and expelled hundreds of thousands who were living and working there.

Mahmoud Zahar, a Hamas leader in Gaza known for his often fiery outspokenness, said on Monday, “We do not intervene in Egypt’s internal affairs.”

Nabil Shaath, a member of the Fatah Central Committee and Fatah’s foreign relations commissioner, said in a telephone interview from the West Bank city of Ramallah on Sunday: “We are praying that Egypt comes out of this in the final analysis with more freedom, security, democracy, unity. It is their decision, not ours. Our position has been very circumspect — we are very much aware of the difficulties Egypt is going through and we cannot take sides.”

“For us,” he added, “Egypt is an existential relationship like that between Israel and the United States.”

Many analysts have noted that if the Muslim Brotherhood eventually comes to power in Egypt, Hamas would be greatly strengthened, and could take over the West Bank. Mr. Shaath said that talk of a Muslim Brotherhood-run Egypt was “exaggerated.” He also denied any concern that anti-establishment protests could spread to the West Bank, saying that the Palestinians had enough problems with the Israeli occupation and the West Bank-Gaza divide.

Still, Mr. Abbas met with his security chiefs on Sunday. And in what appeared to be an effort to head off criticism of the veteran leadership in the West Bank, Fatah officials for the first time in months began talking about the possibility of holding long-overdue elections.

Azzam al-Ahmed, a senior Fatah official, told the Voice of Palestine radio on Monday that the leadership was discussing the possibility of holding presidential and parliamentary elections, despite the internal division. Mr. Abbas was elected in 2005; he said in late 2009 that he would not seek re-election as president, and scheduled elections for January 2010. But when it became clear that Hamas would not cooperate with staging the elections in Gaza Mr. Abbas’s term was extended indefinitely.

The authority leaders faced a challenge of their own this month after the satellite channel Al Jazeera published leaked documents showing concessions made by Mr. Abbas’s negotiators in past negotiations with the Israelis.

The Palestinian Authority allowed one large demonstration to take place Friday in the West Bank city of Hebron, against Al Jazeera and in support of Mr. Abbas. In a display of force dozens of armed Palestinian Authority security force members rode through the streets of Hebron, long considered a stronghold of Hamas.

The official Palestinian Authority TV has avoided showing the scale of the protests in Egypt. Emad al-Asfar, the director general of programming, said the station did not want “to interfere in the internal affairs of governments” and was trying to avoid “inciting the public through live coverage” and “unauthenticated stories.”

Nevertheless, Palestinians in the West Bank were mostly supportive of the Egyptians seeking change.

“We are happy,” said Rashad Zaid, 20, a university student from Ramallah, “because the barriers of fear have collapsed and people are able to raise their voices against those who have acted brutally. We hope that the street movement achieves its goals.”

Other Palestinians expressed concern that an end of Mr. Mubarak’s rule would leave Egypt in chaos.

Many Israeli analysts say that the regional turmoil precludes peace moves and territorial concessions in the near future, putting off prospects of a deal with the Palestinians. But few Palestinians seemed concerned about that, noting that negotiations have been suspended for months in any case.

In Gaza, where 1.5 million Palestinians rely heavily on the border with Egypt for transit and supplies, there were fears of increasing prices and of being stuck, as some smuggling tunnels under the border and the official above-ground border crossing were shut.

Hamas deployed forces along Gaza’s border with Egypt, preventing tunnel operators from reaching the area.

But five Palestinians who fled from Egyptian prisons had arrived back in Gaza by Monday, entering via the tunnels.

One was Mohammed Al-Shaer, known as the “lord of the tunnels,” a veteran smuggler who was arrested in Cairo in September 2009.

Fares Akram reported from Gaza, and Isabel Kershner from Jerusalem. Khaled Abu Aker contributed reporting from Ramallah, West Bank

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...d_dest=Twitter

EU calls for orderly transition in Egypt

By David Brunnstrom and Justyna Pawlak
BRUSSELS | Mon Jan 31, 2011 12:17pm EST

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union called for an orderly transition to a broad-based government in Egypt on Monday, saying democratic reforms were needed to create the conditions for free and fair elections.

The statement stopped short of calling for an immediate poll in Egypt, where a presidential election is scheduled for September. But it mirrored a White House statement on Sunday calling for a transition to a more responsive government.

EU foreign ministers said they wanted to see "an orderly transition to a broad-based government, leading to a genuine process of essential democratic reforms."

The 27 ministers added that transition in the Arab world's most populous country should "respect the rule of law, human rights and fundamental freedoms, paving the way for free and fair elections."

President Hosni Mubarak, an ally of the United States and Europe, has faced a week of protests by tens of thousands of demonstrators throughout the country calling for him to step down after nearly 30 years in power.

About 140 people have been killed in clashes with security forces, especially the police, in scenes that have overturned Egypt's standing as a stable country, a promising emerging market and an attractive tourist destination.

The EU statement expressed regret at the violence and loss of life during the unrest and urged the government to ensure security and property of citizens and an end to looting.

The speed with which popular revolt has spread from Tunisia -- where the president was forced to flee on January 14 -- to Egypt has surprised political analysts and left world leaders scrambling to assess how best to respond to the crisis.

Officials say EU states are divided, with some believing Mubarak should step down immediately while others argue he should be given time to create better conditions for an orderly and democratic transition of power.

OBAMA STOPS SHORT ON MUBARAK

U.S. President Barack Obama spoke with Britain's David Cameron and Germany's Angela Merkel on Sunday and issued a statement afterwards calling for political reform in Egypt, while stopping short of urging Mubarak to leave.

Monday's EU statement reflected a joint position on Saturday by the bloc's three biggest foreign policy players -- France, German and Britain -- which called on Mubarak to launch a process of political transformation to produce a more broad-based government and free and fair elections.

Earlier on Monday, EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton urged Egyptian authorities to hold talks with opposition groups, release demonstrators and take steps toward democracy to end the unrest that has convulsed the country of 80 million people.

Ashton said it was essential all sides, including the police, showed restraint in order to avoid further bloodshed.

"We urge the authorities to release immediately all peaceful demonstrators who are in detention," she told reporters.

"There needs to be a peaceful way forward and an open and serious dialogue with the opposition parties and all parts of civil society and we believe it needs to happen now."

Ashton said Egyptians had legitimate grievances and the authorities had to respect democracy, the rule of law and human rights. She did not mention Mubarak by name.

Mubarak appointed a new interior minister on Monday as part of an overhauled cabinet. The move appeared designed to defuse the most serious challenge to his rule in three decades, but there was no let up in the popular unrest.

(Editing by Luke Baker and Janet Lawrence)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...d_dest=Twitter

Egypt moves troops to Sinai with Israeli consent


JERUSALEM | Mon Jan 31, 2011 12:11pm EST

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Egypt has moved about 800 troops into the Sinai peninsula with Israel's consent to beef up security as protests aimed at toppling President Hosni Mubarak spread across Egypt, Israeli officials said on Monday.

Permission was granted in response to a request from Cairo, and the forces have been deployed around the southern Sinai resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, one official said. Two other officials confirmed that Israel had granted such a request.

The vast wedge of desert between Israel and Egypt is largely demilitarized under the 1979 peace treaty between the two countries.

Israel Radio said "Israel is looking the other way" as Egypt positions forces in the Sinai "to try to make sure the situation doesn't get out of hand" there.

Israel last permitted Egypt to station armed forces in the Sinai after it pulled its own troops out of Gaza in 2005, and Egypt posted border guards on its side of the Gaza border to prevent Palestinian militants from smuggling weapons.

Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace deal with Israel, in 1979. Under the terms of the treaty, Israel withdrew forces from the Sinai which it had captured in the 1967 Middle East war. It completed the pullout in 1982.

(Reporting by Dan Williams; Writing by Allyn Fisher-Ilan; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

For Christ sake who gives a second hand flying hair fuck about these fucking rag heads.
Nuke Isreal, eygpt and Iran.
Take the oil, and the Suez canal and let the fucking adults run the world.
JESUS!!!!!!!!!

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/af...lse/index.html

Unrest in North Africa and Middle East may spread to Syria

By Mike Pearson, For CNN
January 31, 2011 -- Updated 1822 GMT (0222 HKT)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Syrian opposition groups organizing protests against the government
• The calls are the latest call for demonstrations in the wake of Tunisian protests
• Those protests helped topple the Tunisian government and spark widespread unrest in Egypt

(CNN) -- What began as a popular uprising that toppled the Tunisian government before spreading into Algeria, Jordan, Yemen, Sudan and, of course, Egypt, may now be headed for Syria.

Opposition movements in Syria are calling for mass protests on Saturday against the rule of President Bashar Al-Assad.

The groups are organizing on Facebook, with several pages promoting protests in Damascus, Aleppo and other cities.

Protest organizers want better living standards, human rights improvements and a greater voice for youth, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that studies and translates news accounts and social media postings.

It's unclear how many people might join the protests. A few thousand people had expressed their support for the movement on the Facebook pages, some of them undoubtedly from outside the country, the research institute said.

On Sunday, Sudan got a taste of the protests. An undetermined number of university students and others demanded the removal of the government in Facebook-organized protests that its leaders said were inspired by the events in Tunisia.

The students protested at a university in Khartoum, chanting "No to high prices, no to corruption" and "Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan together as one."

"The people of Sudan will not remain silent anymore. It is about time we demand our rights and take what's ours in a peaceful demonstration that will not involve any acts of sabotage," according an English language version of the group's profile on Facebook.

"We will demonstrate against the rising of the prices, the corruption, unemployment and all false practices of the government such as violence against women and lashing them in ways that breaks all laws of religions and humanity and the violation of minorities' rights."

The Sudan Tribune newspaper, citing a statement from police, said 70 people, 40 of them students, were arrested after the protests.

Meanwhile, a Facebook page has surfaced calling for a protest on Thursday in Yemen, which has been the site of a few demonstrations already.

The Tunisian protests that sparked the region's unrest sprang up after Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old college graduate, set himself on fire in protest of police confiscation of the fruit cart he had set up to make money. He later died.

The protests resulted in the collapse of Tunisia's government and inspired similar protests in other countries, including Algeria, Jordan, Sudan and Yemen.

The protests have reached their zenith to date in Egypt, where untold thousands of Egyptians have ignored government curfews and clashed with police over demands that President Hosni Mubarak resign.

A popular Facebook page that helped organize the Cairo protests was dedicated to Bouazizi.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - If Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak is toppled, Israel will lose one of its very few friends in a hostile neighborhood and U.S. President Barack Obama will bear a large share of the blame, Israeli pundits said on Monday.

Well, this pundit says: "Israel never had any fiends !"

The thuggish Israeli regime is becoming increasingly isolated. It's about time the Israeli people acted and took their country back from a government and military sector that does not speak for the majority of them.

I'm not surprised at all that they are concerned about the people in the neighbouring country doing exactly that. And I'm pleasantly surprised to see the USA not being lapdogs, and toeing the right wing Israeli line-as is usually the case. Perhaps the USA is finally coming to it's senses in this regard.

we should keep out of this and let it take a natural course for once,
that f==cking idiot bliar was on the tv giving advise, well what can one say.

Originally Posted by sabang

And I'm pleasantly surprised to see the USA not being lapdogs, and toeing the right wing Israeli line-as is usually the case.

you sure ? it seems clear that Obama and Clinton are consulting their masters first before taking decision or are simply sitting there, indecisive, because they are out of their league.

wouldn't surprise me that Mossad and CIA try to trigger something in Syria over that false pretense,

how convenient,

wouldn't surprise me y'all haven't blamed Sarah Palin for the unrest in Egypt...

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

wouldn't surprise me y'all haven't blamed Sarah Palin for the unrest in Egypt...

no, but we can blame Bush for it

hopefully they will raid the Israeli and US Embassy, and take a few American hostages

should send the US back to the good old days of the 1970s

If TeakDoor had been around in the forties, most of the membership would have been rooting for Hitler. Worst case of mass insanity I've seen.

Originally Posted by Jools

rooting for Hitler.

I doubt it- most of us are opposed to the dictatorial Mubarak and his repressive state apparatus.

Originally Posted by sabang

Originally Posted by Jools

rooting for Hitler.

I doubt it- most of us are opposed to the dictatorial Mubarak and his repressive state apparatus.

Just like y'all were opposed to the Shah and look where that got you...

Watching Yemen

Posted by Michael Crowley Monday, January 31, 2011 at 3:15 pm


The stakes in Egypt are obviously huge right now. But it feels like we're all paying too little attention to the situation in Yemen, which Obama counter-terrorism advisor John Brennan has been described as fearing could become another Waziristan-like haven for terrorists, and where political anarchy almost certainly plays into al Qaeda's hands. The WSJ reports today on opposition efforts to organize demonstrations in the country's mountainous rural areas.

Over 3,000 opposition supporters gathered in the town of Maweya in Taiz province, in southern Yemen, condemning alleged oppression by the ruling party of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, according to eyewitnesses. And in Dhammar province , in central Al-Hada district, the opposition was able to gather more than 1,500 followers, in a district considered a stronghold for the ruling party.Monday's protests are much smaller than demonstrations that drew thousands to the streets of San'a, the capital, and other urban centers late last week. Opposition leaders said they were now targeting rural areas, where loyalties to tribal and local authorities often outweigh any allegiance to Mr. Saleh's central government. They have promised country-wide demonstrations on Thursday.

Could Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh be the next to go? At CNN.com, Yemeni expert Daniel Martin Varisco says it's not likely:

Tunisia appears to be an exception rather than a harbinger of radical change for Yemen. The protests in Yemen reflect genuine concerns, but they are less about the present government being evil than its being ineffective.

So far the protests in the capital have not resulted in bloodshed, but allowed factions to voice the concerns they have been complaining about in private and with friends. Many Yemenis, looking at the aftermath of regime change in Iraq, prefer the existing government's ability to provide relative security over any new civil strife.

Varisco adds that just one out of ten Yemenis have internet access, a big obstacle to organizing in a repressive state.

Still, you can be sure that the Obama team is watching this one very, very closely.


Read more: Watching Yemen - Swampland - TIME.com

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

Political commentators expressed shock at how the United States as well as its major European allies appeared to be ready to dump a staunch strategic ally of three decades, simply to conform to the current ideology of political correctness.

Just like Jimmy Carter dumped the Shah of Iran now look at the shit we are in over there

they need to storm the US Embassy and send a clear message that they will no longer be a base for the US invaders

Oops they've turned off t'interwebnet in Egypt again.

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politi...131-1ab3l.html

Temples of doomed democracy begin to stir from their coma

February 1, 2011

Egypt teetering on the brink

Protests continue to rage across Egypt, as overseas workers and tourists struggle to flee the chaos.

The Arab world has been on holiday from history for four decades. As the number of democracies worldwide tripled and representative government flourished on every continent as never before, only one region has been in a state of suspended animation.

Until now. The arrested development of the Arab world appears to be approaching an end.

Spontaneous uprisings in Tunisia and now Egypt have revealed the terrible truth that the region's dictators had been desperately trying to hide: that the people have power if they choose to exercise it, that the repression is a relic, that autocracy is no longer the norm but an aberration.


Illustration: Simon Letch

A journalist specialising in Egyptian affairs, Hugh Miles, says Arabs have long said that by opposing the government "you are just fighting a mountain; don't knock your head against it". It turns out that the mountain is papier-mache.

And it's on fire.

The first flame was lit by a 26-year-old street vendor in Tunisia, Mohamed Bouazizi, when he set himself alight. Angry that the police had confiscated his wares, humiliated when, seeking redress from the local government, a female official slapped his face and spat on him, frustrated when the governor refused to see him, Bouazizi doused himself in petrol and burnt to death.

It's too early to be certain of any outcomes, but already one Arab strongman has fled his country in fear and another has had to abandon his plan for his son to succeed him as president.

The flames that consumed Bouazizi set alight the unquenchable protests that ended the 23-year rule of Tunisia's strong man, Ben Ali, who is now taking refuge in Saudi Arabia.

And he set aflame the smouldering resentment of the people in the biggest Arab state, Egypt. After 30 years in power, Hosni Mubarak thought he had the right to manoeuvre his son into the presidency at the faux election due in September. Instead, he has been panicked into appointing his intelligence chief as the first vice-president of his reign and his family members are reportedly fleeing abroad.

One of Bouazizi's sisters asked: "What kind of repression do you imagine it takes for a young man to do this?" It's the same kind of repression that moved 11 other young men to set themselves on fire in emulation of Bouazizi in the last two weeks in Egypt, in Algeria, in Mauritiana and in Saudi Arabia.

The events of this so-called Jasmine Revolution expose the fatal flaw in the much-hallowed concept of an army-enforced "stability". Egyptians have been living under a declared state of "emergency rule" since 1967 as a pretext for denying them their freedoms.

The uprising shows that, if you impose this sort of repression for long enough, you are guaranteed to end up with an emergency.

"Stability" imposed at gunpoint is not stability at all. It is an unsustainable stasis which creates the conditions for eventual upheaval. In 1974, the 19 countries of the Middle East, including North Africa, contained only three democracies - Israel, Lebanon and Turkey.

Since then, the number of democracies in the world has trebled from 40 to 123, according to Freedom House. Yet in the Middle East and North Africa, only one new democracy has been added, Iraq.

How has the Middle East remained somehow immune to one of the great movements in world history? The two answers are oil and US support, and the two are closely intertwined.

Oil revenue has given dictators the money to run big security forces and the cash to buy some popular quiescence. It may not be coincidence that Tunisia and Egypt are two of the least-endowed oil countries of the Arab world.

The oil delivered not just money but also the undivided attention of Washington. The US first made clear the centrality of securing Gulf oil supplies in 1943 when Franklin Roosevelt sent military help to Saudi Arabia. But the US was happy to let Britain enforce the Western writ in the region until Britain's withdrawal in 1968.

Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon decided the US needed to protect its interests more actively through what is known as America's "surrogate strategy". That is, supporting friendly regimes as "guardians" of Western interests. The policy was set out in a still-secret document, National Security Decision Memorandum No. 92.

"What we decided," said an undersecretary of state at the time, Joseph Sisco, "is that we would try to stimulate and be helpful to the two key countries in this area - namely, Iran and Saudi Arabia. They could become the major elements of stability as the British were getting out."

The perversity and futility of that strategy was plain long ago. The two centrepieces of this so-called stability have become two of the greatest sponsors of terrorism on the planet and two of the most troubling sources of instability.

The US then adopted Egypt as one of its key Middle East allies. After Israel, it is the second-biggest recipient of US aid. Washington gives Cairo $2 billion a year, about half of which goes to its military.

With America's Egyptian surrogate, Mubarak, in trouble, the US is now trying to edge nervously away from him lest it antagonise the newly active sovereign in Egypt - public opinion.

Repression, by closing all the doors to legitimate protest, only helps fuel extremists, including terrorists. Indeed, the real warriors in any "war on terror" are not men with guns but the ordinary people of the Arab world.

By respecting the will and the hopes of the broad mass of people, democracy marginalises extremists. And allows religion to find its true level. The world needs more Indonesias and fewer Saudi Arabias.

Peter Hartcher is The Sydney Morning Herald's international editor.