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1. Exodus in Egypt: US Suggests Fleeing As Soon as Possible
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
The U.S. embassy in Cairo has told its citizens to consider leaving the
country as soon as possible and has warned against traveling in the
country.
Approximately 90,000 Americans are estimated to live, work and study in
Egypt, and several companies have told their employees’ families to
leave.
The warning is more severe than the previous statement to citizens to avoid non-essential travel in Egypt.
Dozens of wealthy Egyptians beat the rush Saturday night and fled on
private planes as the flames of rebellion continued to burn. Relative
quiet has returned to the streets, but thousands of protesters continued
to appear Sunday morning to call for the resignation of Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak.
Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Jordan also are organizing flights to
evacuate their citizens, while Israel was the first to do so. Relatives
of diplomats and dozens of tourists were flown home, but senior
diplomats remain in Cairo, although their offices are closed.
In the United States, sympathizers with the opposition movement rallied
Saturday outside the United Nations and in Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle,
San Francisco and Los Angeles.
People want the ‘Pharaoh’ to leave,” said Dr. Zaher Sahloul, chairman
of the Council of Islamic Organizations for Greater Chicago, according
to the city’s Sun-Times newspaper. “Egypt is asking for the right of its
children to dream.”
The protesters also turned their wrath on U.S. President Barack Obama, whom they accused of being too mild in his comments Saturday night that President Mubarak should guarantee freedom of expression to opposition activists and to halt the violence that has claimed more than 100 deaths.
The marchers compared the anti-government unrest in Egypt to the thirst for democracy that drove the American Revolution.
“You cannot be neutral between right and wrong,” Mahmoud Hamad, an
assistant professor of politics at Drake University in Des Moines, told
the Chicago newspaper. “You cannot be neutral between a dictatorship and
freedom.”
2. Huckabee Arriving in Israel Sunday, Tops Two Primary Polls
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Unofficial Republican party presidential candidate and former Arkansas
Governor Mike Huckabee, a solid supporter of Israel, is en route for his
15th visit. He has said he probably will wait until summer before
announcing whether or not he will run for president in 2012.
"Headed to Israel with family and friends. Looking forward to my 15th
trip there," Huckabee's tweet read on Saturday, as results show him
topping the polls in West Virginia and North Carolina.
Huckabee often has said that if the Arabs in Judea, Samaria and Gaza want a state, they can choose from among several Arab nations and that Jews, who are indigenous to the area, should be able to build wherever they wish to in their country.
To view his previous trip to Israel, see the following video.
Huckabee’s visit this week will take him to the Knesset, as guest of MK
Nissim Ze'ev wo will host a luncheon for him and where the Immigration
and Absorption Committee will make a rare exception and host him at a
meeting. He also will visit Jewish communities in united Jerusalem,
Judea and Samaria, including the Barkan Industrial Center at the city of
Ariel.
Dr. Joseph Prager, Dr. Paul Brody and Odeleya Jacobs, all known
Zionist American figures who are active in promoting positive public
relations between Israel and the United States, have already arrived to
help arrange the details of his visit.
His trip follows a recent visit by another GOP-Tea party contender, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.
Huckabee will be accompanied by actor Jon Voight, who can be seen and
heard in the following video backing Huckabee and condemning U.S.
President Barack Obama for “raping” the nation of the United States.
Two polls show Huckabee leading in West Virginia with 28 percent of the
projected vote, three percent ahead of Sarah Palin, and more than 10
percent ahead of Romney and Newt Gingrich.
In North Carolina, he leads with a nine-point advantage.
%InAd1%
3. Egypt Kills 100 Protesters; Israel Evacuates Diplomats
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Egypt copied Iranian tactics of two years ago and used brutal force by
police and prisoners against anti-government protesters Saturday,
killing at least 108. The army is standing by but has not taken part in
stamping out opposition rallies.
Meanwhile, Israel was the first country to evacuate diplomats and their
families. The Republic of the Philippines is preparing to evacuate
6,500 Filipinos working and studying in Egypt in case the situation
grows worse.
Israel's Foreign Ministry said it brought in special flights to carry
diplomatic families and 40 other Israelis visiting Egypt who wanted to
leave the country. The Israeli government so far has remained
silent about the growing crisis,
but Jerusalem unofficially has expressed concern that if Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak is forced to resign, a long period of
instability might follow.
The Palestinian Authority has expressed solidarity with Mubarak, who has ruled Egypt with an iron hand for 30 years.
U.S. President Barack Obama stated, "The people of Egypt have rights
that are universal" and added, "Suppressing ideas never succeeds in
making them go away." He spoke with Mubarak for 30 minutes on Friday.
Protesters followed
the lead of Tunisians two weeks ago who brought about the end of the
rule of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Egypt has responded with club-wielding
riot police who also are using live fire. The death toll in the protests
has ranged from 75 to 108, and at least eight were killed by gunshots
near a Cairo jail after several police stations and government buildings
were set on fire.
The Egyptian government has said it is operating with “zero tolerance".
However, Fawaz Gerges, director of the Middle East Centre at the London
School of Economics, told Al Jazeera:
“Obviously the [Mubarak] regime has decided to crack down very hard on
the protesters, but the protesters and the popular uprising [are] much
more deeply entrenched.”
“The most important point … is that the barrier of fear has collapsed,
has fallen. Egyptians now are no longer terrified of the security
apparatus as they used to be,” he said.
Egyptian forces Friday took into custody Nobel Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei,
the former chief of IAEA, the United Nation’s nuclear watchdog
agency, and prominent anti-government figure who returned from Vienna to
join the protests. He was placed under house arrest.
Despite his support from liberal movements, ElBareidi, as head of
IAEA, backed Iran's claims that its nuclear program is for civilian
purposes, and campaigned against Western sanctions. He is a supporter
of the Muslim Brotherhood and told Der Speigel last week: "They have not
commited any acts of violence in five decades."
Relative quiet has returned to the streets as Egypt continues to keep
social Internet networks and cellular phones shut down, although partial
service was restored Saturday afternoon.
4. WikiLeaks: US Secretly Backed Plans for Rebellion in Egypt
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
The United States in the past last three years supported ‘democracy
activists” who planned to overthrow the Mubarak regime, according to
leaked cables quoted by the London Telegraph.
“[Unidentified activist] expressed satisfaction with the December 3-5
‘Alliance of Youth Movements Summit’ in New York, noting that he was
able to meet activists from other countries and outline his movement's
goals for democratic change in Egypt,” stated one cable by U.S.
Ambassador to Egypt Margaret Scobey. “He told us that the other
activists at the summit were very supportive, and that some even offered
to hold public demonstrations in support of Egyptian democracy in their
countries.”
The embassy helped keep the identity of the dissident secret from
Egyptian police, the Telegraph said, but he has been arrested in the
recent demonstrations.
The leaked documents reveal that Scobey sent a cable to the Secretary
of State two years ago, in which she wrote, “April 6 activist on his US
visit and regime change in Egypt.” She added that embassy sources said
the plan for “a transition to a parliamentary democracy [was] “so
sensitive it cannot be written down.”
Scobey cautioned that she thought the plot was unrealistic, but contact
was maintained with the activist, who was a principle source for
information for Egyptian abuse of human rights.
Reporters have frequently questioned the State Department about American aid to Egypt
in light of constant reports, including those by the American
government, that the country routinely suppresses human rights and violates freedom of expression.
The leaked document, along with President Obama’s tepid criticism of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Saturday night have set off more criticism of his foreign policies.
“The harsh reality of events in the Middle East have all decisively
proven that the assumptions that underpinned President Obama's Middle
East policy initiatives were wrong,” wrote Foreign Policy.com’s Peter
Feaver Saturday.
“The foreign policy team seems to be quite uncertain how to proceed and
with good reason: our ability to predict what will happen is probably
even less than our ability to shape what will happen.”
%InAd2%
5. Obama Demands Mubarak Halt Violence, Introduce Reforms
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
U.S. President Barack Obama Saturday night called on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to halt violence against
opponents, protect freedoms and introduce reforms, nearly two years
after he delivered his “reaching out to Muslim speech in Cairo.”
In Jordan, protesters called Mubarak a ”traitor and an American agent.”
Egypthas said it has gained control over near-anarchy that spread
throughout the country Saturday night, but the groundswell of support
for the opposition threatens the regime of Mubarak and could spark copy
cat protests in other Muslim countries.
In his statement Saturday, President Obama said, “I want to be very
clear in calling upon the Egyptian authorities to refrain from any
violence against peaceful protesters.
“The people of Egypt have rights that are universal. That includes the
right to peaceful assembly and association, the right to free speech,
and the ability to determine their own destiny. These are human rights.”
The president's remarks came two weeks after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton prophetically warned that "the
region's foundations are sinking into the sand," due to the pervasive
culture of corruption that discouraged participation and hard work. Two
weeks later, she found herself responding to the protest movement in
Egypt and "urged Egypt to "to allow people to protest."
President Obama called on Cairo to restore Internet and full mobile
phone services, which were cut off in an attempt to prevent opponents
from communicating and organizing more demonstrations. More than 100
people have been killed as riot police, aided by prisoners they
released, used brute force to try to suppress the demonstrations.
He maintained that “the United States has a close partnership with
Egypt and we've cooperated on many issues” but that in the absence of
social and economic reforms, “grievances have built up over time.”
The Jordanian protest by Muslim and union activists outside the
Egyptian embassy in Amman ridiculed both Mubarak and President Obama.
"Mubarak, you are a traitor and an American agent," the crowd chanted.
"Hosni Mubarak, Saudi Arabia awaits you. We say to the Americans, 'do
not interfere,’” Muslim Brotherhood leader Hamam Said told reporters.
"Your control which has lasted 100 years is finished. We are living in a
new era."
He warned the Jordanian kingdom "to draw lessons from the events (in
Egypt) and start political reforms.” King Abdullah faces a society torn
between native citizens and a growing dominance of Bedouin who do no
identify with the king and his government.
6. Bedouin Terrorists Attempt Takeover of Northern Sinai, 12 Dead
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Twelve Bedouin terrorists and Egyptian security forces were killed
south of Gaza where Bedouin tried to take control Saturday of territory
that serves for smuggling. Egypt has sent more forces into the region
and has closed the Rafiah border.
Armed terrorists attacked Egyptian police in Rafiah, which straddles
the border between Gaza and Egypt, and they torched at least one police
station, according to the Bethlehem-based Ma'an news agency.
Part of the barrier was destroyed, but Hamas reportedly repaired the breach to prevent a mass exodus of Gaza Arabs.
Bedouin tribes had taken advantage of a pullback of Egyptian police and
army forces, which the Mubarak government brought closer to Cairo and
the Suez areas to suppress rallies calling for the resignation of
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Rocket-propelled grenades and rifle
shots accompanied the attempted takeover.
The northern Sinai Peninsula is the center of smuggling of drugs,
terrorists, weapons into Gaza, and is also a passage area for Africans
seeking better economic conditions in Israel. Egypt has failed to stop
the smuggling operations, despite a promise by the United States to
install monitoring devices as an inducement for Israel to agree to a
ceasefire in the three-week Operation Cast Lead counterterrorist
campaign two years ago.
Several Arab prisoners, including those from Hamas, escaped Egyptian
prisons during the mayhem that has rocked the country and reached Gaza
through smuggling tunnels. More than a thousand others, including Muslim
extremists, escaped jails and scattered throughout Egypt.
In Gaza, Arab residents rushed to gas stations to stock up on fuel,
fearing a shortage due to increased security in the Sinai, where
smuggling tunnels provide most of the gasoline supplies to Gaza.
%InAd3%
7. Arab Writer Who Spied for Hizbullah Gets Nine Years
by Gil Ronen
The Haifa District Court sentenced Arab writer Amir Mahoul to nine
years in prison and one year's suspended sentence Sunday for a number of
offenses against national security. The sentence was part of a plea
bargain. Mahoul is the brother of former Knesset member Issam Mahoul of
the non-Zionost Hadash party.
Makhoul was convicted of several very serious offenses, including
contact with a foreign agent, conspiracy to aid the enemy in war,
serious espionage and espionage. He admitted to passing on to Hizbullah
information regarding security installations and military activity in
Israel, and supplying names of Israeli Arab citizens who could be
recruited to the group. He relayed information regarding the location of
a Mossad installation and the Nachshonim military base. He tried,
unsuccessfully, to find out the address of the head of the Shin Bet, or
Israel Security Agency.
"There is no need to waste words on Hizbullah, its role in the struggle
against the existence of the state, and its will to hurt it and its
citizens," the panel of judges wrote, noting that the Lebanese terror
militia targets Israeli civilians indiscriminately, regardless of their
religion or ethnicity.
"We are looking at a defendant who, by appointment, met a foreign agent
of the Hizbullah organization in Copenhagen, allowed the installation
of encryption software on his PC and as mentioned, committed crimes of
espionage on at least 10 opportunities, encrypting and transmitting
messages over a long period of time."
"The defendant is a man with extensive life experience and global
connections; a man who not young, who is accustomed to participating in
meetings and conferences worldwide, who enlists in the ranks of a
terrorist organization that imperils the existence of the state and its
citizens," the judges added.
Mahoul is a Christian Arab citizen of Israel.
8. US Threatens to Cut Aid to Egypt
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Responding five days after the unprecedented protest rallies in
Egypt, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that Obama
administration threatened to review and cut military aid to Egypt, which
has totaled $28 billion since 1975.
After it signed peace accords with Israel, Egypt became the largest
recipient of U.S. aid in the Middle East, except for Israel, and annual
military aid of nearly $1.5 billion includes F-4 jet aircraft, F-16 jet
fighters, armored personnel carriers, Apache helicopters, antiaircraft
missile batteries, and aerial surveillance aircraft.
The threat of a cut in aid to Cairo comes as President Barack Obama
called on Hosni Mubarak to halt the violence in Egypt, where more than
100 opponents to the regime have been killed and thousands injured.
Former Democratic and Republican party officials presented the
president with a demand to cut aid to Egypt. “We are paying the price
for the fact that the administration has been at least of two minds on
this stuff, and we should have seen it coming,” said Robert Kagan,
co-chair of the bipartisan Egypt working group.
“I think Mubarak has a week at most left in office,” Andrew Albertson,
formerly with the Project on Middle East Democracy and the working
group, told Politico Saturday. “He’s ultimately done. Either he flees
fast, or there’s a transition to [newly appointed Vice President Omar]
Suleiman, or the protests continue. Meanwhile, people are becoming
incredibly angry with the United States.”
Officials in the Obama administration reportedly are at odds with
themselves, arguing between maintaining a “cautious” policy and stating
in public that Mubarak must resign.
Cutting the annual $1.5 billion in aid to Egypt will not be easy. Cairo
pays $1.1 million a year to lobbyists to “provide assistance and
advice, as requested, to the Embassy in the task of securing and further
enhancing the interests of Egypt in the United States in the political,
economic, military and other fields.” according to their contract,
quoted by the Atlantic.
Military assistance also is a high priority item in the
military-industrial complex in the United States, affecting employment
and the balance of payments.
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