Gaza Strikes Reverberate in Egypt

[DogPoundPup]

Source: Washington Post

CAIRO, Jan. 9 -- Rarely has an Arab leader been so widely perceived as backing Israel and the United States against the Palestinians, whose struggle has been a fundamental rallying point for Arabs and Muslims for more than six decades.

But Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has rejected popular and regional pressure to open the Gaza-Egypt border and toughen his stance against Israel. In recent days, his government has voiced support for Palestinians in an effort to defuse mounting criticism, but officials continue to suppress anti-Israeli demonstrations.

On Friday, as Israeli forces continued a two-week-old offensive against Hamas, the armed Islamist movement that controls Gaza, scores of Egyptian doctors emerged from their union building in downtown Cairo. They clutched posters reading "Gaza Is Dying" and banners demanding the opening of the Rafah border crossing. One demonstrator held a baby doll, symbolizing a Palestinian child, in a white sheet covered with fake blood.

Black-clad riot police stood before them, grim-faced in their black helmets. Brandishing clubs, they blocked the protesters from entering the street.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/09/AR2009010903830.html?wprss=rss_world/africa

[okiru109]

1. don't think them pyramids can protect you from our smart bombs

they ain't no dummies

[Arctic Dave]

2. What we need to do is give every country in the ME a couple dozen

Nukes. That would be fun to watch. Enough of this spitball stuff. Can you imagine? I wonder who would nuke. Talk about some true honesty coming out.

[Vilis Veritas]

3. Sea of Glass...

all that sand turned to glass...

[Arctic Dave]

5. IDF is too big of wussies to do anything spectacular.

That would take much too big of balls for them.

[Alamuti Lotus]

6. Not so much "wussies", but a fighting force that has been humbled

The myth of IDF invincibility (concocted by the actions of prior generations) was buried in its two retreats from Lebanon (2000, 2006). The proportionately high loss of military forces (Israeli losses were nearly exclusively military in 2006) was embarassing to the political career of the lame duck criminal Olmert. What they are finding is that for all of their technological superiority, nobody is really impressed; and however many bombs they drop, their neighbors are not afraid and will confront them toe to toe by whatever means. This is to say, the popular forces, this is not referencing the craven royals which continue to hide behind their mukhabarats and American diplomats.

[aquart]

13. Well, that's good to know.

It's important for all these noble defenders of liberty to be able to kill Jews at will.

[aquart]

12. Absolutely. Nuke the whole place because they don't work and play well with others.

I've often suggested it. After all, the Lord set angels with fiery swords to guard Eden and prevent the Adam family from re-entering. And that was for violating only one commandment.

[IndianaGreen]

4. Down with the Mubarak regime!

He wears business suits and speaks fluent English, but nothing can hide the fact that he runs a brutal police state, and ultimately he will face popular justice.

[Ichingcarpenter]

8. Egypt is the second largest repentant of US aide after Israeli

He gets weapons systems and armaments that prop up his regime
and knows where his bread is buttered and who butters it..

[aquart]

14. You sure he's repentent?

[aquart]

15. A "brutal police state" in the Middle East? Quelle surprise!

But I'm sure you can provide me with examples of non-brutal, non-police states. In the Middle East. These are the states we need to encourage and fund.

[Baby Snooks]

18. The paradox of politics in the Middle East...

Egypt is one of the few secular Muslim nations in the region and it is a paradox as was Iraq - do we really prefer a fundamentalist Islamic nation?

Egypt fears the rise of fundamentalism as does Syria and Lebanon and to a degree Jordan. Who is usually making the accusations of brutality? The fundamentalists. Often with some help from the CIA. We have forgotten the reality of Iran. We were sold the proverbial bill of goods.

We are in Iraq killing the same people Saddam Hussein killed. Plus quite a few innocent Iraqis.

Egypt is forcing the issue. The issue is partition. Where is the Palestinian state? Where is this nation called Palestine?

[slipslidingaway]

7. 50,000 protested in Egypt...

http://www.sacbee.com/836/story/1529629.html

"An estimated 50,000 people protested in the Egyptian coastal city of Alexandria after Friday prayers, joining thousands of people in more than a dozen cities in the Middle East and elsewhere rallying against the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip...


Many of about 30,000 protesters in Algiers waved Palestinian or Algerian flags marching in what was one of the biggest protests in years there. The rally defied a standing government ban on protests after Muslim Friday prayers...


Police in Jordan's capital of Amman fired tear gas to disperse more than 2,000 people who took to the streets to show their support for the Palestinians and demand that the Israeli Embassy be closed. Many of the protesters held pictures of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, praising him for expelling the Israeli ambassador.

Thousands of Palestinians also rallied in towns throughout the West Bank, though marches in at least one city dissolved into infighting between factions.

Five thousand marchers took to the streets in the biblical city of Hebron in the largest protest since the Israeli campaign began. When protesters entered an Israeli controlled area, the army fired tear gas and rubber bullets, while protesters threw rocks and bottles..."

[IndianaGreen]

9. Viva Chavez!

The Israeli ambassador left Venezuela on Thursday.

[onager]

11. I live in Alexandria.

But learned long ago that Friday is a good day for a kawaga (foreigner) to stay off the streets. I've never really felt in any danger here. But I don't want to inadvertently blunder right into any, either. Most anti-American ranting comes out of the little "storefront" mosques, and they are all over the place.

The AFP report mentioned this:

Legislators affiliated with the opposition Muslim Brotherhood led the demonstration in the ancient Mediterranean port city of Alexandria..."

That figures. The Muslim Brotherhood is al-Queda v.1.0, an organization that has pushed for an Islamic theocracy in Egypt since 1928. They have a strange and complex history.

The MB provided much support for the "Young Officers Revolt," which ended with King Farouk being deposed in the 1952 Revolution. And Egypt getting its first Egyptian ruler since Pharoah Nectanebo II surrendered the nation to Alexander The Great, 2,500 years earlier.

Expecting at least "a seat at the table," the MB was mostly ignored in the post-Revolution government. At least until they got the attention of President Gamel Abdel Nasser by trying to assassinate him. Nasser banned the MB and disappeared its leadership.

But it never went away, and today the Egyptian media usually describes the MB with the curious term "banned but tolerated."

Also from the AFP report:

Riot police were seen trying to prevent the demonstration from taking place -- only to give up because of the sheer numbers of protesters.

That's interesting. The Riot Police here don't give up easily, as anyone who has seen them in action can attest. Since I came to Alexandria in 2005, two major religious riots have blown up here between Coptic Christians and Muslims. The streets quickly filled up with tear gas, armored paddy wagons and scores of serious men in full riot equipment, many of them clutching shotguns and automatic rifles.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090109/wl_afp/mideastconflictgazaworldprotest_newsmlmmd

[pjt7]

16. onager

Do you think Mubarak should let more Doctors & supplies go in thru Rafah?

[McCamy Taylor]

10. Here is a good question from the article.

Sarah Abd al-Fattah, 24, an accounting student at Cairo University, questioned why Persian Gulf governments have not threatened to withdraw assets from the United States.

"Why is all the talk about Hosni Mubarak? We have our own large population to worry about. Our economy is in crisis. Mubarak is under a lot of pressure from outside and inside Egypt," she said. "We need to talk about the Gulf states. Financial power brings real power. They should be supporting us, not standing against us."

Note that those with the real power in the Middle East---the countries with the money---never lift a finger to help the Palestinians, even though they could do a lot for them. They do not care. The political parties jockeying for power in Egypt do not really care either. They like seeing Palestinians die. It gives them an excuse to criticize the government and try to take over.

Everyone in the Middle East has some agenda in which the Palestinians dying is good for their cause.

The Palestinians have become the baby seals of the Middle East.

[leftchick]

17. Gaza Strikes?

wow! Yet another euphemism for the slaughter.

[Broadslidin]

19. Of course, Mubarak is a political Puppet propped up by our Imperial Empire's money & mil. equipment.

No wonder, Egypt's ruler is rather ruthless
as he clings to our imperial Empire's shirt sleave....

[Iwillnevergiveup]

20. Hard to believe

Mubarek is 80 years old. Reminds me of Mugbawe in Zimbawe. Their days are numbered, but who's to follow?