Wednesday, 30 April 2014

Egypt In Crises:
Senator Leahy Acts To Block Military Aid To Egypt
(The Peace Process With Israel Died Long Before President Mubarak Was Ousted by Fanatics)

Security, Military Aid and The Peace Process
Excuses will be given by apologists for the newest terror and torture State in Africa -Egypt- as to why President Obama's funding package (totaling near to $1bn) should be approved on the grounds of U.S. Security interests in North Africa and the Middle East. With the Russian Federation eagerly eying Egypt to secure a new maritime foothold in the Mediterranean in anticipation of losing it's one base in Syria, can the U.S. really afford not to assist Egypt?
(I refer in this particular blog to Egypt as being a part of the Middle East because it defines itself in identity as an 'Arab' rather than 'African' country and because it's historical, political, religious and economic relations are governed more by it's ties with the Middle East than with the geographic continent of Africa on whose soil  the country is located.  I am unclear as to whether it identifies itself more with the torture regimes of Africa or the Middle East.) 
I would like to first address the peace process with Israel because to many in the West and indeed throughout the world it is very confusing why this process has not consolidated into anything more tangible than the Egyptian government shaking down successive Washington administrations with threats to withdraw from the peace process if more military and financial aid is not forthcoming.
The prospect of The Ukraine escalating into a more serious confrontation is likely to be a bigger factor influencing U.S. Policy toward the new torture and terror junta in Egypt than any threats with regard to peace with Israel. Israel did itself no justice by losing it's way in the corridors of the U.N. Building recently and not being able to get to vote with the U.S. on the motion of Ukraine.
On the matter of new Russian bases in the Mediterranean, Libya is so volatile, the situation in Turkey rapidly deteriorating, Tunisia and Algeria likely to see Al-Qaeda join forces with traditional local opposition militias as they bury their differences to oust both regimes, the U.S has plenty to lose by not shoring up this brutal regime in Egypt – a successor of the previous brutal regime – except this time they are, of course, murdering their opponents who previously held the country in a state of terror.
So what decent choice does the U.S. have in a jungle of predators?
I support Senator Leahy from an ethical and moral viewpoint. History will vindicate his principled stance against foreign aid to so brutal a regime as the one under army strongman and dictator Fattah al-Sisi  in Egypt.   But does President Obama have any choice when likewise held to ransom by torturers, murderers and terrorists?
Local 'terrorists' recently shut down the Federal Administration in the United States until their demands were met – and this was on sovereign U.S. home soil. (I covered that issue in previous blogs.)
How much leverage does the President have when this is happening thousands of kilometers away with the threat to the Southern Mediterranean (Southern Europe) if Russian naval forces 'retake' North Africa? (that is to say, are granted Naval facilities to operate.)
After the loss of Crimea, to further be faced with the prospect of Russian naval forces in the Mediterranean at a time when tensions are heightened would be a matter of great alarm.
The U.S. and it's allies regard the Mediterranean the same way China looks at the South China Seas – and for the same reasons.  Sadly the only leverage the President has in this context is a moral one  to save the lives of those unfortunate Egyptian individuals (mainly Muslim Brotherhood activists) recently condemned to death or to long prison sentences in likely conditions of regular torture,  inhumane and degrading  treatment. I hope that President Obama will insist a halt to show trials which make a mockery of justice and due process, and urge the military junta to halt all actions causing any more suffering to the Egyptian people, because if he cannot do this, then no amount of aid will stop Egypt descending into further violence and revenge killings. On another note I personally believe that he should also intervene to demand the immediate release of ex-President Mohamed Morsi into U.S. or U.N. protection and his (and his family's) safe passage out of Egypt to a country of his own choosing.

So even with yet another junta firmly ensconced in the Middle East, Egypt, will peace with Israel survive?

Lost Opportunities
My take is that peace with Israel died a very long time ago.   It just remained unburied.
Many years ago I was invited by a prestigious but low profile Jewish organization as guest speaker to discuss my experiences in war zones and how I had survived, alone and unarmed.  Now considering the fact that this group usually has some really important VIPs as guest speakers (including the Israeli Ambassador) I was probably just filling a gap for someone who 'got lost' -  in a building similar to U.N. H.Q., famous for it's lack of proper signage - and  where the Israeli delegation probably lost their way and missed the Ukraine vote two weeks ago(!)
The year of my talk was a time before Israeli forces withdrew from the Gaza and West Bank.
During question time I was asked if I thought the peace process would succeed now that a withdrawal was being negotiated. I said that I did not – but did not have the time allocated to go into depth as to why. I would now like to do this because it is more complicated than just withdrawing Israeli forces from 'occupied territories' and assuming the Palestinians and their supporters will just 'see the light of day' and talk turkey.

The Roots Of Modern Anti-Semitism
What I would like to do is to look at the roots of Anti-Semitism in the Middle East – with a particular emphasis on Egypt – but I could be equally talking about Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq or Iran – and indeed I am including the Christian minorities in Syria, Iraq and Egypt within this broad frame of Anti-Semitic perception as they (in the main) share these same attitudes with their fellow-Muslim citizens.
It's only when you understand this can you appreciate why peace in the Middle East between Arab and Jew is a journey which could take another 500-1000 years – if at all within this time frame - as the process itself has not even started.
The Jewish 'Conspiracy'
Before I discuss this I would like to explore where the seeds of part of this conspiracy theory came from and how they have permeated Egyptian culture (with a vengeance) for over half a century.
I would like to borrow from an excellent article by Samuel Tadros to briefly summarize the origins of modern Egyptian Anti-Semitism and how such deep rooted beliefs have made any peace process an impossibility.
The Dreyfus Affair6 (1894)
The first is the introduction of Anti-Semitic programming by French Catholic missionaries in the Levant during the 1920s.  Indeed I am familiar with the Anti-Semitic sentiments of many Catholic Orders which were prevalent (some might even say widespread) in European countries and in the U.S. during the 1960s,70s and 80s.   As the power of the Church over secular society was brought into check this correlated with a decline in the public (and School) indoctrination of Anti-Semitic ideology by religious Orders within local communities. As new generations were not being indoctrinated into the ideology of hate one finds today the strongest Anti-Semitic viewpoints being expressed and promulgated amongst communities which have voluntarily chosen to isolate themselves from Christian 'revisionists' and 'collaborators' and who explain to their brethren the decline in Anti-Semitism as part of a national (and international) Jewish conspiracy to undermine 'pure' Christian values in the world.  This very same viewpoint is both exchanged with and shared by Egyptian society – but it exists in mainstream and not amongst fringe elements and is subscribed to by both Muslims and Arab Christians.
Protocols of The Elders of Zion and 'Mein Kampf' (Adolf Hitler)
The second phase of modern Anti-Semitism in the Arab world took place between the late 1920s and 1945 – when French racism was replaced by Nazi ideology in the Arab World.
Egypt was a country of transit and of welcome and refuge for many Nazis fleeing the collapse of the Third Reich.  It is historically documented how former German (Nazi) scientists developed Egypt's first ballistic missile program – the intention was to deliver deadly poison gas to destroy 'the Jewish State' from sites in Egypt.  In addition and linked to the latter, on the coming to power of the then popular Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egypt's Ministry of Information engaged one of Hitler's leading Anti-Semitic propagandists to consolidate an ideology based on an amalgam of Hitler's Anti-Semitic theory and that of the 'eternal' Jew as the reasons for all of Egypt's woes. As a propagandist he was very effective in his tasks, having learnt skills developed and perfected during the era of the Third Reich.
''Egypt's modern history is the story of continued failure:failure to modernize, failure to deliver the promised salvation to the masses, failure to better their miserable conditions, and above all the failure of a country to find the place it believes it deserves under the sun. Defeats, failures and disappointments have taken their toll on the people. Only the existence of a Jewish conspiracy against, Egypt, Arabs, and Islam can offer them solace. Only by believing that the Jews are responsible for their miserable conditions can they find comfort''1;or so they are led to believe by the political and military elite who have squandered Egypt's financial resources and, like the Pharaohs of old, emptied the coffers of the country for the betterment of themselves and their families.

This blog is not meant as an exhaustive article about Arab-Israeli conflict (of which enough books, articles and research papers have now been written to fill 20 Libraries of Congress) but to give the layperson some start point of what ideologies and events are today being manipulated by extremists and hate mongers to shape Anti-Semitic thinking amongst the young generations in Egypt and the rest of the Middle East, Pakistan, Afghanistan and, of course, it almost goes without saying, inside countries considered the main instigators and financiers of hate, Saudi Arabia and Iran.
You cannot, however, understand the Middle East today without understanding the role of propaganda in shaping hatred against Jews throughout the region.
Haj Mohammed Effendi Amin el-Husseini,Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Other Key Elements of Racism
Other elements which can be identified as in part responsible for Anti-Semitism are the writings of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Pan-Arab Nationalist and Nazi collaborator, Haj Mohammed Effendi Amin el-Husseini (1897-1974) 2 ;the Damascus Blood Libel Affair of 18403;The Protocols of The Elders of Zion (1903)4;and a shovel full (or more so, a truck load) of conspiracy theories have grown up around 9/11, all of which fuel Anti-Semitism in the Arab world5.
9/11-The Twin Towers Tragedy and Conspiracy Theories
The issue the racists have with 9/11 is that they could not believe that so few Jews would not  be working at one of New York's top financial centers - they expected most of the dead to be named Silver, Gold, Frank and Stein instead of  folk like Smith and Jones and thousands of other individuals (Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Muslims, Atheists) from the U.S. and all over the world who were just so unlucky to have turned up for work at the wrong place at the wrong time on the wrong day of the year and on the wrong floor level.  I have no doubt that people who happened to be Jewish lost their lives as did individuals from many other faiths and races and countries in the world.  Because of this a whole conspiracy industry has grown up to explain why such was (or indeed in their opinion was not) the case.
By the time you read through the references below, you may well begin to appreciate why and how both Christian and Arab schoolchildren are being indoctrinated with lessons of hate not just in the Middle East but also in Islamic schools, worldwide, making it impossible for a climate of rational dialog to exist between Muslim and Jew, Israeli and Palestinian.  For example, when you have prominent Muslim clerics and Muslim Rulers actually endorsing in the opening page  the authenticity of 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion'  (printed incidentally in Saudi Arabia and Iran and posted worldwide or available for download from religious and Jihadi Islamist sites) then you can understand why successive generations of Christian and Arabs in the Middle East and North Africa are programmed from childhood to hate.
The theme of this article is Egypt and the debate over U.S. military aid.
I have however broadened it to explain as to why, no matter how much money is provided, officially approved and endorsed hate literature, which is part of mainstream Muslim (and indeed Christian) societies in the Middle East, make the road toward long-term peace just that more difficult to find.
I could not put this into the context of a single question asked at my talk as I had to give an answer in less than one minute.
Missed Opportunities or Just Opportunistic Feudal Rulers?
Sometimes you really have to take risks or take the initiative in order for anything to change.
This is the case with peace in the Middle East.  The problem in the Middle East - with regard to a final border settlement between Palestine and Israel - is that none of the corrupt leaders in the Arab world actually want anything to change.   If the Palestinian issue was resolved tomorrow, the day after, most would be swept from power as their masses, having no other 'indoctrinated' 'common' enemy, would immediately realize the reasons for their impoverishment are the absence of good governance, the squandering of all the financial resources in favor of elite minorities, runaway levels of corrupt practices and patronage not reflective of  the 21st century nor of the talents and potentials of local individual citizens but a manipulation of all the wealth and resources of such countries and states and kingdoms both amongst  and in favor of  ruling elite tribes and clans with all justifications for status quos extracted from interpretations of the Koran, all tailored, adjusted and re-adjusted to suit local ruling dynastic tribal requirements.  In many respects, it's no different from the European medieval feudal concepts of the Kings and Queens divine (God-given) right to rule.
Where any one group in a society believe that they have a divine right to subjugate the impoverished majority with no checks and balances on the scope of their power and influence, then do not expect the disenfranchised to stand by, meekly, forever, regardless of the technologies of State control.  Empires with the most advanced State apparatus for their own day have crumbled when the impoverished masses could no longer take the punishment.   This is what history has taught us.  But we rarely learn from history.

So this is Egypt today. When you take the Israel-Palestine conflict out of the picture, the Emperor has no clothes7.


article amended 1st May
addendum May 3

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/sen-leahy-blocks-us-aid-to-egypt-to-protest-nations-appalling-abuse-of-justice-system/2014/04/29/4d5fe0fc-cfe3-11e3-937f-d3026234b51c_story.html


1.The American Interest:'The Sources of Egyptian Anti-Semitism; by Samuel Tadros
http://www-the-american-interest.com/articles/2014/04/21/the-sources-of-egyptian-anti-semitism
if you cannot reach the article at this website try    http://www.the-american-interest.com/
(then search for Samuel Tadros)


4.http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007058




7.The Emperor's New Clothes, by Hans Christian Andersen
http://www.andersen.sdu.dk/vaerk/hersholt/TheEmperorsNewClothes_e.html









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