Lieberman – A Thug and a Shame on Israel

Israel’s Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, has announced that if Hamas do not return the bodies of Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza, "…, they have to understand they will get in return the bodies of Mohammed Deif, [Ismail] Haniyeh and all of the Hamas leadership in the Gaza Strip…”

Haggling over the return of corpses is one of the ugly by-products of war. But isn’t everything about war ugly? Being disgusted by Hamas should not mean stooping to their level. Mr Lieberman, Israel’s foreign minister, regularly comes out with outrageous statements and remarks, such his 1998 suggestion that Israel would bomb the Aswan dam and thereby flood Egypt.

Israel needs to rid itself of this despicable man.  

Where Naples meets Cairo

I have recently come back from a short trip to Naples. (The real thing, not the one in Florida.)

It is loud and extremely, really extremely dirty. Rubbish seems only occasionally to be collected. Rubbish collection – I was told – is in the hands of the Mafia and they must be concentrating their resources on collecting money, which leaves them little time to collect the rubbish.

However, the people – that is everyone I met, in the hotel, taxi drivers, restaurant staff, passers by in the street, just everybody – are remarkably friendly. Quite different from what you come across in Venice, Florence, and Milan.

This remarkable overflow in friendliness and dirt reminded me of Cairo. Both are full of life and there is much to see and do and both cities. I would not like to live in either of them but they are a joy to visit. 

The café owner was delighted when I showed him the photo I had taken of the sign in his toilet: 

Egypt

From the first day of the troubles in Egypt, western media, spokespeople and the general mood were for the street and against the Mubarak regime.

You could not open the radio or TV without hearing someone talking of how exciting this was and how it reminded him or her of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Reporters forgetting that they are meant to report the news and not salute them, couldn’t hide their glee. None more so than the Independent’s Robert Fisk who climbed onto a tank that had been taken over by an anti government crowd at Tahrir square in Cairo.

Is Mubarak more corrupt than Berlusconi or Putin? Is Putin’s Russia more democratic than Mubarak’s Egypt? Do Egyptians who want to leave get shot at the country’s borders as they used to in Soviet bloc countries?

Does Egypt fund hate preaching mullahs, as does Saudi Arabia? Do they fund terror, as do Iran and Syria? Do they allow extremist Islamic training camps and religious schools to flourish, as does Pakistan?

Why is the West so happy to support a revolution in the most stable and peaceful country in the Middle East? Why compare this uprising to the fall of the Berlin Wall?

PS: In 2009 the US courts had 52 people killed under US justice compared to 5 who were given the death penalty in Egypt.

Praying for Mubarak's Health

Mubarak’s gall bladder operation, earlier today, is likely to heighten the talk about a possible successor. Egypt’s President is said to favour his eldest son for the job. But recently, Mohamed El-Baradei, under whose auspices as head of the IAEA, Iran was able to develop its nuclear capability, has come forward as a potential contestant.

Judging by the increase in the number of veiled women in Egypt over the last fifteen years, the country is becoming more religious-conservative and less secular. El-Baradei says that his ultimate goal is to set Egypt down the path of democratic reform. Is one of El-Baradei's partners in his plans to challenge the present regime the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood?

If so, what kind of an Egypt after such “democratisation”?

Learning from Experience or Egyptian Entrepreneurship

1. A well-dressed and friendly man approached J and me as we were walking towards the entrance of Cairo’s Egyptian Museum. He introduced himself as a director of the museum, Dr. A, and we chatted for a few minutes. Unfortunately, he said, during prayer time, some tills were unmanned and the museum was now and for another 45 minutes open to groups only. We could walk about in the surrounding streets, he suggested. There was much to see, he said. He recommended a visit to the “government bazaar” that was right opposite the museum. Both his wife and his mother, he added, liked to shop there.

I knew that there was no way out once J heard the word bazaar. The friendly Egyptian showed us where we should cross the very busy road. I actually enjoy negotiating the crazy Cairo traffic but our friend insisted on crossing the road with us. We were, by now, accustomed to the friendliness of the Egyptians although I became somewhat suspicious as he continued to the point of handing us over to the man at the entrance of the shop. The “government bazaar” turned out to be an ordinary souvenir shop that like all such shops in Egypt has a government license.

An hour later, as we made our way to the museum, I suggested to J that not only had this been a ploy to divert us to the store but that there was actually no break in the opening hours of the museum. I was right; J was full of admiration for Egyptian entrepreneurship.

2. A couple of days later, as we were walking towards the Sultan Hassan and Refa’i mosques, another man approached us. The mosques, he said, were closed to non-prayers in the coming hour. He suggested that we might want to visit another mosque just around the corner. He was a music teacher, he said and was neither a tourist guide nor did he expect us to tip him. He simply enjoyed practicing his English and would gladly accompany us to “his” mosque.

We thanked him for the information but decided not to accompany him. Instead, we continued on our way to the “closed” mosques. The mosques were open to visitors and – not to our surprise - had no prayer breaks at all.

Goebbels in Egypt?

This open letter signed by Claude Lanzmann, Bernard-Henri Levy and Elie Wiesel warns of the serious mistake and shame in appointing Farouk Hosny as Director General of UNESCO.

 

The letter also brings to light an unattractive aspect of the Egypt-Israel relationship: The continued hatred of all things Israeli that is propagated by the Egyptian Government, thirty years after peace had been signed between the two countries.

 

I am not talking about apt criticism of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. I am talking about a senior member of Mubarak’s cabinet who regularly and systematically churns out anti-Israeli poison. Farouk Hosny’s attitudes, thinking and language remind one of Goebbels, Hitler’s minister of propaganda.

 

Goebbels’ dissemination of hatred was in full harmony with the policy of Germany’s then head of state, Adolf Hitler. The time has come for Egypt’s President to tell us whether he supports these views and expressions of his minister or else shut him up and bring an end to such blatant expressions of hatred.

 

Mr Mubarak, your turn now.