The reason why the Egyptians hate us: Haaretz

The masses demonstrating against Israel now are the same masses who once welcomed the Israelis; the hatred has sparked, but it does not have to be this way.
By Gideon Levy
The Israeli flag that was taken down by a young Egyptian from the window of the Israeli Embassy in Cairo was faded and worn, flying from an old, nondescript office tower, invisible from the street to the naked eye. A great deal of murky water has flowed through the Nile since the flag was first unfurled; people who think that the hatred for Israel that is now boiling over is a divine edict, fate or the wrath of nature, should think back to the early days of peace between Israel and Egypt. Then, in the carefree 1980s, tens of thousands of Israelis streamed to Egypt and were welcomed with open joy. It was a pleasure to be an Israeli in Cairo in those days; sometimes even a great honor.

The masses demonstrating against Israel now are the same masses who once welcomed the Israelis. Even if Friday’s “million-man rally” against Israel only became a thousand-man march, the hatred has sparked. But it does not have to be this way.

The fact that it has not always been this way should be food for thought in Israel. But as usual, the question of why does not come up for discussion here. Why is there terror? Because. Why is there hatred? Because. It is much easier to think that Egypt hates us and that’s that, and divest ourselves of responsibility. Peace with Egypt, which is considered an asset only when it is at risk, was a peace that Israel toyed with and breached from the beginning.

It required recognizing the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and granting it autonomy within five years. Israel conducted ridiculous negotiations, headed by its interior minister (Yosef Burg ) with the intention of making the negotiations go away, and never met its obligations. The invasion of Lebanon the day after the treaty was completed in 1982 was dangerous and impertinent. Against all odds, Egypt withstood this baiting.

People who ask why Egyptians hate us should think back to these two pivotal actions by Israel. Public memory may be short-lived, but hatred is not. Its flames have been fanned since then. People who want to understand why the Egyptians hate us should recall the scenes of Operations Cast Lead and Defensive Shield, the bombing of Beirut and the shelling of Rafah. If Israelis were exposed to scenes in which some country acted in the same way toward Jews, such hatred would burn within us toward that country as well. The Arab masses saw terrible pictures and its hatred increased.

That hatred had fateful significance with the arrival of the Arab Spring. The rules of the game in the new Middle East changed. Peace and cease-fire agreements to which the tyrants in the old Egypt, Syria and Jordan held with much gnashing of teeth, could no longer be preserved in democratic or partially democratic regimes. From now on, the people are speaking; they will not stand for violent or colonialist behavior toward Arabs, and their leaders will have to take this into consideration. The occupation, and Israel’s exaggerated shows of force in response to terror attacks, are now being put to the test of the peoples, not just their rulers.

There is a positive side to this in that it may rein Israel in, as has already recently been seen with regard to Gaza: If not for the new Egypt, perhaps we would already be in the throes of Operation Cast Lead 2. But in the long-term, this will not be enough to hold back our forces and hold our fire.

It is becoming exhausting to reiterate this, but it is now truer than ever: Israel no longer has the option of living only by the sword. The dangers inherent in the new reality that is emerging before our very eyes are not of the type that military prowess alone can overcome for years. We cannot gird ourselves forever, no matter how protected and armed we are. The new Arab leaderships will not be able to ignore the desires of their peoples, and their peoples will not accept Israel as a violent occupier in the region. Not only does an Operation Cast Lead become almost impossible, the continued occupation endangers Israel – the longer it lasts, the stronger the resistance to Israel’s very existence.

It is not difficult to imagine how things could be different. It’s enough to recall the first days of peace with Egypt, or the early days of Oslo – until the Arabs recognized the fraud. It is not difficult to imagine peace agreements that would lead to the end of the occupation and a response to the Arab peace initiative. The only way is to create a new Israel in the eyes of the new Arab world. Only if this happens can we return to Cairo’s Khan el-Khalili market and be accepted there. Let us not waste words over the alternative; it does not exist for Israel.

MAD ISRAELIS: From the Horse’s Mouth

EDITOR: The Guide for discivering Anti-Semites

What can we do – anti-semitism is so prevalent: “the whole world is against us”, even the Arab potentates, like Mubarak, who did all they could to aid Israel, against the interests of their own Egyptain people, not to mention the Palestinians… Israelis cannot decide if they loved or hated Mubarak, and oscillate between the two positions daily.

There is only one certainty for Israelis of this kind, and without it their world would collapse: The whole world is anti-semitic and hates Jews and Israel. What would they do without their wet dream of anti-semitism? Of course, reading this diatribe of a demented mind, one can really see the anti-semitic thinking controlling Israel’s sick society. The anti-semites are mainly in Israel, rather than outside…

The two pieces below are quite typical of the kind of drooling right wing howling published daily in Israel.

Hosni Mubarak’s revenge: Ynet

Op-ed: Anti-Israel Mubarak, who encouraged Jew hatred, must be savoring Sinai catastrophe
Moshe Dann
For three decades, Hosni Mubarak tried to undermine the peace process that his predecessor, Anwar Sadat, set in motion. Except for one visit – for Yitzhak Rabin’s funeral – he never visited Israel and viciously attacked Israel whenever possible.

He taught his people to despise Israel and, along with Saudi Arabia and others, was a purveyor of Jew-hatred. Egypt was a major publisher of Hitler’s Mein Kampf and the notorious Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and promoted this poison throughout the Arab world.

On trial in Cairo for crimes against his own people, at least he can savor his legacy of hatred for Jews and Israel, watching the Sinai Peninsula becoming the dagger of his revenge.

He might also remember his accomplices in the US, Europe, and even in Israel who refused to challenge his ruthlessness and his policies. Although an unsavory partner, he was willing to keep minimal contractual agreements with Israel to supply natural gas, as long as the golden eggs from that goose fell into his pockets.

Mubarak played a delicate game of subterfuge regarding Israel. He understood that defeating Israel on the battlefield was not possible; indirect means were more effective.

Allowing the Sinai Peninsula to be used as a transit area for weapons and terrorists, for example, was easy; it provides revenue for Bedouins and Egypt was not held responsible. Israel’s interception of the Karine A, a ship filled with weapons for Palestinian terrorists headed for Sinai proved how the system worked. No one blamed Egypt.

Indeed, according to intelligence sources weapons flow freely from Libya, Iran and Sudan through Egypt into Sinai and the Gaza Strip.

Mubarak measured his hostility towards Israel – like other regional dictators – to placate his American and European supporters. But he also needed to pay attention to his domestic rivals, extremist Islamic groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, an indigenous Egyptian organization with wide popular support. Cracking down on them was tolerated by the West and the Egyptian power elite as the price of stability.

Heavily dependent on tourism, Egypt needed to maintain an aura of peace; terrorism against domestic targets, especially tourists, was a knife in the heart of Egypt’s economy.

Israel went along with Mubarak’s charade of peace because it meant no war. Mubarak understood this weakness and used it shrewdly, condemning and undermining Israel and supporting Israel’s enemies – called “cold peace.”

Sinai an extension of Gaza
Two events changed the game: Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the revolution in Egypt.

With Israel no longer in control of the border area known as the Philadelphia Corridor, Gazans were in direct contact and sometimes conflict with Egypt. Massive tunneling under the border required Egyptian compliance and cooperation; it also meant Egyptian responsibility for trade with Gaza. When Hamas took over, it provided the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamist and Jihadist groups with a de facto semi-sovereign territorial base directly on Israel’s borders. The Sinai Peninsula became the critical land bridge for terrorists between Egypt and Gaza to launch attacks on Israel.

Once Mubarak was overthrown, therefore, all nominal restraints on terrorists disappeared. Sinai became hostile and lawless territory, controlled by an estimated 350,000 Bedouin who don’t consider themselves Egyptians, or under Egypt’s authority. A few thousand Egyptian police, their number severely limited by the Camp David Agreements, were and are no match for the Bedouin.

The Sinai has now become an extension of the Gaza Strip with one main difference: It is under Egyptian sovereignty. In order to regain control Egypt will have to deploy a massive number of troops to subdue the Bedouin, Hamas, Islamists, Jihadists, etc. Their hands full with domestic turmoil, it’s doubtful they can, or want to do it, since Israel is the primary victim of semi-anarchy.

Israeli leaders who ignored these developments were either grossly incompetent or politically motivated. Once Hamas took over in the Gaza Strip, the imperative of building a fence along the Egyptian border should have been the highest priority. It was not.

Egypt’s ability and commitment to supply Israel with natural gas is now in doubt. Infiltration and smuggling are increasing. The vulnerability of this border is the most serious threat to Israel’s security today. Egyptian politicians and Islamists are calling for an end to peace treaty with Israel and may soon have the power to abrogate it.

Although Israel has no control over what happens in other countries, it does have the right to protect itself. According to international law, respecting the sovereignty and/or integrity of another country or entity becomes invalid when that country or entity is unable or unwilling to prevent attacks from its territory, or is a sponsor or co-sponsor of attacks.

The first obligation of a government is to protect its citizens. If it cannot, or is willing to do so, it has forfeited its mandate and should resign.

No more Israeli apologies: Ynet

Op-ed: In face of world indifference, Israel should be fighting terror without apologizing
Avi Yesawich
While rockets were falling on Israeli towns and innocent Jewish blood was being spilled, an odd debate raged on in the UN Security Council: whether to issue a condemnation of the recent terror attacks perpetrated against innocent Israeli civilians, including children. Amazingly enough, a current member of the Security Council – Lebanon – prevented the condemnation from coming to fruition.

The Lebanese demanded a toned down, more “balanced” denunciation that includes criticism of Israeli retaliatory strikes in Gaza. It did not matter that the IDF responded by attacking legitimate targets – leaders of the terror group that executed the attacks, weapons compounds, smuggling tunnels and rocket and mortar cells aiming to kill Jews indiscriminately. No condemnation was issued, and no one blinked an eye.

The Arab League also announced an emergency session over Israeli retaliation in the Strip. Apparently, the death of some murderers was a more pressing affair than the thousands of casualties in Syria, ongoing riots in Yemen, and the civil war in Libya.

The Palestinian Authority, as usual, issued a lackadaisical rebuke of the loss of innocent life, while focusing on punitive anti-Israel censure. This leadership is expected to lead a Palestinian statehood bid in September, despite the absence of even a semblance of government unity, adequate control over terror groups, undefined borders, massive corruption and economic mismanagement. Still, the world doesn’t seem to mind too much.

The Egyptians, without even a shred of corroborating evidence, rushed to blame the IDF – rather than lunatic Islamic fanatics – for the death of Egyptian soldiers. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside Israel’s embassy in Cairo, demanding the abrogation of the 1979 peace treaty. It seems quite evident that many Egyptians were looking for a reason to blame us, even when such blame was bogus, but this seems to have fallen on deaf ears as well.

Meanwhile, hours after a “ceasefire” was mediated by Egypt and supposedly accepted by Hamas and other Gaza factions, Israel was hit by several rocket attacks. Again, condemnations from the international community remained elusive.

And where are the NGOs, media commentators, politicians and heads of state, social activists and proponents of human rights? The answer to that question is mostly rhetorical.

Aggressive PR campaign
How much more of this blatant hypocrisy can we possibly endure? The world expects us to act with restraint every time we face violence and odium from our enemies. Yet when Islamic fanatics are murdering Israeli civilians, global media’s silence is deafening. The time has come for us to say enough is enough. We will proudly defend our country, we will respond forcefully to the threats against us, and we will not lie down silently as the enemies sworn to our destruction attempt to turn their vision of a Jew-free Palestine into reality.

Above all, we will not apologize for our actions.
If the rocket fire doesn’t stop willingly, we will ensure its cessation by appropriate military and political action. No apologies will be necessary, as our enemies have provided us with no other feasible option. Nearly a million citizens will not be subjugated to permanent disruption of their daily lives. If we have to traverse into Gaza and root out terrorist elements by force, then that’s exactly what we will do.

If our enemies do not want to engage in dialogue or respect ceasefires, Israel will make them pay, heavily. Let the international community cry foul, but we should meet our national obligations and defend our honor: as long as foreign observers do not have civilian buses being shot up or rockets falling on their cities, their criticisms should be respectfully, yet sternly, put aside while we tend to our own national interests. We are fighting for our lives, not theirs.

The defensive PR campaign strategy must be eradicated. When Israel faces these violent confrontations, it must initiate an aggressive, pro-active approach highlighting the atrocious nature of our enemies’ actions. Remind the world that the Palestinians are not united and that a peaceful Palestinian state at this moment is nothing more than a pipedream. Hamas can’t even reign in the terror in its own 140 square mile backyard.

Show the world images of hundreds of rockets falling on our cities, buses riddled with bullet holes and Israelis running for their lives, huddled in bomb shelters trying to evade death.

Whatever action we decide to pursue in the face of repeated attacks on our civilians, one thing is clear: Even if the world demands an apology, it doesn’t the demand is justified. We live under daily threats of terror and death, and we will tend to those dangers without apologizing.

Avi Yesawich is an independent journalist and political commentator on Middle East politics. He holds degrees from Cornell University and Tel Aviv University, is an IDF combat reservist and contributor to the IDF activism website, www.friendasoldier.com