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Contents: Weekly Quotes | Short Takes | On Topic Links
Egyptian Military Ousts Morsi, Suspends Constitution: Abigail Hauslohner, William Booth and Sharaf al-Hourani, New York Times, July 3, 2013
The Myth Of Political Islam Has Been Exposed in Egypt: Bessma Momani, The Globe and Mail, Jul. 03 2013
In Egypt, Democrats vs. Liberals: Samer S. Shehata, New York Times, July 2, 2013
Breaking News!
EGYPT'S MILITARY LEADER SUSPENDS THE CONSTITUTION,
APPOINTS INTERIM HEAD OF STATE
Jerusalem Post, July 3, 2013
Egyptian General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, flanked by military leaders, religious authorities and political figures, effectively declared the removal of elected Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in a televised broadcast, Wednesday. The head of Egypt's armed forces issued a declaration suspending the constitution and appointing the head of the constitutional court as interim head of state. Sisi called for presidential and parliamentary elections, a panel to review the constitution and a national reconciliation committee that would include youth movements. He said the roadmap had been agreed on by a range of political groups. "The people and the army are one hand," protesters cheered in the square, amid the roar of horns and chanting, a Reuters witness said. An interim administration that will govern Egypt in an army transition plan was due to determine when presidential and parliamentary elections will take place, the army spokesman told Reuters. Egypt's state-run Al-Ahram newspaper reported on its website that the army told Morsi at 7 p.m. (1700 GMT) that he was no longer head of state.
“"The obstacle to peace between us and the Palestinians is not just fundamentalist terrorist organizations, but the belief that it is possible to destroy the State of Israel. These organizations, states and leaders plant hopes in their nations that we can be beaten by sword, gun and bomb. We cannot be defeated by any those means or any others. Jabotinsky understood the connection the connection between security and peace. Jabotinsky said that only a strong, Jewish defense force can promote the peace that we so long for." — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu , speaking at a memorial session marking the 73rd anniversary of the death of Vladimir Jabotinsky. He said, “It is immoral to be weak and stretch out our necks to be attacked in a choppy and volatile arena, and Israel's job is to strike down those who seek to destroy it in order to defend itself and to show that there is no point in continuing an armed battle against Israel.” (Jerusalem Post, July 3, 2013)
“I am the president of Egypt. The remnants of the former regime, they are fighting against our democracy. If they come back to the people they will be rejected. They are accustomed to corruption, rigging elections, sucking dry the blood of the people. They cannot thrive in democracy…There is a state expecting me to uphold the legitimacy of this constitution. I have no choice…. When we call for jihad, we call for it toward the enemies of this nation. We never call jihad against one another. I reiterate: If protecting the legitimacy [of the ballot box] requires my own blood, then I am willing to do this." — Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, in a late night speech Tuesday [July2] on Egyptian state television where he vowed to remain as president despite an Army ultimatum for him to either come to some agreement with his opposition, step down or be removed from office.
"It is more honorable for us to kill those who threaten or frighten the Egyptian people, and we swear by god that we will sacrifice Egypt and its people with our blood against all terrorists, extremists or ignorance."— Gen. Al Sisi, Minister of Defense and head of the Egyptian Armed Forces, in a retort to Morsi that appeared on the official Egyptian Armed Forces Facebook page. The Egyptian state news agency repeated the message, also attributing it to Gen. Al Sisi. (Wall Street Journal, National Post, July 2&3, 2013)
“In the temporary vacuum created by the U.S. foreign policy establishment’s sustained malaise, Canada should take the lead in proposing that NATO be transformed into a world-wide alliance of reasonably democratic countries pledged to all-for-one collective defense and security, and in demanding withdrawal of the vote at the United Nations General Assembly from all countries that flagrantly disregard the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man, until they reach a minimal level of conformity to it. When this is refused (as it will be, by China and Russia, among others), it should lead all the countries that meet that standard in the cessation of any funding to the UN, and the establishment of a parallel world organization, until the UN returns to its founding purposes.” — Conrad Black, in an op-ed article in the National Post. (National Post, June 29, 2013)
“Building democracy without democrats is impossible. But, fortunately, democrats develop as individuals, before their countries become democracies, and they may eventually turn their nations into democratic societies. It’s unlikely to happen, though, while one political faction considers the other destined to hell. As long as the parties are millennia apart, they are unlikely to coexist as “government” and “loyal opposition.” Countries with highly asymmetrical degrees of cultural development are poor candidates for democracies.” — George Jonas in an op-ed in the National Post. (National Post, June 29, 2013)
“The idea at the start was that there was lots of anger in the street against the Brotherhood and Morsi, and that one part of society had taken over the government and not carried out any reforms that have benefited people.” — Hassan Shahin, 22, who is credited with beginning, with four other friends, the petition campaign, called “tamarod” (rebellion), to oust President Morsi. To date the petition is said to have garnered some 20 million signatures. (New York Times, July 2, 2013)
“Any coup of any kind against legitimacy will only pass over our dead bodies.” — Mohammed el-Beltagi, a leading Muslim Brotherhood figure, to a rally of Brotherhood supporters. A line of around 1,500 men with shields, helmets and sticks — assigned with protecting the rally against attackers — stamped their feet in military-like lines, singing, “Stomp our feet, raise a fire, Islam’s march is coming.” (Washington Post, July 1, 2013)
“If you are really going to pivot to Asia, you cannot leave the Middle East in flames. With regard to Egypt, the Arab-Israel peace process, Syria, Iraq, Iran — all of that has to be manageable.”” — Strobe Talbott, the head of the State Department’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board and president of the Brookings Institution, commenting on John Kerry’s, as yet, unsuccessful effort to restart peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs. (New York Times, June 23, 2013)
“Keith Alexander, the general in charge of the National Security Agency, told ABC News on Sunday that intelligence revelations by fugitive contractor Edward Snowden had "caused irreversible and significant damage to our country and to our allies." But no worries, President Obama seems to think it's no big deal. "I have not called [Chinese] President Xi personally or [Russian] President Putin personally" about the case, Mr. Obama said on Thursday in Senegal. And why not? "Number one, I shouldn't have to," Mr. Obama said. "Number two, we've got a whole lot of business that we do with China and Russia, and I'm not going to have one case of a suspect who we're trying to extradite suddenly being elevated to the point where I've got to start doing wheeling and dealing and trading on a whole host of other issues." Oh, and he doesn't want to "be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker." — from an editorial in the Wall Street Journal. (Wall Street Journal, June 29, 2013)
“Europe is boycotting goods. True, it starts with settlement [goods], but their problem is with Israel, which is seen as a colonialist country. Therefore, it won’t stop at the settlements, but [spread] to all of Israel.” — Tzipi Livni, head of Israel’s negotiating team with the Palestinians, In a speech on Monday [July 1] to an accountants’ conference in Eilat.
“Highly unlikely.” — a top EU official’s response to Livni’s remarks, pointing out that businessmen in a number of European countries are keen on partnering with Israeli companies to use their technology and innovation in opening up markets in third countries, often in the Far East.
[Livni’s] “policy of sowing fear of boycotts is detached from reality. The Israeli economy is innovative and groundbreaking. The entire world comes here to learn from us, and business people are amazed at Israeli technology and innovations.” — a statement from the Bayit Yehudi party in response to Livni. (Jerusalem Post, July 3, 2013)
“Christians are terrified by the Islamist militias and fear that in the event of their victory they would no longer be able to practice their religion and that they would be forced to leave the country. As soon as they reached the city [of Aleppo], Islamist guerrillas, almost all of them from abroad, took over the mosques. Every Friday, an imam launches their messages of hate, calling on the population to kill anyone who does not practice the religion of the Prophet Muhammad. They use the courts to level charges of blasphemy. Who is contrary to their way of thinking pays with his life.” — Archbishop Jeanbart of Aleppo’s Melkite Greek Catholic Church (Syria), quoted by Nina Shea in the National Review. (National Review, July 1, 2013)
“The summary of the exhibition in the museum’s official catalogue describes Palestinian terrorists convicted in Israel as “failed martyrs who have yet to achieve their unfulfilled suicide missions”. This signifies that the formal statements signed by all Palestinian prisoners detained for reasons of security, in return for their exchange or release, and can no longer commit terrorist acts, are nothing more than a hoax – a signature with one hand whilst the other is crossed behind their back, revealed as a hypocritical ploy which invalidates their alleged renunciation of violence.” — Shimon Samuels, director of International Relations at the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, in an emotional speech after visiting a photo exhibition at the Jeu de Paume museum in Paris entitled Phantom Home: Death, which seeks to highlight Palestinian suicide bombers who characterise themselves as ‘’freedom fighters. (European Jewish Press, July 1, 2013)
“There is a viewpoint that the two sides [Israel & the Palestinians] are "an inch apart" and just a bit of serious negotiating will bridge the gap, but that has always seemed nonsense to me. An inch apart on the many Israeli security demands, such as control of the Palestinian air space and electro-magnetic spectrum and of the Jordan Valley? An inch apart on Jerusalem itself, which great numbers of Israelis do not wish to see divided ever again? An inch apart on the "refugee" issue? To the extent that "everyone knows what an agreement would look like," both Israeli and Palestinian leaders and populations have for decades rejected those terms.” — Elliot Abrams, a former top National Security Council officer in the Bush White House. (Council on Foreign Relations, July 1, 2013)
"Reaching a settlement that brings about two states is a religious betrayal – not only for the leadership but for most Muslims today. The West does not understand this." "Islam has a goal. So if you are a true Muslim, you must fight for that goal. You can achieve a temporary peace or truce, but it is not ultimate, not everlasting….So for a Palestinian leader – even if he is secular, even an atheist – to leave the negotiating room with the announcement of a two-state solution would mean that he would be killed the minute he walks out." — Ayaan Hirsi Ali, author of "Infidel", interviewed during her recent visit to Israel for the recent Presidential Conference in Jerusalem. (Israel Hayom, June 28, 2013)
“We do not live in a ghetto. We do not have the head of a ghetto. There isn’t a single [official] entity that can claim to speak for everyone.” — Frank Dimant, CEO of B’nai Brith Canada and publisher of the Jewish Tribune, saying that the very notion is “out of touch” and evokes “memories of classical European shtetl communities with ‘official Jewish’ representatives to government… many in the community are now openly asking: ‘What message is CIJA actually delivering to government, and what community are they actually representing?’”
“It’s not clear to me who B’nai Brith represents,” — Shimon Fogel, CEO of Canada Israel Jewish Affairs. “I don’t take issue with them weighing in on an issue. I wish they would be perhaps more thoughtful and careful about some of the things that they say and the ways in which they say them. I can’t account for why they have, over the last period, become apparently more aggressive.” Fogel added that Jewish advocacy in Canada is “not monolithic.”
“It’s not to the benefit of our community to be attacking the mainstream. The more we are seen to be at war with each other, the more people and governments are completely going to ignore us.” — Bernie Farber, head of the Canadian Jewish Congress until it was dissolved last year to make way for CIJA, who also criticized all this “internecine muckraking.” (National Post, July 3, 2013)
POLL: ARABS WANT DEMOCRACY, OPPOSE RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE ON PUBLIC AFFAIRS — (Doha) The second annual Arab Opinion Index has just been released by the Doha-based Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, comprising interviews with over 20,000 men and women across 14 Arab countries in 2012-2013. 82% of Arabs see a democratic political system as appropriate for their own country. A large majority of Arabs also defines itself as religious – but a majority also opposes religious officials having influence on public affairs. 61% described the Arab uprisings as a positive development, while 77% supported the departure of Bashar Assad from the Syrian presidency. (Daily Star-Lebanon, June 26, 2013)
PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY ‘POLICEMAN’ TRIED TO MURDER JEW IN SAMARIA —
The IDF and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) arrested a Palestinian Authority security officer and two of his brothers for an attempted murder of a 70-year-old Jew, who suffered gunshot wounds in his legs in a terrorist attack May 13. All three suspects have confessed, military spokesman announced on Wednesday. The PA “policeman,” 30-year-old Eyad Adnan Muhammad Daoud, is from Kalkilya, a large Arab city adjacent to Kfar Saba, located on the northern edge of metropolitan Tel Aviv and on the main artery to the Jewish communities of Maaleh-Ginot-Karnei Shomron and Kedumim. (Jewish Press, July 3, 2013)
UNTREATED PALESTINIAN SEWAGE CONTAMINATING ISRAEL'S GROUNDWATER — (Jerusalem) Almost 90% of sewage from Palestinian towns in the West Bank flows into the environment untreated, contaminating the groundwater and 162 km. of streams, according to a report prepared by the Israel Parks and Nature Authority. Israel has tried to cope with the problem by building treatment plants near the Green Line separating Israel from the West Bank and treating the contaminated water once it enters Israel. A lack of Israeli-Palestinian cooperation has impeded solutions to this problem. For example, the Palestinian Authority refuses to cooperate to connect Palestinian towns in the northern West Bank to an Israeli sewage line because the line also serves several settlements. It also nixed a proposed treatment plant that would serve both Palestinian towns and the city of Ariel. (Ha'aretz, July 3, 2013)
POLL: 10% OF ISRAELIS BELIEVE PEACE TALKS WILL RESUME— (Jerusalem) Despite recent attempts by US Secretary of State John Kerry to restart the peace talks, only 10 percent of Israelis and 27% of Palestinians believe negotiations with Palestinians will resume and violence will end, according to a poll released on Tuesday. On the Palestinian side, 57% of those surveyed believe that Israel’s long-term goals are to extend its border into Palestinian territory and drive out the Arab citizens. An additional 25% of Palestinians believe Israel’s goals are to annex the West Bank and deny Palestinians their political rights. Likewise, 17% of Israelis believe that Palestinians ultimately hope to conquer the State of Israel, while an additional 37% believe Palestinians hope to eradicate as much of the Israeli Jewish population as possible. (Jerusalem Post, July 3, 2013)
THE SHADOW WAR AGAINST SYRIA'S CHRISTIANS — (Beirut) On June 23, Catholic Syrian priest Fr. Francois Murad was murdered in Idlib by rebel militias, the latest victim of the shadow war against Christians that is being fought by jihadists alongside the larger Syrian conflict. Syria's two-million-strong Christian community is being devastated, even though the churches have not allied with the Assad regime. The Christians are not simply suffering collateral damage. They are being deliberately targeted in a religious purification campaign. (National Review, July 1, 2013)
BABI YAR MEMORIAL TO BE BUILT IN KIEV IN HONOR OF 100,000 MASSACRED BY NAZIS— (Kiev) A new memorial complex will be built at the site of the Babi Yar massacre in Kiev, where an estimated 50,000 Jews were murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust, the World Forum of Russian-speaking Jews announced Sunday. According to WFRJ President Alexander Levin, the new memorial site seeks to provide visitors from around the world with an emotional connection to the massacre. In addition to a Jewish center and synagogue at the site, there will be a display of historic material including remains of clothes and belongings of the murdered, documents from the Nazi archives, a 3D film, and interviews with survivors, the WFRJ said in a press statement. Construction of the site, which is expected to take two-and-a-half years to complete, will begin in the coming months. (Ha’aretz, Jun.24, 2013)
KARSENTY GUILTY OF DEFAMATION IN AL-DURA CASE — (Paris) French media analyst Phillipe Karsenty was convicted of defamation for accusing French state television of doctoring a video showing the death of a Palestinian boy. The Paris Court of Appeals, which had overturned Karsenty’s libel conviction in 2008, convicted Karsenty on Wednesday and fined him about $9,000 in his long-running case against the France 2 station. Karsenty called the verdict “outrageous,” while a lawyer for France 2 said it was a victory for journalists, according to The Associated Press. France 2 and its Israel correspondent, Charles Enderlin, sued Karsenty for defamation in 2004 following his claims that a video report by Enderlin on the killing of 12-year-old Mohammed al-Dura in Gaza in 2000 was doctored. Karsenty claimed the footage of al-Dura crouching with his father behind a barricade as bullets whizzed overhead was a hoax. (Jerusalem Post, June 29, 2013)
SPAIN DETAINS 8 AL-QAIDA SUSPECTS FOR SENDING FIGHTERS TO SYRIA—(Madrid) Spain arrested eight people in its North African enclave of Ceuta early on Friday on suspicion of recruiting fighters for a branch of al-Qaida in Syria. "The dismantled Spanish-Moroccan network was, according to police investigations, responsible for sending jihadists to groups affiliated with al-Qaida in Syria," the ministry said in a statement. The network sent dozens of people, including minors, from the enclave and other parts of Morocco, the ministry said, adding that some of the recruits had taken part in suicide attacks and others had joined training camps. The network, based in Ceuta and the Moroccan town of Fnideq, was responsible for recruitment, indoctrination and travel financing, the statement said. The two-year-old Syrian conflict that has turned into a confrontation between Shi'ite Iran, which supports Syrian President Bashar Assad, and Sunni Arab Gulf nations, which back the Syrian rebels. (Jerusalem Post, June 27, 2013)
LEBANON'S APARTHEID LAWS — (Beirut) Although Palestinians have lived in Lebanon for more than six decades, they are still treated as foreigners when it comes to obtaining a work permit, according to Lebanon's Daily Star. Three years ago, the Lebanese government decided to amend its Apartheid law that denies Palestinians the right to work in 20 professions, including as doctors, dentists, lawyers, engineers or accountants. Although three years have passed since the law was amended, nothing has changed for the Palestinians in Lebanon. By contrast, anyone visiting an Israeli hospital would quickly notice the significant number of Arab doctors, nurses and pharmacists. (Gatestone Institute, June 27, 2013)
The Myth Of Political Islam Has Been Exposed In Egypt: Bessma Momani, The Globe and Mail, Jul. 03 2013 — What to make of huge turnout for protests against President Mohammed Morsi in Egypt – the most populous Arab country and bedrock of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence? The myth of Islamist political ideology as a solution to all political and economic woes has been broken.
Egyptian Military Ousts Morsi, Suspends Constitution: Abigail Hauslohner, William Booth and Sharaf al-Hourani, New York Times, July 3, 2013 — The Egyptian military removed President Mohamed Morsi from power Wednesday and suspended the constitution in moves it said were aimed at resolving the country’s debilitating political crisis.
In Egypt, Democrats vs. Liberals: Samer S. Shehata, New York Times, July 2, 2013—Millions of Egyptians have spoken: President Mohamed Morsi, elected a year ago, has failed. How could this happen, two years after the military helped demonstrators rid Egypt of the autocrat Hosni Mubarak? Egypt has a dilemma: its politics are dominated by democrats who are not liberals and liberals who are not democrats.
Ber Lazarus , Publications Editor Canadian Institute for Jewish Research /L'institut Canadien de recherches sur le Judaïsme www.isranet.org Tel: (514) 486-5544 Fax: (514) 486-82843
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