Stunning: Egyptian foreign minister says Israel’s treatment of Palestinians not ‘terrorism’
It is an article of faith in the Arab world that Israel is guilty, guilty, guilty of terrorizing the poor Palestinians, which is why Jews deserve to be terrorized worldwide. The origins of violence lie exclusively on the Jews, too. So Arabs and all Muslims have a duty to defend their brothers and sisters by acts of extreme cruelty against Israelis in particular and Jews in general.
This dogma is extremely important because it avoids any scrutiny of Koranic and other scriptural incitements of violence – even genocide – against Jews. It thus serves a dual purpose. And as a result, it must remain unquestioned. For decades, there has been rhetorical solidarity on this point.
Until now.
The fall of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and its replacement by the anti-M.B. regime of General Sisi, along with the spread of chaos in the Arab world, has changed matters. Meanwhile, Israel is quietly building itself into a tiny superpower, its high-tech economy and rapid development of offshore gas and onshore fracking making it a global economic power able to finance a high-tech military.
As a result, a stunning break with the past happened, beyond the notice of our mainstream media. The Jerusalem Post reports:
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said on Sunday that Israel’s actions against Palestinians does not constitute terrorism, eliciting an angry response from a Hamas spokesman who said Egypt’s top diplomat is blind.
Shoukry’s comments came during a Q&A session with students held at the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, where he was asked why Palestinians children killed in the conflict with Israel were not considered victims of terrorism.
“When looking at this issue, it can be defined as a ‘regime of force,’” the Egyptian media quoted Shoukry as saying. He said there was no evidence to link Israel to terrorist organizations.
“There is nothing that leads to this conclusion,” he said.
Shoukry added that Israel’s history has made it very sensitive to security issues, and as a result tightens control over its territory and border crossings to ensure its security.
The reaction has not been favorable among other Arab regimes – in public, at least. Speaking from Qatar, a major Clinton Foundation donor (and recipient of questionable favors):
Husam Badran, a Hamas spokesperson in Qatar, slammed the Egyptian foreign minister in a Twitter post, saying, “He who does not see the crimes of the Zionist occupation as terrorism is blind.”
The Egyptian cozying up with Israel is far ahead of public opinion there. It is inconceivable to me that Shoukry made these comments without first discussing them with Saudi Arabia, Egypt’s primary financial backer.
Tectonic plates are shifting in the Arab world, with some pragmatic leaders realizing that the primary problems of Arabs are created by themselves and that Israel has much more to offer as a friend than as a mortal enemy.
Hat tip: Clarice Feldman