Egypt stands strong against Israeli aggravation
Egypt-Palestine, Politics, 10/23/2001

Israel has used the ongoing US strikes against the Taliban ruling regime in Afghanistan to distract world media attention away from its daily crimes and human rights violations against the civilian population living in the occupied territories.

Using its influential Jewish lobby inside the United States and Europe, Israel and its allies have started to orchestrate a major anti-Egypt media campaign.

Sharon, who is facing possible criminal proceedings in Belgium for genocide committed against thousands of Palestinian refugees during Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, is trying to convince the US administration that Egypt is behind the upsurge in world terrorism.

More than 20 years after signing a peace deal with Egypt, Israel is still reluctant to show a genuine concern for peace. In 1977, Egypt's late President Anwar Sadat surprised the entire world when he offered an olive branch to the Jewish State.

Two years later, Egypt became the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel, which led eventually to Cairo's isolation from the rest of the Arab world.

But despite Egypt's repeated calls for peace, Israel is unwilling to brush aside its expansionist dreams and live in peace with its Arab neighbours.

The Israeli-orchestrated media campaign claims that hundreds of Egyptians escaped from persecution in Egypt to the caves and mountains of Afghanistan, where they then started to plan attacks against the United States because of its support for the Egyptian government.

The US anti-terror drive, Israeli media say, should start from Cairo. But Egyptian experts and strategists have played down the impact of these recent anti-Egypt media campaigns.

The entire world, they argue in statements to al-Ahrar opposition daily this week, is now fully aware of the atrocities Israel is committing against the Palestinians.

Egypt's stand on terror has also gained the appreciation and support of the entire world. More than 10 years before the devastating 11 September attacks on the United States' symbols of financial and military might, President Hosni Mubarak had called on the world to convene an international anti-terrorism conference.

After the attacks, which killed over 5,000 people, many world countries started to echo the Egyptian plan.

"Sharon is trying to use the growing US anti-terrorism lobby to gain support for his crackdown on the Palestinians. He is trying to say there is a connection between the Palestinians' right to fight occupation, recognised by all international laws and conventions, and terrorism.

He is pushing the world to have Palestinian resistance groups included on the US campaign hit-list," says Professor Ahmed Thabet of Cairo University's Faculty of Economics and Political Science.

"Sharon is jealous of Egypt. His offer to join the US anti-terrorism alliance was turned down because Washington wants to lure many Arab or Islamic countries into the alliance.

The US is also working on getting Egypt's support for the coalition," Thabet told al-Ahrar. Sharon fears that Israel's special place in the US agenda might be challenged by Egyptian interests, Thabet explains, adding that Sharon wants to steer the anti-terrorism coalition into getting rid of Lebanese and Palestinian armed resistance groups.

"Israel's efforts are unlikely to undermine Egypt's position in the world arena. On the contrary, they will simply underline Israel's animosity towards Egypt," he argues.

Qadri Said, a strategy expert at the Al-Ahram Centre for Strategic Studies, says that every day, more world countries and governments are coming to realise that Sharon is the real terrorist blocking the Middle East peace process.

"The link between terrorism and the Palestinian cause was highlighted after the 11 September attacks.

Many people, including Americans, have started to realise that the US was attacked mainly because of its blind support for the Israeli aggression," Said explains.

He adds that Sharon wants to use the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon Building in Washington to drive a wedge between the West and Islam. "Yet Egypt stood up against this and cleared Islam of any accusations of terrorism and violence."

Said told al-Ahrar that it is time for the Egyptian and Arab media to hit back. "We have to answer these baseless Israeli accusations. The Arab and Egyptian media have all the necessary evidence and statistics to prove that Israel is engaged in terrorism against the Palestinians," he says.

But Nabil Abdel Fattah, a fellow expert at Al-Ahram Centre, thinks that Sharon's campaign should not be given much attention.

"They (accusations about Egypt supporting terrorism) are mere hot air which no-one should get worried about. Egypt does not need to answer these accusations because the entire world now knows Egypt's stance when it comes to terrorism," he argues.

Abdel Fattah accuses Washington of supporting terrorism, adding that many members of Taliban and the Qaeda organisation, run and founded by Osama bin Laden, were trained or given arms by the CIA to fight the Russians during the Soviet war in Afghanistan.

"Those people were seen as terrorists only after they attacked US targets," he says. "Therefore, the US can never accuse Egypt of sponsoring or supporting terrorism," he continues, adding that such accusations are aimed at pressuring Egypt into taking an active part in the ongoing US campaign which he says lacks United Nations jurisdiction.

Abdel Fattah advises Egypt to continue with its policy seeking to disassociate Islam from accusations of terrorism.

"Sharon will leave no stone unturned in his attempts to prove there is a connection between terrorism and Arabs, in order to guarantee that resistance groups are targeted in the current campaign," he argues.

Refaat Sayed Ahmed, head of the Java Centre for Strategic Studies, says Israeli governments have always attacked Egypt.

"Their aggressive approach towards Egypt is also a way of diverting world attention from the crimes Israel is committing against Palestinian civilians.

Israel always focuses on Egypt because it is the main supporter of Arab and Palestinian rights," Ahmed explains.

He calls on Arab governments and media to join hands to face the Israeli-orchestrated campaigns in the foreign media. "Arabs should expose Sharon's real image as a terrorist and criminal," Ahmed concludes.

Previous Stories:
  Egyptian efforts to stop Israeli aggression on Palestinians   (10/22/2001)
  Egypt worried over Palestinian-Israeli violence   (10/20/2001)
  Maher stresses importance of establishing Palestinian State   (10/17/2001)

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search