vrijdag 5 juli 2013

The Palestine Chronicle

  
In This Issue
FEATURED: Abdelrahman Rashdan -Egypt in Danger, 8 Reasons Why
SELECTED: Hamas, Fatah and the Squandered Years and other articles ..
LATEST: Egypt Army Closes Gaza Border
MORE: Abbas in Rare Visit to Lebanon Camp

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FEATURED

Egypt in Danger, 8 Reasons Why

There are hundreds of thousands of pro-Morsi supporters still holding their grounds. (Photo: Reuters via Aljazeera)
There are hundreds of thousands of pro-Morsi supporters still holding their grounds. (Photo: Reuters via Aljazeera)
By Abdelrahman Rashdan

Egyptians are again amazing the whole world with their abilities to change their political realities; yet this time might be to the worse.

The military coup that took place in response to the mass demonstrations in Egypt which lasted for few days came in to mark a new fundamental change in the political life. It seems now that the streets have become the ballot box,  and military helicopters have now become the tool for  counting the vote,  while the results get announced by uniformed military personnel.

The reasons why Egypt reached this stage are numerous and can be tackled in another analysis, yet what is more important now is to underscore the looming danger that the country is heading towards.

Here are the reasons why I think Egypt's political future is in danger:

1 -Military coup is different from the January 25 revolution:

Egyptian people are divided now between supporters and opponents and each side has its own reasonable arguments. It is not black and white as it was before, not a dictator that has been abusing his people for 30 years.

2- Ballot boxes lost credibility:

Egyptians that have stood in endless lines for hours to cast their votes in three elections and two referendums have their votes simply replaced by the eyes of the military looking down their helicopters for the past few days to estimate the number of people on the streets, and determine which bloc has the majority:  the opposition or supporters  of the democratically elected president.

At the same time, there is a big portion of the masses supporting the Islamic movements, especially youth, which only participated in the democratic process because it was the only option available although they see it as a mean that contradicts Islamic Shari'ah. The military coup just proved them right now; they have all the Islamic and pragmatic reasons to reject democracy. I wouldn't be surprised if new solutions found increasing popularity in Egypt soon.

3- Referendum on early presidential elections not considered:

Detentions and media bans after the coup was launched say a lot about the democracy and rule of law that Egypt will witness for the upcoming period.
If the opponents of President Morsi represent the majority of Egyptians, as claimed by the military coup, then why did not the military allow all the Egyptians an equal chance to say their opinion about conducting early presidential elections? This way it would have been a democratic process to oust Morsi instead of an army boot stepping on the mouths of all other Egyptians, who have also filled up streets in masses since July 1st.

4- Unholy relationship between the opposition  and Mubarak's regime:

It is a return of Mubarak's regime in a new face, if one wishes to say it bluntly. In reality, Dr. Mohamed al-Baradie - opposition leader who was invited during the military's declaration of the coup - declared it clearly days before the June 30th demonstrations; he said that Egyptians have to start a process of national reconciliation with "what is called the old regime," except for those who committed crimes.

Considering the fact that most of the figures of the old regime have been surprisingly granted acquittals from charges levied against them, so al-Baradie won't have a problem in letting them on board, contributing again to pushing the political wargon. In fact, , scores of influential figures from Mubarak's regime did participate in the June 30th demonstrations that culminated in the removal of Morsi through being in the streets or propagating it through media.

So it  would not be a surprise to witness, very soon, well-funded and publicized political parties with Mubarak's men on top, or appointed in key positions and ministries.

5- Absence of unifying national figure to lead the country:

The last time all Egyptians stood together hand in hand was during the 18 days of the January 25 Revolution. Since then, divisions have been increasing by time with figures rising and others falling; the division reached its unprecedented peak during the June 30 events where some members of Islamic and other groups got  killed in the streets in day light for their political affiliations.

Now, after the military coup, Egyptians stand even more divided between supporters and opponents of the coup. It is absolutely impossible to reach national agreement, or even comforting majority, on any figure, which brings Egypt to presidential elections results close to the level that brought Morsi to power  -almost 52 percent - and the cycle repeats itself.

6- Military above the state:

For the second time in two-and-half years the military comes in to settle, mainly peaceful, political disputes. The June 30th demonstrations asked for the intervention of the military from its beginning, some demonstrators were even camping in front of the ministry of defense in an attempt to pressure the defense minister to step in.

Such military intervention in the political life sets a golden rule for Egypt: the state is still under the military and not vice versa. In fact, this has been the sole demand of the January 25th Revolution, to make Egypt a  a civilian state after decades of being ruled by presidents with military background and support.

Not only that Egypt has failed again to create a healthy and democracy-based relationship between its government and military, it has reached a worse situation where people beg  the military to take over and sort out matters that are supposed to be originally and purely civilian and peaceful in nature.
It is a return of Mubarak's regime in a new face.

In one of the international reactions to this event, the British Foreign Secretary William Hague noticed the looming danger; he told BBC, "If one president can be deposed by the military then of course another one can be in the future - that's a dangerous thing."

7- Weakening the military:

Continuous intervention in the political life will definitely make the Egyptian military distracted from its sole purpose:  protecting the country against foreign enemies. The resources of the military are getting consumed in internal struggles while Egypt's borders are heating up from almost all its fronts, east, west, and south.

8- No clear roadmap:

Although the Defense Minister Al-Sisi declared the presence of a very clear road map in case the political parties were not able to settle their dispute, 48 hours before the coup, he failed to state any dates for any step, including the presidential and parliamentary elections. This reminds Egyptians with the promises of Tantawi to hand in the state to an elected government very soon, which turned out to be a painful year-and-half.

Not only that, as soon as the Sisi military coup was broadcasted on the television, pro-Morsi channels were blackened-out and their staff detained, and the Freedom and Justice Party newspaper banned. This is in addition to the reports   of arresting and detaining big number of Muslim Brotherhood leaders and  placing them on travel ban; something that says a lot about the democracy and rule of law that Egypt will witness for the upcoming period.

Square One

There are hundreds of thousands of pro-Morsi supporters still holding their grounds in the streets amid complete media blackout. Their news is being leaked through social media and some non-Egyptian satellite channels that have not been cutoff. It is not up yet; events are escalating hour-by-hour as people are increasingly realizing that Egypt is back to square one.

- Abdelrahman Rashdan is an academician of the Future University in Egypt. He holds a Master's degree in International Affairs and a Certificate in Middle East Studies from Columbia University. (This article was first published inOnIslam.com on July 04, 2013)
SELECTED

On Hamas, Fatah and the Squandered Years: When 'Unity' Loses Its Meaning

Fatah delegation at Hamas PM office in Gaza. (Photo: Aljazeera)By Ramzy Baroud When Hamas and Fatah representatives met in Gaza on June 04, there was little media fanfare. In fact, neither party expected much attention to their 'unity talks' aside from the occasional references to 'national reconciliation', 'building bridges' and the 'obstacles' along the way. And since then, there was yet more proof that [...]

Egypt's Revolution Betrayed: Fuel for al-Qaeda Fires

The situation now is worse than under Mubarak, and promises to become even grimmer.By Eric Walberg During the past few months, dozens of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood (MB) members have been murdered and their offices sacked and burned. The police openly refuse to protect them. Rather than ordering the opposition to drop their demand that Egypt's first democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi, resign, and negotiate reasonably with his government, [...]

Whitewashing Apartheid: Israel's Dirty Water

Israel has a history of commandeering water resources in the occupied territories. (Photo: Ma'an)By Belen Fernandez Last week, on June 23, Israeli President Shimon Peres and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel attended a ceremony in Jerusalem in honor of a new joint initiative between Israel's Ben-Gurion University and the University of Chicago. Hailing the Peres-Emanuel presence as an instance of "rare political star power", the Chicago Tribune explains: "The [...]

White House Threatens To End Aid if Palestine Joins the ICC

Fatou Bensouda, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. (Photo: Wiki Commons)By Franklin Lamb - Beirut Fatou Bom Bensouda, the Gambian-born deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), was never Washington's first choice to succeed the inveterately self-promoting elitist ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo. And it is doubtful that key Obama administration officials have changed their minds this week given Ms. Bensouda's impassioned invitation on June [...]

Assaf and the Collective Pride for All Associated with Palestine

Assaf performs on Arab Idol. (Photo: Via Facebook)By Susan Abulhawa For once, we won! Mohammad Assaf, that brilliant, joyful, beautiful young man with a voice from heaven sang. And we all hung onto every note, every lyric, every smile and gesture he made on the stage of the Arab Idol contest over the past few months. Born in a refugee camp, to [...]

Maximum Land with Minimum Palestinians: The Annexation of Area C

In the vast majority of Area C Israel denies Palestinians any opportunity to build or develop.By Sam Gilbert Early this month Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem published a report on Israel's policy in Area C and its implications for the population of the West Bank.  Less then a week later Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, in the midst of Kerry's attempts to start the stalled peace talks, reiterated his plan to [...]

Kerry and Chutzpah

The very start of new negotiations would be a political triumph for Netanyahu. (Photo: UN)By Uri Avnery If you happen to bump into John Kerry at Ben Gurion Airport, you may wonder whether he is coming or going.  He may well be wondering himself. For many weeks now he has been devoting most of his precious time to meetings with Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas, trying to get these [...]

Unattainable Peace

The deceptive 'freeze' may force Abbas to succumb to American pressure.By Jamal Kanj But for the chap from Khan Younis refugee camp in Gaza who emerged earlier this week as the winner of the "Arab Idol," the news from Palestine is grim. The newly appointed Palestinian Prime Minister resigned and Israel still insists it should be able to negotiate over dividing the pie while it [...]

Globalization of NATO and its Catastrophic Failure in Libya

globalization_of_nato_bookBy Ludwig Watzal The books "The Globalization of NATO" and "Global NATO and the Catastrophic Failure in Libya" deal with the expansion of a military alliance that was supposed to be solely defensive in character and confined to Europe. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc countries, Nato turned global and [...]

From Tahrir to Taksim: West Reserves Right to Interfere

The war in Libya had changed the very demographic landscape of parts of the country.By Ramzy Baroud The distance between Cairo's Tahrir Square and Istanbul's Taksim Square is impossibly long. There can be no roadmap sufficient enough to use the popular experience of the first in order to explicate the circumstances that lead to the other. Many have tried to insist on the similarities between the two since it [...]

Stamping Impunity on Israel's War Crimes

Australia Post and Israel Post collaboratively issued two stamps. (Photo: Supplied)By Vacy Vlazna Israel and Australia's joint projects normalizing Israel's war crimes and crimes against humanity has sunk deeper in the degenerate mire of hasbara (propaganda & lies); "So projects that constitute normalization are not about freedom, justice or liberation, but about numbing our minds to the horror of the occupation, so we accept it [...]

Disputes over the Nile amidst Challenging Times for Egypt

Late Ethiopian President Meles Zenawi (L) with former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. (Photo: File)By Mohamed El Mokhtar From the great lakes of East Africa to the majestic highlands of Ethiopia passing through the fertile valleys of Nubia to Egypt's delta, the Nile River crosses many countries and diverse landscapes. Unparalleled in its length, the mighty river, a crucible of ancient civilizations, continues its endless journey, having meandered in [...]

The Palestinians' Last Option: A Struggle for Equal Rights

Israel/Palestine is today one state. But it is an apartheid state.By Ghada Karmi Once upon a time, Palestine was the Arab world's unifying cause. Justice for the Palestinians was considered a basic pre-requisite for regional stability and peace, and it was an idea that had global resonance. Today, the picture is different and the Palestinian cause has been falling off the political agenda ever since [...]
LATEST
Egypt Army Closes Gaza Border

The Egyptian army on Friday closed the Rafah crossing on the Gaza border until further notice due to unrest in Sinai.

Egyptian military officials informed the Palestinian side of the closure, said Maher Abu Sabha, Palestinian director of crossings and borders.

Due to Israel's blockade, the Rafah crossing is the only exit for most Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The Egyptian director of the Rafah terminal, Sami al-Mitwali, said the crossing was closed due to security unrest.

An Egyptian soldier was killed early Friday in coordinated rocket and machinegun attacks by Islamist militants on army checkpoints and a police base in Sinai.

Militants also attacked a military intelligence building in Rafah, witnesses said.

Two other soldiers were wounded when Islamist militants fired on an army checkpoint near the north Sinai village of al-Gura. Elsewhere, militants attacked a police base with rockets, security sources said.

Some militants in Sinai had threatened a violent response after Egypt's army toppled Islamist President Mohammad Mursi on Wednesday.

Chief justice Adly Mansour, 67, was sworn in as interim president on Thursday until new elections, at a ceremony broadcast live from the Supreme Constitutional Court.

The Islamists accuse the military of conducting a brazen coup against Mursi, Egypt's first democratically elected but controversial president, following massive protests calling for the Islamist's ouster.

Mursi's Musim Brotherhood movement has called for peaceful protests on Friday against the "coup," as police continue to hunt its leaders.

Egypt's military appealed for conciliation and warned against revenge attacks, as police rounded up senior Islamists.

The military said "exceptional and autocratic measures against any political group" should be avoided in a statement on its spokesman's Facebook page.

"The armed forces believe that the forgiving nature and manners of the Egyptian people, and the eternal values of Islam, do not allow us to turn to revenge and gloating," the army statement added.

Police arrested the Brotherhood's supreme leader Mohammed Badie "for inciting the killing of protesters", a security official told AFP.

Former supreme guide Mahdi Akef was also arrested, state television reported.

Mursi himself was "preventively detained" by the military, a senior officer had told AFP early Thursday, hours after his overthrow the night before, suggesting the ousted president might face trial.

(Maannews.net)
MORE ..

Egypt Army Closes Gaza Border

The Egyptian army on Friday closed the Rafah crossing on the Gaza border until further notice due to unrest in Sinai. Egyptian military officials informed the Palestinian side of the closure, said Maher Abu Sabha, Palestinian director of crossings and borders. Due to Israel's blockade, the Rafah crossing is the only exit for most Palestinians [...]

Palestinian President in Rare Visit to Lebanon Camp

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas paid a rare visit on Friday to a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, placing a wreath at the cemetery in the Shatila camp in the capital Beirut. A small crowd gathered ahead of his brief visit to welcome him at the Martyrs Cemetery on the outskirts of the camp, one of [...]

Kerry: Israel-Palestine Talks within Reach

US Secretary of State John Kerry has ended meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders without an agreement on resuming peace talks - but said gaps had been narrowed and he would return to the region soon. "We have made real progress on this trip. And I believe that with a little more work, the start [...]

Hardliners Gain Power in Netanyahu's Likud Party

Hardliners in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud were elected into key positions in the party's governing institutions early Monday. Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon, an outspoken opponent of the two-state solution, won the vote for the position of chairman of the party's Central Committee, a Likud spokeswoman said Another hardliner, Deputy Foreign Minister Zeev [...]

'I'm Not Loving It': Furor as McDonald's Refuses to Open in Israeli West Bank Settlement

Screenshot from facebook.com/MyIsrael.Israeli settlers are up in arms about McDonald's refusal to build an outlet in the West Bank, calling to boycott the company's entire operations in Israel. The chain cited a policy of "staying out of occupied territories" with other businesses joining in. McDonald's stated that its refusal to operate in the West Bank "had always [...]

Kerry Presses on with Shuttle Diplomacy in Mideast Peace Bid

Shuttling between Israeli leaders in Jerusalem and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas for a third straight day, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will continue on Saturday efforts to revive the Middle East peace process. Kerry cancelled a visit to the United Arab Emirates planned for Saturday in order to redouble his efforts between Israel and [...]

Hamas Warns against 'Futile' Negotiations

The Hamas movement said Saturday that peace negotiations with Israel were 'futile', as US Secretary of State John Kerry extended his shuttle diplomacy between Israeli and Palestinian leaders for a third day. The Islamic movement warned Fatah and the Palestinian Authority against the "mirage" of negotiations, and called on the PA to reject pressure from [...]

Turkey PM Erdogan to Visit Gaza

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Gaza next week, a senior official in the ruling Hamas movement told a newspaper on Thursday, although Ankara insisted a date has not yet been set. "The visit of Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan is to take place on July 5," Abdelsalam Siyyam, secretary general of the Hamas [...]

Israel Approves Settlements in East Jerusalem

An Israeli planning committee has advanced a plan to build 69 housing units in the East Jerusalem settlement of Har Homa, according to Israel Radio, despite US efforts to revive peace talks. The Jerusalem municipality said on Wednesday that the construction project, which was built more than a decade ago and now houses 12,000 Israelis, [...]

Jordan MPs Urge Efforts to End Israel Inmates' Hunger Strike

Parliament called on Thursday for international efforts to help end a 57-day hunger strike by five Jordanian inmates in Israel who are protesting prison conditions. "We hold Israel responsible for the safety and life of the Jordanian prisoners holding an open-ended hunger strike," MPs said in a statement. "We support their legitimate demands to have [...]

Israeli Air Force Launches Overnight Gaza Attack

The Gaza Strip was targeted by overnight Israeli air force attacks early Monday, following reported rocket fire from the Palestinian territory into southern Israel. In a statement from the Israeli army, the air force carried out airstrikes on two weapon storage facilities. "In response to the numerous rockets launched at Israel in the past several [...]


The Palestine Chronicle is an independent online newspaper that provides daily news, commentary, features, book reviews, photos, art, etc, on a variety of subjects. However, it's largely focused on Palestine, Israel, and the Middle East region. The Palestine Chronicle is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization. To contact the editor, submit an article or any other material, please write to: editor@palestinechronicle.com. For other inquiries write to:info@palestinechronicle.com.

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