Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Sunday 30 January 2011


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Sunday, Jan 30 '11, Shevat 25, 5771
Today`s Email Stories:
Huckabee’s 15th Visit to Israel
Egypt Kills 100 Protesters
Did US Stab Mubarak in the Back?
Obama to Mubarak: Stop Violence
Terrorists Try Coup in Sinai
Hizbullah Agent Gets 9 Years
US Threatens to Cut Aid to Egypt
  More Website News:
Egypt Shuts Down Al Jazeera
Aumann
Iran Backs Egyptian Protests
Rating Agency Disses Japan Debt
Do Kids Know About Gush Katif?
  MP3 Radio Website News Briefs:
Talk: Axing the Axis
Natural Law or Revealed Law?
Music: Selection of Original Music
Rak Hu - Itamar Huri & Netanel




1. Exodus in Egypt: US Suggests Fleeing As Soon as Possible
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu 
Egypt’s Exodus: US Says Get Out


The U.S. embassy in Cairo has told its citizens to consider leaving the country as soon as possible and has warned against traveling in the country. 

Approximately 90,000 Americans are estimated to live, work and study in Egypt, and several companies have told their employees’ families to leave. 

The warning is more severe than the previous statement to citizens to avoid non-essential travel in Egypt.   

Dozens of wealthy Egyptians beat the rush Saturday night and fled on private planes as the flames of rebellion continued to burn. Relative quiet has returned to the streets, but thousands of protesters continued to appear Sunday morning to call for the resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. 

Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Jordan also are organizing flights to evacuate their citizens, while Israel was the first to do so. Relatives of diplomats and dozens of tourists were flown home, but senior diplomats remain in Cairo, although their offices are closed. 

In the United States, sympathizers with the opposition movement rallied Saturday outside the United Nations and in Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

  





People want the ‘Pharaoh’ to leave,” said Dr. Zaher Sahloul, chairman of the Council of Islamic Organizations for Greater Chicago, according to the city’s Sun-Times newspaper. “Egypt is asking for the right of its children to dream.” 

The protesters also turned their wrath on U.S. President Barack Obama, whom they accused of being too mild in his comments Saturday night that President Mubarak should guarantee freedom of expression to opposition activists and to halt the violence that has claimed more than 100 deaths. 

The marchers compared the anti-government unrest in Egypt to the thirst for democracy that drove the American Revolution. 

“You cannot be neutral between right and wrong,” Mahmoud Hamad, an assistant professor of politics at Drake University in Des Moines, told the Chicago newspaper. “You cannot be neutral between a dictatorship and freedom.”  

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Nachal Prass, Negev
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Political Cartoon
Sunday, January 30, 2011
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2. Huckabee Arriving in Israel Sunday, Tops Two Primary Polls
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu 
Huckabee’s 15th Visit to Israel


Unofficial Republican party presidential candidate and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, a solid supporter of Israel, is en route for his 15th visit. He has said he probably will wait until summer before announcing whether or not he will run for president in 2012. 

"Headed to Israel with family and friends. Looking forward to my 15th trip there," Huckabee's tweet read on Saturday, as results show him topping the polls in West Virginia and North Carolina. 

Huckabee often has said that if the Arabs in Judea, Samaria and Gaza want a state, they can choose from among several Arab nations and that Jews, who are indigenous to the area, should be able to build wherever they wish to in their country. 

To view his previous trip to Israel, see the following video. 







Huckabee’s visit this week will take him to the Knesset, as guest of MK Nissim Ze'ev wo will host a luncheon for him and where the Immigration and Absorption Committee will make a rare exception and host him at a meeting. He also will visit Jewish communities in united Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, including the Barkan Industrial Center at the city of Ariel. 

Dr. Joseph Prager, Dr. Paul Brody and Odeleya Jacobs,  all known Zionist American figures who are active in promoting positive public relations between Israel and the United States, have already arrived to help arrange the details of his visit. 

His trip follows a recent visit by another GOP-Tea party contender, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. 

Huckabee will be accompanied by actor Jon Voight, who can be seen and heard in the following video backing Huckabee and condemning U.S. President Barack Obama for “raping” the nation of the United States. 



Two polls show Huckabee leading in West Virginia with 28 percent of the projected vote, three percent ahead of Sarah Palin, and more than 10 percent ahead of Romney and Newt Gingrich. 

In North Carolina, he leads with a nine-point advantage. 

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3. Egypt Kills 100 Protesters; Israel Evacuates Diplomats
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu 
Egypt Kills 100 Protesters


Egypt copied Iranian tactics of two years ago and used brutal force by police and prisoners against anti-government protesters Saturday, killing at least 108. The army is standing by but has not taken part in stamping out opposition rallies. 



Meanwhile, Israel was the first country to evacuate diplomats and their families. The Republic of the Philippines is preparing to evacuate 6,500 Filipinos working and studying in Egypt in case the situation grows worse. 

Israel's Foreign Ministry said it brought in special flights to carry diplomatic families and 40 other Israelis visiting Egypt who wanted to leave the country. The Israeli government so far has remained silent about the growing crisis, but Jerusalem unofficially has expressed concern that if Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is forced to resign, a long period of instability might follow. 

The Palestinian Authority has expressed solidarity with Mubarak, who has ruled Egypt with an iron hand for 30 years. 

U.S. President Barack Obama stated, "The people of Egypt have rights that are universal" and added, "Suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away." He spoke with Mubarak for 30 minutes on Friday.  

Protesters followed the lead of Tunisians two weeks ago who brought about the end of the rule of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Egypt has responded with club-wielding riot police who also are using live fire. The death toll in the protests has ranged from 75 to 108, and at least eight were killed by gunshots near a Cairo jail after several police stations and government buildings were set on fire. 

The Egyptian government has said it is operating with “zero tolerance". However, Fawaz Gerges, director of the Middle East Centre at the London School of Economics, told Al Jazeera: 

“Obviously the [Mubarak] regime has decided to crack down very hard on the protesters, but the protesters and the popular uprising [are] much more deeply entrenched.”  

“The most important point … is that the barrier of fear has collapsed, has fallen. Egyptians now are no longer terrified of the security apparatus as they used to be,” he said. 

Egyptian forces Friday took into custody Nobel Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei, the former chief of IAEA,  the United Nation’s nuclear watchdog agency, and prominent anti-government figure who returned from Vienna to join the protests. He was placed under house arrest.  

Despite his support from liberal movements, ElBareidi, as head of  IAEA, backed Iran's claims that its nuclear program is for civilian purposes, and campaigned against Western sanctions.  He is a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood and told Der Speigel last week: "They have not commited any acts of violence in five decades." 

Relative quiet has returned to the streets as Egypt continues to keep social Internet networks and cellular phones shut down, although partial service was restored Saturday afternoon.

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4. WikiLeaks: US Secretly Backed Plans for Rebellion in Egypt
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu 
Did US Stab Mubarak in the Back?


The United States in the past last three years supported ‘democracy activists” who planned to overthrow the Mubarak regime, according to leaked cables quoted by the London Telegraph. 

“[Unidentified activist] expressed satisfaction with the December 3-5 ‘Alliance of Youth Movements Summit’ in New York, noting that he was able to meet activists from other countries and outline his movement's goals for democratic change in Egypt,” stated one cable by U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Margaret Scobey. “He told us that the other activists at the summit were very supportive, and that some even offered to hold public demonstrations in support of Egyptian democracy in their countries.” 

The embassy helped keep the identity of the dissident secret from Egyptian police, the Telegraph said, but he has been arrested in the recent demonstrations. 

The leaked documents reveal that Scobey sent a cable to the Secretary of State two years ago, in which she wrote, “April 6 activist on his US visit and regime change in Egypt.” She added that embassy sources said the plan for “a transition to a parliamentary democracy [was] “so sensitive it cannot be written down.” 

Scobey cautioned that she thought the plot was unrealistic, but contact was maintained with the activist, who was a principle source for information for Egyptian abuse of human rights. 

Reporters have frequently questioned the State Department about American aid to Egypt in light of constant reports, including those by the American government, that the country routinely suppresses human rights and violates freedom of expression

The leaked document, along with President Obama’s tepid criticism of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Saturday night have set off more criticism of his foreign policies. 

“The harsh reality of events in the Middle East have all decisively proven that the assumptions that underpinned President Obama's Middle East policy initiatives were wrong,” wrote Foreign Policy.com’s Peter Feaver Saturday. 

“The foreign policy team seems to be quite uncertain how to proceed and with good reason: our ability to predict what will happen is probably even less than our ability to shape what will happen.”

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5. Obama Demands Mubarak Halt Violence, Introduce Reforms 
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu 
Obama to Mubarak: Stop Violence


U.S. President Barack Obama Saturday night called on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to halt violence against opponents, protect freedoms and introduce reforms, nearly two years after he delivered his “reaching out to Muslim speech in Cairo.” 

 In Jordan, protesters called Mubarak a ”traitor and an American agent.” 

Egypthas said it has gained control over near-anarchy that spread throughout the country Saturday night, but the groundswell of support for the opposition threatens the regime of Mubarak and could spark copy cat protests in other Muslim countries. 

In his statement Saturday, President Obama said, “I want to be very clear in calling upon the Egyptian authorities to refrain from any violence against peaceful protesters. 

“The people of Egypt have rights that are universal. That includes the right to peaceful assembly and association, the right to free speech, and the ability to determine their own destiny. These are human rights.” 

The president's remarks came two weeks after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton prophetically warned that "the region's foundations are sinking into the sand," due to the pervasive culture of corruption that discouraged participation and hard work. Two weeks later, she found herself responding to the protest movement in Egypt and "urged Egypt to "to allow people to protest." 



President Obama called on Cairo to restore Internet and full mobile phone services, which were cut off in an attempt to prevent opponents from communicating and organizing more demonstrations. More than 100 people have been killed as riot police, aided by prisoners they released, used brute force to try to suppress the demonstrations. 

He maintained that “the United States has a close partnership with Egypt and we've cooperated on many issues” but that in the absence of social and economic reforms, “grievances have built up over time.” 

The Jordanian protest by Muslim and union activists outside the Egyptian embassy in Amman ridiculed both Mubarak and President Obama. 

"Mubarak, you are a traitor and an American agent," the crowd chanted. "Hosni Mubarak, Saudi Arabia awaits you. We say to the Americans, 'do not interfere,’” Muslim Brotherhood leader Hamam Said told reporters. "Your control which has lasted 100 years is finished. We are living in a new era." 

He warned the Jordanian kingdom "to draw lessons from the events (in Egypt) and start political reforms.” King Abdullah faces a society torn between native citizens and a growing dominance of Bedouin who do no identify with the king and his government. 



6. Bedouin Terrorists Attempt Takeover of Northern Sinai, 12 Dead
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu 
Terrorists Try Coup in Sinai


Twelve Bedouin terrorists and Egyptian security forces were killed south of Gaza where Bedouin tried to take control Saturday of territory that serves for smuggling. Egypt has sent more forces into the region and has closed the Rafiah border. 

Armed terrorists attacked Egyptian police in Rafiah, which straddles the border between Gaza and Egypt, and they torched at least one police station, according to the Bethlehem-based Ma'an news agency. 

Part of the barrier was destroyed, but Hamas reportedly repaired the breach to prevent a mass exodus of Gaza Arabs. 

Bedouin tribes had taken advantage of a pullback of Egyptian police and army forces, which the Mubarak government brought closer to Cairo and the Suez areas to suppress rallies calling for the resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Rocket-propelled grenades and rifle shots accompanied the attempted takeover. 

The northern Sinai Peninsula is the center of smuggling of drugs, terrorists, weapons into Gaza, and is also a passage area for Africans seeking better economic conditions in Israel. Egypt has failed to stop the smuggling operations, despite a promise by the United States to install monitoring devices as an inducement for Israel to agree to a ceasefire in the three-week Operation Cast Lead counterterrorist campaign two years ago. 

Several Arab prisoners, including those from Hamas, escaped Egyptian prisons during the mayhem that has rocked the country and reached Gaza through smuggling tunnels. More than a thousand others, including Muslim extremists, escaped jails and scattered throughout Egypt. 

In Gaza, Arab residents rushed to gas stations to stock up on fuel, fearing a shortage due to increased security in the Sinai, where smuggling tunnels provide most of the gasoline supplies to Gaza.

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7. Arab Writer Who Spied for Hizbullah Gets Nine Years
by Gil Ronen 
Hizbullah Agent Gets 9 Years


The Haifa District Court sentenced Arab writer Amir Mahoul to nine years in prison and one year's suspended sentence Sunday for a number of offenses against national security. The sentence was part of a plea bargain. Mahoul is the brother of former Knesset member Issam Mahoul of the non-Zionost Hadash party. 

Makhoul was convicted of several very serious offenses, including contact with a foreign agent, conspiracy to aid the enemy in war, serious espionage and espionage. He admitted to passing on to Hizbullah information regarding security installations and military activity in Israel, and supplying names of Israeli Arab citizens who could be recruited to the group. He relayed information regarding the location of a Mossad installation and the Nachshonim military base. He tried, unsuccessfully, to find out the address of the head of the Shin Bet, or Israel Security Agency.  

  

"There is no need to waste words on Hizbullah, its role in the struggle against the existence of the state, and its will to hurt it and its citizens," the panel of judges wrote, noting that the Lebanese terror militia targets Israeli civilians indiscriminately, regardless of their religion or ethnicity.   

  

"We are looking at a defendant who, by appointment, met a foreign agent of the Hizbullah organization in Copenhagen, allowed the installation of encryption software on his PC and as mentioned, committed crimes of espionage on at least 10 opportunities, encrypting and transmitting messages over a long period of time."  

  

"The defendant is a man with extensive life experience and global connections; a man who not young, who is accustomed to participating in meetings and conferences worldwide, who enlists in the ranks of a terrorist organization that imperils the existence of the state and its citizens," the judges added.  

  

Mahoul is a Christian Arab citizen of Israel. 



8. US Threatens to Cut Aid to Egypt
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu 
US Threatens to Cut Aid to Egypt


Responding five days after the unprecedented protest rallies in Egypt, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that Obama administration threatened to review and cut military aid to Egypt, which has totaled $28 billion since 1975. 

After it signed peace accords with Israel, Egypt became the largest recipient of U.S. aid in the Middle East, except for Israel, and annual military aid of nearly $1.5 billion includes F-4 jet aircraft, F-16 jet fighters, armored personnel carriers, Apache helicopters, antiaircraft missile batteries, and aerial surveillance aircraft. 

The threat of a cut in aid to Cairo comes as President Barack Obama called on Hosni Mubarak to halt the violence in Egypt, where more than 100 opponents to the regime have been killed and thousands injured. 









Former Democratic and Republican party officials presented the president with a demand to cut aid to Egypt. “We are paying the price for the fact that the administration has been at least of two minds on this stuff, and we should have seen it coming,” said Robert Kagan, co-chair of the bipartisan Egypt working group. 

“I think Mubarak has a week at most left in office,” Andrew Albertson, formerly with the Project on Middle East Democracy and the working group, told Politico Saturday. “He’s ultimately done. Either he flees fast, or there’s a transition to [newly appointed Vice President Omar] Suleiman, or the protests continue. Meanwhile, people are becoming incredibly angry with the United States.” 

Officials in the Obama administration reportedly are at odds with themselves, arguing between maintaining a “cautious” policy and stating in public that Mubarak must resign. 

Cutting the annual $1.5 billion in aid to Egypt will not be easy. Cairo pays $1.1 million a year to lobbyists to “provide assistance and advice, as requested, to the Embassy in the task of securing and further enhancing the interests of Egypt in the United States in the political, economic, military and other fields.” according to their contract, quoted by the Atlantic. 

Military assistance also is a high priority item in the military-industrial complex in the United States, affecting employment and the balance of payments.



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