Counter Islamophobes with a Positive Narrative: New Age Islam's Selection, 19 July 2016
New Age
Islam Edit Bureau
19 July 2016
• Counter Islamophobes with a positive narrative
By Khaled Almaeena
• The strategic consequences of Turkey's failed coup
By Sinan Ulgen
• How Daesh failed in Fallujah
By Jane Arraf
• Who stands behind the betrayal of Syrians?
By Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor
• The Sept. 11 road began from Tehran
By Turki Aldakhil
• Egyptian national security at the heart of rapprochement with Israel
By Raghida Dergham
Compiled by New Age Islam Edit Bureau
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Counter Islamophobes with A Positive Narrative
By Khaled Almaeena
18 July 2016
Terrorist attacks — whether in the West or East — reflect criminal behavior and adherence to that mindset.
With every attack — unless the perpetrator has a Muslim name — no mention of his religion is ever made. However, if there is any remote link to Islam or Muslims, there is a huge outcry.
Even people like presidential hopeful Donald Trump and his former rival Ted Cruz, who have no idea of the city or country where an attack takes place, jump on the bandwagon. Not only do they condemn it but they howl and bay for Muslim blood!
After the murderous attack in Nice committed by a Tunisian, many Muslims — seculars, liberals, socialists and agnostics alike — braced “for yet another spate of attacks”.
To those in authority in the Muslim world, I say: Apply good governance, rule of law, justice and meritocracy so that no one will be disfranchised and led astray.
However, this time it was not the usual barrage.
The perpetrator was a drug addict who fathered a couple of children out of wedlock. He was not religious, ate pork. He suffered from depression, had alcoholic rages and prior convictions.
There were no links to any terror group. He had never gone to a mosque!
His first few victims were Muslims and he killed at random. To those in the subcontinent whose hateful tweets I endure, let me say that in the summer season Cannes and Nice become Gulf cities and the rich and the powerful can be seen walking day and night on the corniche. Everyone knows that I am sure including the killer. So religion or ideology was NEVER a motive.
The Challenge
But for “ignorant, hateful and bigoted Islamophobes, it makes no difference”, as stated by Abdul Malik Mujahid, president of Sound Vision Management in Chicago. Even the Paris attackers were drug dealers, drunkards and low lives.
So how do we challenge the false narratives by every petty politician and media wannabe? Not by going into a shell, but giving our own positive narrative.
We have nothing to hide. Yes, we have criminal elements in our society, but they are far less dangerous than the devious policy makers in some countries who wage war, destroy countries and create conditions that have led to this uncertain world.
Check the Pentagon-funded research of Dr. Robert Pape which has a complete database on its website along with books, articles and graphics documenting how there were no suicide bombings in any Muslim country until the invasion of Afghanistan and the Iraq war, according to Abdul Malik Mujahid.
We reject Daesh, we reject all forms of terror, we abhor killings and by and large are a peaceful people.
And to those in authority in the Muslim world, I say: Apply good governance, rule of law, justice and meritocracy so that no one will be disfranchised and led astray.
We will not go on cowering or apologize any more.
Terrorism is an international phenomenon. It does not have a religious or national label. It is the duty of all to contain it.
Source: english.alarabiya.net/en/views/2016/07/18/Counter-Islamophobes-with-a-positive-narrative.html
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The Strategic Consequences of Turkey's Failed Coup
By Sinan Ulgen
18 Jul 2016
A military coup against an elected government typically unleashes a flood of analysis about the country's future direction following the break in democratic rule.
But failed coups can be just as consequential. The botched attempt by elements of the Turkish military to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will have far-ranging implications for Turkey's foreign relations and regional role. Turkey's relationship with the United States, in particular, is headed for considerable turbulence.
Gulen Links
The coup attempt heralds a new and uneasy phase in the Turkey-US relationship, because Turkish authorities have linked it to Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic preacher based near Philadelphia since 1999 but with a core group of followers in Turkey.
Gulen was previously charged with establishing a "parallel state structure" primarily within the police, the judiciary, and the military.
More recently, the Turkish authorities classified the Gulen movement as a terrorist organisation - a label given new meaning by the failed coup.
But, despite the growing evidence concerning Gulen and his followers, the impression in Ankara is that the US has so far refused to constrain the activities of his network, which includes a range of schools and many civil-society organisations.
This network allows the Gulen movement to engage in substantial fundraising, which the authorities claim sustains the nefarious operations of its affiliates in Turkey.
As a result, Gulen's continued residence in Pennsylvania has become not only a contentious issue in the bilateral relationship, but also an important source of rising anti-Americanism in Turkey.
The Need for More Cooperation
The failed coup is set to compound this trend. In the post-coup era, the US will come under significant pressure to reconsider its laissez-faire attitude towards Gulen. The Turkish side already has signalled that it will initiate a formal request for Gulen's extradition.
The coup has therefore brought a new urgency to the need for the two NATO allies to settle this important dispute. A failure to find common ground under these changed circumstances would weaken prospects for cooperation at many levels.
The Turkish military will now undergo a painful process of purging its Gulenist elements, and morale and cohesion will inevitably be affected at a time when the armed forces play an instrumental role in Turkey's efforts to combat Kurdish separatists and ISIL terrorism and in strengthening Turkey's border controls, which has helped to impede the flow of foreign jihadists to ISIL-controlled territory in Syria.
The effectiveness of the joint fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS), which relies heavily on air strikes originating from the Incirlik airbase in southern Turkey, would doubtless be jeopardised.
More broadly, a breach in this key bilateral relationship would weaken NATO cohesion in its policy towards Russia, with Turkey seeking to move beyond the confrontational framework set out at the alliance's recent Warsaw summit.
The consequences of the failed coup are also likely to affect Turkey's relationship with Europe. In March, Turkey and the European Union agreed on an ambitious package of measures designed to stem the flow of refugees to Europe.
But, while the arrangement has been a clear success, it remains politically vulnerable. For Turkey, the biggest prize was the EU's commitment to lifting visa restrictions on Turkish citizens travelling to the Schengen Area, a move scheduled for June.
Instead, visa liberalisation was postponed until October, owing to Turkey's refusal to comply with a few remaining conditions.
A Likely Diplomatic Crisis
At the core of the diplomatic impasse is the EU's demand that Turkey amend its anti-terror legislation to ensure that it reflects more closely the norms established by the European Court of Human Rights.
The aim is to limit the legislation's implementation to genuine terror cases and prevent its use as a tool to restrain freedom of expression. But the post-putsch environment will reduce the government's willingness to amend Turkey's anti-terror framework.
As a result, a diplomatic crisis by October is likely, with Turkey claiming that the EU has failed to honour its commitments.
The entire refugee package, under which Turkey continues to host more than 2.8 million Syrian refugees, could then come under threat, with consequences for the flow of asylum-seekers.
Finally, the botched coup will have repercussions on Turkey's ability to contribute to regional security.
The Turkish military will now undergo a painful process of purging its Gulenist elements, and morale and cohesion will inevitably be affected at a time when the armed forces play an instrumental role in Turkey's efforts to combat Kurdish separatists and ISIL terrorism andin strengthening Turkey's border controls, which has helped to impede the flow of foreign jihadists to ISIL-controlled territory in Syria.
And weakened trust in the wake of the coup attempt will make interagency cooperation between the military, the police, and the intelligence services particularly problematic.
Just like successful coups, failed coups can have a major impact on countries' foreign and security policies. Turkey's botched putsch has already heightened the likelihood that critical milestones soon will be reached in the country's relationship with the US and Europe.
Source: aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2016/07/strategic-consequences-turkey-failed-coup-160718143113674.html
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How Daesh Failed In Fallujah
By Jane Arraf
July 19, 2016
The militia's inability to maintain local support played a part in the group's downfall.
When Rabiah Hassan took her daughter to hospital in Fallujah just before the start of the battle there in May, the Daesh doctor from Mosul said he would operate only if she gave him the young woman to marry.
"He had already married three girls from Fallujah," she says at a camp for families who fled Fallujah when Daesh was driven out in June. "I took my daughter and left the hospital."
Residents of the longest-held Daesh city say the organisation seized Fallujah in early 2014 promising a revolution that would restore Sunnis to power and provide services the Iraqi government failed to deliver. The pledge resonated in this conservative tribal city, slething after years of government neglect and abuse by security forces.
But as Iraqi security forces closed in and money ran out, Daesh became increasingly brutal. While an estimated 100,000 Fallujah residents left over two years, some 80,000 remained. Why they stayed - and what they endured and how some resisted - is just now coming to light.
Daesh had tried to prove it could not only seize territory but run its own state. In Fallujah, the public services it offered for the general population in the end dwindled to nothing as the Iraqi government cut electricity to the city and prices of food and fuel skyrocketed.
Analysts say Daesh's failure to maintain local support could play a part in the group's downfall in Iraq if the government is able and willing to step into the breach.
"It could be a turning point, if - and this is a big 'if' - the Iraqi government and other forces play a positive role," says Kawa Hassan, the Brussels-based director of the Middle East and North Africa programme at the EastWest Institute. "The government needs to start with non-sectarian policies addressing local grievances."
In Fallujah, near a bridge where Daesh executed and hung a captured Iraqi soldier, the group turned a mosque into a courthouse imposing its harsh interpretation of law. As time went on, penalties began to include severe punishment for even minor offenses.
With the rising cost of fuel for private generators, few families could afford electricity or access to the Internet. Most were afraid to talk on the phone for fear their calls were being monitored.
Despite Daesh efforts to impose an iron grip, there were flashes of defiance among Fallujah residents.
Karam Ahmed Majid continued to work as a cleaner at the Fallujah hospital after Daesh took control but says she quickly became disgusted at the way they treated people.
"I told them the Iraqi police are better than you," she says she told them, an insult in Anbar Province where the federal police were seen as an instrument of Iraqi government oppression.
Men in Fallujah were required to shorten their trousers to above the ankle and maintain at least a short beard.
Women were ordered to wear a shapeless, all-enveloping cloak.
"They came and asked me why I wasn't wearing a khimar," says Fawzia Abed, her hair covered in a black headscarf with festive gold designs. "I told them I'm an old woman, I'm not going to wear it," she says.
When they threatened to whip her with cables, she says she told them to go ahead.
Some joined Daesh either willingly or under coercion, but most were too poor to have anywhere else to go. When Daesh began allowing families to leave if they paid the going rate of more than $100 per person, few could raise the money.
Daesh threw out the schoolbooks and implemented its own curriculum. Some families who did not want to send their children to Daesh schools say they made up excuses when Daesh officials came to ask why their children were not registered.
"We told them we were worried about the air strikes," says Suad Khalil, adding that her three youngest children have now been out of school for three years. Other schools were closed when they became bases for Daesh fighters.
At the desolate camp 20 miles from Fallujah, Ahoud Alwan and her sister Hind explain they dropped out of school when Daesh took over while they were in 9th grade. Ahoud still has ambitions of being a doctor and her sister, a teacher.
Fallujah's main hospital, believed to have been featured in a Daesh video for recruiting international medical staff, was a centrepiece of the self-declared state.
After the Iraqi health ministry withdrew its own doctors and nurses following the Daesh takeover of the city, residents said Syrian, Palestinian, Egyptian, and Chechen doctors arrived to take over along with Iraqi Daesh medical staff. One of the female doctors was a prominent physician from Fallujah.
"They were brainwashed," says a Fallujah resident, when asked why the physician would have joined Daesh.
Another incentive for young men joining Daesh in conservative Arab society has been access to women. While Daesh captured women from Iraq's Yazidi religious minority as sex slaves, Muslim women were married off to fighters. More senior Daesh members married up to four women.
"They would demand from families that they either provide sons to join Daesh or that they give them a daughter," says a police official in Fallujah. He says the sons were generally sent to the front lines against Iraqi forces or used for manual labour such as digging defensive trenches.
The better public services promised by Daesh as it tried to prove it could not only seize territory but run its own state in the end dwindled to nothing as the Iraqi government cut electricity to the city and prices of food and fuel skyrocketed.
As Daesh revenues, based mostly on taxes and smuggled oil, started to dry up, the group began confiscating the salaries of government workers rather than just taking a cut. As food prices soared, they began hoarding government rations for their fighters, leaving poorer residents to survive on dried dates meant as animal feed.
Items including sugar were suddenly declared 'Haram' - religiously forbidden. "They made everything in the world 'Haram' for people, but allowed everything for them," says Special Forces commander General Abdul Wahhab Al Saadi.
Source: khaleejtimes.com/editorials-columns/how-daesh-failed-in-fallujah
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Who Stands Behind The Betrayal Of Syrians?
By Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor
18 July 2016
I am beginning to smell something nasty cooking, which if I am correct would amount to a betrayal of the Syrian people’s aspirations and those who have fought valiantly for their freedom. Washington and its allies seem to be taking the line: “If you can’t beat them, join them.”
Confronted with economic woes and terrorist attacks, Ankara is in the mood to forgive and forget. It bent over backward to restore relations with Moscow, which were cut following Turkey’s downing of a Russian warplane.
Although Ankara swore not to re-establish relations with Israel unless the blockade of Gaza was lifted, it has made up with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following a six-year dispute over Israel’s storming of a Turkish vessel out to break the siege.
I was shocked to hear of a third about-face in the offing. Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the government was considering mending fences with the Syrian regime. “It’s our greatest and irrevocable goal: developing good relations with Syria and Iraq,” he said.
“We normalized relations with Russia and Israel. I’m sure we’ll normalize relations with Syria as well. For the fight against terrorism to succeed, stability needs to return to Syria and Iraq.” Yildirim did later clarify that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would have to step down as a prerequisite to normalization.
Now that terrorists, once cared for in Turkey’s hospitals “for humanitarian reasons,” are biting the hand that treated their brethren, the Assad regime’s responsibility for the deaths of 400,000 Syrians is of secondary importance.
Unwelcome Alliance?
Meanwhile, the White House is courting Moscow in the hope of forging a military alliance to eviscerate al-Qaeda’s Syrian offshoot Jabhat al-Nusra – described by the Washington Post as the most successful rebel force against the regime – and other extremist groups.
Terrorists should have no place in Syria or anywhere else. However, while I have nothing against a US-Russian bombing campaign in principle, its prime target should be regime forces, whose bombs have reduced entire neighbourhoods to blood-soaked rubble. If this partnership gets off the ground, it will benefit Assad. This month, he said the United States was not Syria’s enemy, and Western countries deal with Syria “through back channels.”
It is notable that US Secretary of State John Kerry no longer insists that Assad must step down, and President Barack Obama’s demands have lost their vigour. Suspicions that the Obama administration has gone soft on the regime are gaining traction.
The question is whether Washington, Ankara and Moscow are new partners in what I consider to be nothing short of a crime. If mainly Sunni opposition forces feel there is a conspiracy afoot to bolster Assad, they will lose heart. Why should they sacrifice their lives for a lost cause? Facing retribution, their only option would be to flee with their families to find a safe haven.
I hope I am wrong, but if Assad remains in power Syria’s Sunni population will be reduced further than it has already been. Like Iraq, it will fall under Shiite domination and be subsumed into Iran’s sphere of influence. Together with Russia, Iran is succeeding in cleansing Syria of a major Sunni presence, a strategy now being rubber-stamped by the United States and other Western countries.
Refugees
Those millions of refugees in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq will find their dreams of returning home shattered. The million-plus refugees in Europe have discovered they are unwanted, mistrusted and feared. Many who were joyous upon arrival in Germany are heartbroken to find there is no prospect of their families being permitted to join them.
Turkey is mulling offering citizenship to 300,000 wealthy, highly-educated or skilled Syrians. Others, particularly the best and brightest, are being resettled in the West, where they might be treated as second-class citizens and objects of hate for far-right groups. They are the lifeblood of Syria’s future.
Syrians are a proud people. Their greatest wish is to go home to resume their lives. They did not choose to be refugees. They are treated not as human beings but as statistics. It is not their fault they are reduced to subsisting often in dire conditions, lacking schooling for their children and anything other than basic medical care. Generations have been traumatized, and their children will always struggle to erase the scars etched in their memories.
Failure
The so-called international community has failed to end the conflict. The big powers have been impotent to stop it. The result is the creation of a ticking time bomb, another Palestinian-style diaspora on a far greater scale and with far greater consequences. The Palestinians never relinquished their identity or soil. Neither will Syrians. Their collective pain and loss will be their legacy, passed on over the coming decades.
The tragedy is that with international resolve and unity of purpose, Syria could have been saved. Hundreds of thousands were needlessly lost and almost half the population displaced. Each country involved, many of which were willing participants in illegal wars, shied away from committing to a just fight to keep innocents from being slaughtered. It seems some are now secretly shaking hands with the slaughterer.
I appeal to leaders of good conscience to intervene fast, before the underhand deals with the devil are signed and sealed. Assad must go so the living can rebuild and the lives of the martyred were not sacrificed in vain.
The prophet’s companion Khalid ibn al-Walid – a brilliant military commander who defended Mesopotamia from Persian conquest and smashed the Byzantine occupying forces in Syria – must be turning in his grave. Never have the honourable and brave been so sorely needed.
Source: english.alarabiya.net/en/views/2016/07/18/Who-stands-behind-the-betrayal-of-Syrians-.html
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The Sept. 11 Road Began From Tehran
By Turki Aldakhil
18 July 2016
Tehran has been dealt a severe blow with confirmation that Saudi Arabia was not involved in any way in the Sept. 11 attacks.
“US intelligence officials have finished reviewing 28 classified pages of the official report on the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, and they show no evidence of Saudi complicity,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.
Terrorism Sponsor
Tehran is trying to involve others in its crimes and create a distraction from its own involvement. Iran is reported to have sheltered 500 al-Qaeda members and leaders, and is the most prominent supporter of Hezbollah, whose military leaders met with late al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Sudan and trained the organization’s best group in South Lebanon on guerrilla warfare and targeting buildings.
Tehran has been dealt a severe blow with confirmation that Saudi Arabia was not involved in any way in the Sept. 11 attacks
Iran appears to have been silent regarding the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and, it seems, has “normalized” ties with the group. It protects the journeys of leaders from terror organizations from Afghanistan to Iraq and Yemen.
Iran hosted high-ranking al-Qaeda official Saif al-Adel, protects Bin Laden’s son Hamza, and looks after militant Saleh al-Qaarawi. Iran is the world’s top sponsor of terrorism.
Source: english.alarabiya.net/en/views/2016/07/18/The-Sept-11-road-began-from-Tehran.html
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Egyptian National Security At The Heart Of Rapprochement With Israel
By Raghida Dergham
18 July 2016
Egypt, finding itself beleaguered by tragedy, debt, unrest, and political isolation, and a demographic emergency, with a population of 90 million people, has decided that its interest requires restoring its regional role through the Palestinian-Israeli gateway, especially after the Turkish-Israeli reconciliation that gave Ankara a stronger say in Gaza via Hamas, directly on the border with Egypt. Thus the Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shukri flew to Jerusalem this week, meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who invited him to dinner in his home. The sudden but significant visit drew a lot of criticism.
Since President Sisi took power in Egypt, relations between Egypt and Israel have been excellent. Informed US sources even say they are at an unprecedented level of coordination, surpassing even what existed under former president Mubarak. According to reports following Shukri’s visit, preparations are underway for a visit by Netanyahu to Cairo, for the first time. The reasons behind Egyptian-Israeli rapprochement are many, and include partnership in fighting terrorism in Sinai.
However, the prospects for an agreement on the Palestinian question are very slim, bearing in mind that President Sisi wants to revive the Arab Peace Initiative adopted by the Beirut Arab League Summit more than a decade ago; and that Netanyahu wants to amend this initiative to remove the clauses related to withdrawal to the borders of 1967 and the fate of Jerusalem. This raises questions about what Netanyahu intends to bring with him to Cairo, if the visit takes place.
Opponents of the Egyptian demarche, which they say is cosmetic, question the timing of the visit and the rapprochement, at a time when the campaign to boycott Israel is growing and putting pressure on Netanyahu to accept the two-state solution, end the occupation, and stop settlement building. Supporters of the Egyptian efforts, which have been coordinated with the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, cite the benefits of saving and supporting the Palestinian Authority at a time when it has been practically excluded at the decision of Turkey-Israel-Hamas, three parties that converge when it comes to weakening and paralyzing the Palestinian Authority.
They also argue that with the systematic retreat of major powers and the UN represented by the Quartet, and with the French initiative emptied of its substance at the Security Council, it was necessary for an Arab player with Egypt’s weight to make a move to ensure Arabs retain their role in the Palestinian issue and stop the nearly irreversible loss of further Palestinian land.
The Arab summit convening in Mauritania next week will not issue a resolution at the level of the peace initiative on the Palestinian issue like the Beirut summit. Yet the summit must not be an occasion to paper over challenges, conflicts, and crises. The Arab region is in crisis, and the regional unrest is serious and dangerous. Europe is busy with Brexit and who might be next in leaving the European Union and its very fate.
If Netanyahu believes his country is an oasis of stability in a desert of turbulence in the Middle East, perhaps the Israeli people should alert him to the fact that this is a just a mirage.
The US is preoccupied with its elections, fear of terrorism, and racial tensions. Russia is feigning greatness while suffering severe economic problems, and is drowning in a war with radical Islamism even as it is surrounded by five Muslim-majority republics. Turkey is stumbling. Iran is correcting course albeit slowly, as it sets eyes on the regional and international maps, reading adverse developments despite its gains in Iraq and Syria.
Egypt looked at its surroundings and international equations, and judged that rapprochement with Israel at this juncture serves its interests, at least in the point of view of President Sisi’s administration. The official stated reasons are that Egypt is concerned by the failure of the Quartet, and decided to act by proposing an initiative to circumvent failure. Moreover, Cairo judged that the French initiative for an international peace conference on Palestine will not lead to any results as long as the US is merely present rather than leading or sponsoring such a conference.
Egyptian diplomacy has considered the French initiative to be a ploy, especially as it hijacked all efforts at the Security Council, including a draft resolution that was meant to reaffirm the two-state solution and the implementation of resolution 242, bearing in mind that it was the implementation of that resolution that had led to serious negotiations between Egypt and Jordan, and Israel and the eventual peace treaties.
Sisi’s proposals were not successful because they appeared incoherent, aimed at obstruction or one-upmanship. He spoke of a “warm peace” with Israel without offering anything specific about the requirements and foundations for it. He sent his FM to Jerusalem, which Egypt refuses to recognize as the capital of Israel, drawing ire as Shukri’s actions in Jerusalem was seen as undermining “national red lines”.
He objected to the failure of the international community to act in the UN Security Council, but he deliberately ignored the fact that Egypt’s membership of the council allows him to take serious action if he truly wished so, proposing coherent and important initiatives. He bypassed the issue of settlement at a time when the momentum for boycott in Europe and elsewhere against Israeli settlement policy was beginning to reach critical mass. Sisi moved to normalize relations with Israel on the basis of reviving Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, but his actions have not followed a roadmap or a mechanism.
Therefore, the Egyptian president’s calculation must be domestic in the most part, as well as related to ties with neighboring countries and the United States. The coordination of the visit with the Palestinian Authority is significant. But it is also true that the motive of Egypt’s concerted efforts was Turkey’s rapprochement with Israel and the mandate Hamas gave to Ankara to sponsor its interests on the border with Egypt. This touched on an issue that is at the heart of Egyptian national interest and thus had to be confronted or challenged, with an eye trained on the relationship between Turkey and Hamas, and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the implications for the Sisi administration.
The Egyptian factors related to national security that led to partnership with Israel include a security one related to the growth of terrorism in Sinai. According to observers familiar with the issue, there is growing Egyptian-Israeli coordination on this front, including in surveillance and intelligence, to hunt down terrorists. This is of paramount importance to the Egyptian government, which finds itself threatened in its soft underbelly in Sinai as well as Gaza. In this context, Cairo has felt it necessary to try to coax Israel away from Turkey and Hamas.
The other consideration behind Egyptian-Israeli rapprochement is that Cairo believes the road to Washington’s heart goes through Israel and the latter’s influence on Congress and the media in the US, both of which are primed to criticize Sisi administration’s violations of human rights, freedom of expression, and the freedom of the press. There is growing resentment against Egypt’s deportation and prosecution of journalists, and repression and detention of dissidents and critics. According to one expert on Egyptian Sisi-era politics, Cairo sees Israel as a potential defender of Egypt in the US arena.
All this does not invalidate the fact that Egypt has an honest desire to see a breakthrough in the Palestinian-Israeli track, that would not be at the expense of the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian people. Egypt can be a sponsor of inter-Palestinian relations if Israel allows it to do so, which requires for Netanyahu to forgo the de-facto partnership with Turkey and Hamas behind it, and the ball is in his court now.
Egypt is able to be the main engine in the revival of Arab-Israeli negotiations leading up to a comprehensive peace that would save Israel itself from its current siege mentality. And again, the ball is in Netanyahu’s court. If Netanyahu believes his country is an oasis of stability in a desert of turbulence in the Middle East, perhaps the Israeli people should alert him to the fact that this is a just a mirage. Indeed, Israel in the long run can never be a normal country in the Middle East if its survival depends on occupation, unrest, and instability.
President Sisi will not be able to meet the demands of the Israeli prime minister, if the latter exaggerates the amendments he demands to the Arab Peace Initiative, by asking for removing the clause of an Israeli withdrawal to the borders of 1967, with a willingness to adapt to the requirements of the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations such as land swaps. Sisi will not be able to fulfill Netanyahu’s dream of removing Jerusalem from the initiative, no matter how many visits Egyptian officials make to Jerusalem. Sisi will not give Netanyahu a chance to amend the initiative, which offers Arab recognition of Israel if Netanyahu proves his desire for peace and the two-state solution. But if Netanyahu is just playing games, then both leaders are in a quandary.
Egypt is right in trying to stop the farce of the Quartet, which, represented by none other than Tony Blair until recently, continues to stoop lower and lower. Its latest report was a scandalous testimony of its bankruptcy, as it described settlements as an obstacle to negotiations, while international resolutions say settlements are illegal and illegitimate, and while settlement policy imposes a fair accompli after the other severely undermining the two-state solution. Civil society’s campaign to boycott Israel as long as it continues its settlements is the cry of a strong conscience in the face of the moral failure of the Quartet and its members, the US, Russia, EU, and UN.
But where is the Arab strategy to address this? What Arab strategy is there to deal with Israel’s fait accompli under Netanyahu, as he proceeds to efface any remaining Palestinian rights? Yes, inter-Palestinian divisions are responsible for a large part of the current situation, but that does not negate Arab and international responsibility.
Israel may appear today reassured while the region gets torn apart. However, this anomalous situation will not bring long-term reassurance for Israel, despite what Netanyahu might think. Here, there is a responsibility that must be shouldered by the Israeli people, who boast of their democratic rights and the ability to correct course.
For its part, Iran too is exposing itself and its claims that Palestine is a priority. Like Turkey, Iran uses the Palestinian issue to further its own agenda, and exploits supposed Arab absence on the Palestinian issue.
This cedes the ground to ISIS, al-Qaeda and similar groups that have destabilized the Arab region and contributed to its wholesale destruction and fragmentation. These groups are doing a great service to Turkey, Iran, and Israel at the expense of the Arab countries and their people.
If the Arab summit in Mauritania finds itself ready to think seriously about the state of the Arab region and its surroundings, then it must lead the Arabs to stop burying their heads in the sand. The Arabs, led by Egypt, must stop papering over reality and the fateful actions it requires them to do.
Source: english.alarabiya.net/en/views/2016/07/18/Egyptian-national-security-at-the-heart-of-rapprochement-with-Israel.html
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URL: https://newageislam.com/middle-east-press/counter-islamophobes-with-positive-narrative/d/108004