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Israel and the US behind terror attack in Egypt, libel in official PA daily op-ed

Nan Jacques Zilberdik  |
   
Libel in official PA daily op-ed:

Israel and the US behind terror attack in Egypt
in which 305 were murdered

 

  • "The one who stands behind it... is Israel and the US"
  • "They do not want Egypt... to rise, recover, and restore to itself its leading pan-Arab role. The US, Israel, and their pawns know well that the resurrection of Egypt means the resurrection of all the peoples of the Arab nation..."
By Nan Jacques Zilberdik

The terror attack last Friday in Sinai, Egypt, which claimed the lives of 305 Muslim worshippers in a mosque, served a regular columnist for the official Palestinian Authority daily as an excuse to repeat the libel that Israel and the US are behind terror in the Middle East.

Writing about the attack, Omar Hilmi Al-Ghoul explained that the US and Israel are afraid of a strong Egypt, and therefore use "pawns" to carry out terror attacks and "weaken Egypt." This is part of "an American-Israeli decision" that serves the "colonial need":

"Time will tell, after the investigations expose the secrets, divergences, and scope of the barbaric crime, because the one who stands behind it - regardless of the name of the organization to which he belongs, and regardless of the pretexts he promoted for his horrible crime - is Israel and the US...

They do not want Egypt - the symbol of Arabness - to rise, recover, and restore to itself its leading pan-Arab role. The US, Israel, and their pawns know well that the resurrection of Egypt means the resurrection of all the peoples of the Arab nation, and therefore the colonial need dictates keeping Egypt in a state of political, security, economic, and social exhaustion...

There is an American-Israeli decision - which is being implemented by their pawns... to continue weakening Egypt, at least, particularly because the main goal of their plan is to tear unified Egypt into small and scattered states."
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 26, 2017]

Palestinian Media Watch has documented this Palestinian libel many times. A Fatah cartoon presented the libel that Jews/Israelis seek to destroy the Muslim world, and are possibly taking advantage of the internal Muslim fighting to do so. The official PA daily has claimed Israel was behind the Paris attacks in 2015, and that the US and Israel direct ISIS terror in Europe

After 6 Egyptian soldiers were killed in an attack last month, a member of the PLO's political bureau voiced similar allegations, claiming that "the Zionist enemy" supports terror in the region:

"Palestinian Liberation Front (i.e., member of the PLO) political bureau member Muhammad Al-Soudi said... that the crime that was committed against the heroic Egyptian army soldiers in northern Sinai is not unrelated to the phenomenon of terror in the region, which is sustained by the aggressive forces in the region and prime among them the Zionist enemy, which is focused on taking apart the Arab nation, its states, and its capabilities, and keeping it busy with disagreements that divert it from the struggle against [the Zionist enemy] and its aspirations in Palestine and the entire Arab region."
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Oct. 17, 2017]

Likewise, in December 2016, a Fatah member claimed that Israel was behind an attack in Jordan:

"These barbarians are guided by the remote control of the supreme Israeli interests. According to orders they bomb here, slaughter there, and destroy in another place."
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 22, 2016]

When Palestinians complain over the "injustice" of the Balfour Declaration, which expressed Britain’s support for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people," British and European colonialism and their need for an "implant" in the Middle East to secure their interests is mentioned as the motivation for the declaration, as documented by PMW.

In addition to accusing Israel of having a hand in the terror attack in Sinai last week, the columnist of the official PA daily further claimed that the attack, in which 305 Muslim worshippers were murdered, was an attempt to "reenact" the terror attack in 1994 carried out by Baruch Goldstein, a member of an Israeli far-right movement. He shot and murdered 29 Muslims while they were praying inside the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, known to Muslims as the "Ibrahimi Mosque."

The following is a longer excerpt of the op-ed accusing Israel and the US of being behind the attack in Egypt:

Excerpt of an op-ed by Omar Hilmi Al-Ghoul, regular columnist for the official PA daily
Headline: "Yes to Egypt, down with terror"
"The Takfir (i.e., the act of accusing other Muslims of heresy) terror struck again, [this time] at a mosque in the Al-Rawda area east of Bir Al-Abd in the northern Sinai district, and claimed over 300 Martyrs (Shahids) and 130 wounded (see note below -Ed.). This is a shocking and bloody massacre that was committed by savages against innocent civilians as they prayed the Friday prayers - as if they wanted to reenact the massacre at the Ibrahimi Mosque (i.e., the Cave of the Patriarchs) that was committed by Zionist settler Baruch Goldstein on Feb. 25, 1994, in which 29 Martyrs died and 150 wounded (sic., 125, see note below)...
Time will tell, after the investigations expose the secrets, divergences, and scope of the barbaric crime, because the one who stands behind it - regardless of the name of the organization to which he belongs, and regardless of the pretexts he promoted for his horrible crime - is Israel and the US. [My] intention is not to absolve the Takfir organizations of blame because they are the cheap and cowardly pawns for carrying out the most horrible acts of terror against defenseless civilians, in order to harm the honor and status of the government in Egypt...
All of Egypt, and not just the city of Bir Al-Abd, experienced a black Friday. This is because the painful and barbaric disaster targets the big sister (i.e., Egypt), and seeks to harm it and systematically destroy it. They do not want Egypt - the symbol of Arabness - to rise, recover, and restore to itself its leading pan-Arab role. The US, Israel, and their pawns know well that the resurrection of Egypt means the resurrection of all the peoples of the Arab nation, and therefore the colonial need dictates keeping Egypt in a state of political, security, economic, and social exhaustion...
There is an American-Israeli decision - which is being implemented by their pawns, starting with the Muslim Brotherhood organization and ending with the last of the Takfir organizations - to continue weakening Egypt, at least, particularly because the main goal of their plan is to tear unified Egypt into small and scattered states."
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 26, 2017]

A group of Muslim terrorists attacked the Al-Rawda Mosque in northern Sinai in Egypt with grenades and guns on Nov. 24, 2017, and murdered at least 305 worshipers. ISIS was suspected of being behind the attack on the Sufi mosque, but it did not claim responsibility.

Cave of the Patriarchs massacre - On Feb. 25, 1994, Baruch Goldstein, a member of an Israeli far-right movement, opened fire on Muslims praying inside the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, known to Muslims as the "Ibrahimi Mosque," killing 29 and wounding 125. Following the attack, which was widely condemned by Israeli leaders and Jewish communities abroad, the Israeli government took concrete steps to prevent similar attacks from occurring by dividing the area of worship into Muslim and Jewish sections and designating several extremist movements, including Goldstein's, as illegal terrorist groups.

Headline: "Palestinian condemnations of the terror attack against the Egyptian army in Sinai"
"The Palestinian forces and activists yesterday [Oct. 16, 2017] condemned the terror attack in which six Egyptian soldiers were killed (see note below -Ed.). PLO Executive Committee member and Director of the [PLO] Department of Refugee Affairs Zakariya Al-Agha expressed his sharp condemnation of the attack, and said in a press release yesterday that this disgusting crime of terror serves none but the enemies of the [Arab] nation and their plans, whose purpose is to undermine the stability of the region, while mentioning that this crime did not harm Egypt's unity, security, and stability at all... [and] while emphasizing that the Palestinian and Egyptian peoples are in the same boat in dealing with terror. In Ramallah, the Fatah Movement condemned the terror attack and said in a statement from [its] Information, Culture, and Ideology Commission yesterday: 'We strongly condemn the cowardly terror attack on an Egyptian army post in northern Sinai.' Fatah emphasized its solidarity with the Egyptian leadership and people, and expressed condolences and feelings of solidarity with the families of the soldiers and the dead...
The Democratic Front [for the Liberation of Palestine] (DFLP) (i.e., terrorist organization, see note below) also condemned the terror attack, by emphasizing that the dark terror will not last long and that it will be finished by the power of the people's will and their going out against it. [The DFLP] emphasized that what happened yesterday [Oct. 16, 2017] in the Sinai is a desperate attempt to harm Egypt's regional and national role...
Palestinian Liberation Front (i.e., member of the PLO) political bureau member Muhammad Al-Soudi said in a press release that the crime that was committed against the heroic Egyptian army soldiers in northern Sinai is not unrelated to the phenomenon of terror in the region, which is sustained by the aggressive forces in the region and prime among them the Zionist enemy, which is focused on taking apart the Arab nation, its states, and its capabilities, and keeping it busy with disagreements that divert it from the struggle against [the Zionist enemy] and its aspirations in Palestine and the entire Arab region."
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Oct. 17, 2017]

ISIS terrorists in Sinai attacked Egyptian military posts south of Sheikh Zuweid, near the border with Gaza, on Oct. 16, 2017. Six Egyptian soldiers and over 24 ISIS terrorists were killed in the clash.

The DFLP (Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine) has carried out numerous terror attacks, including the Ma'alot massacre in which 22 schoolchildren and 4 adults were murdered (May 15, 1974), the Avivim school bus massacre, in which 9 children and 3 adults were murdered (May 22, 1970), the Kiryat Shmona massacre (18 murdered, April 11, 1974), the Beit Shean attack (4 murdered, Nov. 11, 1974), the Jaffa street bombing in Jerusalem (7 murdered, Nov. 13, 1975) the Tiberias bombing (2 high school students murdered, May 15, 1979), the Night of the Gliders (in which two terrorists infiltrated Israel from Lebanon using hang gliders, murdering 6 Israeli soldiers on Nov. 25, 1987), and the Geha junction suicide bombing near Tel Aviv (4 murdered, Dec. 25, 2003.) The DFLP has participated in and claimed responsibility for dozens of other terror attacks.

Excerpt of an op-ed by Muwaffaq Matar, Fatah Revolutionary Council member and regular columnist for the official PA daily
Headline: "Karak and what is after it"
"What is the connection between the timing of the attack by the criminal and barbaric members of ISIS against Karak in the Hashemite Jordanian Kingdom (i.e., attack in Karak, Jordan, on Dec. 18, 2016, 10 killed, dozens wounded) and the bills the government of Israel gave to the Israeli Parliament, to legislate laws to legalize the settlements in the Palestinian West Bank and to forbid sounding the call of the Muezzin (i.e., Muslim call to prayer) with loudspeakers in the mosques of Jerusalem (sic., the law does not apply only to mosques or only to Jerusalem, see note below)? What influence will there be from the involvement of the kingdom in grave security matters, such as ISIS' bloody attacks... at the expense of its responsibility for the holy sites in Jerusalem, according to the agreement signed with the State of Palestine? (sic., Israel handed over the administration of the Temple Mount to the Jordanian Waqf in 1967) ...
The timing of these crimes and the fact that they are being carried out simultaneously with the trend and decisions of Israel to establish the occupation, the settlements, and the Judaization of Jerusalem and the holy sites - and primarily the Al-Aqsa Mosque - rule out the possibility of coincidence; this makes us certain that these barbarians are guided by the remote control of the supreme Israeli interests. According to orders they bomb here, slaughter there, and destroy in another place."
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 22, 2016]

Regularization Law - intended to validate and finalize registration of land in Judea and Samaria with the Civil Administration Authority for Government and Abandoned Property in cases where any private claimant makes claims to lands that were thought to be government land after communities have already been built on the land in good faith - i.e., without the knowledge that the land was privately-owned and with government support. The law will do so by transferring use of the land to the community in question providing a mechanism to compensate claimants to ownership of the land if their claims are validated. The law is intended to provide protection for Israeli towns in the West Bank established and built with Israeli government support from later claims of ownership by private individuals, similarly to existing laws in Israel in regard to property claims made for land on which government sanctioned communities have already been built. Currently, Israeli homes in a number of towns in the West Bank are vulnerable to claimants demanding their demolition, even if claims are only made long after families built their homes and are residing there.
Compensation: In cases of validated claims the Regularization Law expropriates the use of the land for the community's use until such a time as the final status of the area is determined, and states that the owner will be entitled to damages of 125 percent of the value of the land before the community was built, or alternative plots of land, according to his choice.
The law would not apply retroactively to cases already heard by the Israeli Supreme Court.
The bill was passed in a preliminary reading on Nov. 30, 2016, and in a first reading on Dec. 5, 2016.
https://www.knesset.gov.il/privatelaw/data/20/3433.rtf

On Nov. 13, 2016, a bill to ban religious institutions from broadcasting over loudspeakers was approved for a preliminary reading in the Israeli Parliament. The bill is intended to prevent noise pollution. This bill is referred to by many as the "Muezzin Law," although it does not refer to any specific religion.
Other countries have already approved or attempted legislation for regulating the use of loudspeakers in mosques in order to limit noise pollution. These include India, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Turkey, Bahrain, the United Emirates, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, France, the UK, Austria, Norway, and Belgium, and the US. The PA has also passed legislation regarding the use of loudspeakers in mosques in order to reduce noise pollution.

 

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