Dear comrades,
The Cairo Conference will be canceled this year. Despite our vehement efforts to secure a venue, having reserved one and even kept it unannounced, state security have managed to sabotage our endeavors. The persecution have been heightened since the announcement of the Hezbollah cell. You will receive a public statement shortly on behalf of the organizing committee explaining the situation.
This is such a huge set-back and impediment for us in Cairo, We hope you accept our apologies for the inconvenience.

Where are those flag-wavers who have been crying and wailing over “Hezbollah’s violation of Egypt’s sovereignty”?!??! You can’t even walk with your families to visit the fucking pyramids, while foreigners can, but still, oh no, it’s Hezbollah that’s really screwing our “sovereignty,” right?! A7a!

Photographer Ahmad Abdel Fattah narrates also his ordeal today trying to take photographs in downtown Cairo, only to be chased and banned by the police coz Egyptians like him need a “permission” to take photos, while foreigners as Ahmad noted were walking around him and the police officers snapping pix without any interference from the police…! Indeed a very sovereign nation…! We should blame Hezbollah for that too, ha?

Who’s violating “our sovereignty”? Nasrallah or Zahi Hawass? Habib el-Adly’s thugs or Hezbollah’s resistance operatives? But, hey, of course it’s easier and safer to vomit one’s patriotism over everybody when it comes to the Lebanese and the Palestinians, but when it comes to the police depriving us from the simplest rights while granting it to foreigners that’s normal, natural… Shame on you…!

Again, my support goes for Hezbollah.

Sarah Carr reports on the current polarization of the Egyptian blogosphere:

The uncovering of a Hezbollah cell in Egypt last week has created a battlefront within the Egyptian blogging community’s pro and anti Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah camps.
The Egyptian media’s outrage over the Lebanese group’s alleged transgression of Egyptian sovereignty is mirrored in the position adopted by blogger Wael Abbas, a particularly vocal critic of Nasrallah.
Abbas addresses the leader directly on microblogging service Twitter: “To Hassan Nasrallah the pimp: you’re the last thing we bloody need. Keep to yourself and leave us alone, God damn you.”
Abbas suggests that a demonstration be organized against Nasrallah. “Didn’t some m**f** hold a demonstration in front of the Egyptian embassy in Beirut because of the [Rafah] crossing? Why don’t we hold a demonstration against Hassan Nasrallah too — hasn’t Hezbollah become part of the government?”
The blogger also casts scorn on Hezbollah supporters in the Arab region.
“Shame on all those so-called intellectuals of our region who support f**** Hezbollah the fascists!!! Shame on you shame on you!!!” And in a separate Twitter posting, “Shame on any m**f** who supports Hezbollah’s interference in Egypt against the will of its own people! Why blame America then!”
Meanwhile, Socialist blogger and activist Hossam El-Hamalawy responds with a series of Twitter messages which question why outrage at violations of Egyptian sovereignty is absent when carried out by Israel.
“Those crying over Hezbollah’s ‘violation of Egyptian sovereignty’ are usually not heard when Israeli planes violate this ‘sovereignty’!” El-Hamalawy writes.
“We only hear their ‘indignation’ when Hamas shoots Egyptian police officers who are nothing but criminals in uniform aiding Israel’s siege [of Gaza].
“But we never hear this ‘indignation’ when Israel shoots Egyptian police officers.”
Writing on his She2i2 blog, Jano Charbel declares his support for Nasrallah.
“In Mubarak’s Egypt Hassan Nasrallah is being branded as a war criminal — for assisting in the resistance effort in Gaza; in fact it is the old dictator who is the real war criminal — for insisting upon the closure of the Rafah border crossing, and actively partaking in the Israeli siege against the 1.5 million residents of the Gaza Strip,” Charbel writes.
Ishteraky Thawry (Revolutionary Socialist) writes, “I am glad to see that Mubarak is busy nowadays digging his own grave. When the revolution comes he will pay for his collaboration and his repression of the resistance. Does Mubarak’s regime really believe that anyone except the sycophants in the government press and in the NDP [National Democratic Party] will be fooled by their collaborationist actions [i.e. with the US] towards Hezbollah???”
The E-Socialists blog writes that unconditional support for “the single remaining symbol of resistance” is crucial because “defeat of the resistance is undoubtedly a step backwards and in the interests of Israel and America.”
This does not mean though, the blog post adds, that Hezbollah is “above criticism” or that Nasrallah should be “venerated or worshipped…because — without wanting to ignore the importance of the role played by individuals — liberation is in the end conditional on the will of the people.”
Blogger Zeinobia wonders why Mubarak “suddenly remembered now that our borders are being violated by foreigners” pointing to the kidnapping of tourists by non-Egyptian nationals last year in the Western desert.
“Was this not a terrible violation of our borders and our sovereignty? Why did Mubarak not speak about this?? Oh yes I know maybe because they are poor Africans who were not backed up by Iran!!” Zeinobia writes.
“Or maybe [it’s because] this is our southern borders which are not as important or explosive as our Eastern borders,” she continues.
Pointing out that Israel “violated our skies several times…during the last war in Gaza” Zeinobia is clear about whether the blame should be placed for the presence of a Hezbollah cell in Egypt.
“Do not blame Nasrallah, blame whoever made us a weak nation with no sovereignty”.

Photos by Nasser Nouri and Amr Abdallah: