Tag: zionism

Egypt’s 1968: The revival of street politics

Posted on By 3arabawy

Above is Chapter IV of the MA Thesis I wrote 10 years ago, when studying at the American University in Cairo’s Political Science department. This chapter discusses the revival of the student movement following the 1967 defeat.

Of course reading it today I wish if I would have edited some parts, changed the lingo here and there, and added more resources and info I’ve been learning over the past years.

But in general I still think the thesis stands, and could help shed some light on this critical period in the history of the left in Egypt.

The almighty Israeli spies

Posted on By 3arabawy

When students and workers took to the streets in Alexandria, November 1968, denouncing the Nasserist regime, the state-run media announced the arrest of Israeli spies who were involved in the agitation for the protests (Arab Report and Record, 1-15 December 1968: 399).

My mother, who took part in the 1971-2 student protests against Sadat, recalls how the Central Security Forces were beating them with sticks while denouncing the students as “Israeli agents.”

During the 18 day uprising, a young woman journalist appeared on TV “confessing” she was trained by the Mossad to foment those “riots” in Tahrir. And of course it turned out to be a big lie.

And now, the government has announced it caught another Israeli spy gathering information about the protests and fomented chaos with the intent “of harming political, economic and social interests and negatively impacting the course of the revolution”… and “prosecutors suspect he paid protesters to cause friction with the military and to foment Muslim-Christian tensions.”

Seriously what a soap opera.

By this latest case, the Mukhabarat is trying to pull together a cheap move, so that any public criticism against the military would be depicted immediately as the work of Israeli spies. More importantly, the Mukhabarat is trying to convince the public it’s a vital agency, in charge of protecting the country from any “foreign plots”, so as not to receive the same treatment as State Security Police.

The Mukhabrrat is hardly any different from SS. It’s been involved in renditions and torture, spying on Egyptians abroad, coordinating dirty operations with the CIA and Mossad. Do Israelis have spies in Egypt? Of course. And the biggest two spies are Mubarak and Omar Suleiman. One is enjoying a five star treatment in Sharm el-Sheikh, and the other seems to be getting away with his crimes, and possibly even run for presidency!

Dear Mukhabarat, stop treating us like children. Who the hell is this Israeli super agent who will single handedly go around fomenting protests, agitating against the army in the streets and mosques? Get a life, grow up.

NO to Mostafa el-Fiqqi!

Posted on By 3arabawy

[Video removed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFBW9bi18n0]

Mostafa el-Fiqqi, former NDP, diplomat and Mubarak’s secretary of information has reinvented himself as a revolutionary as soon as Mubarak stepped down. Fiqqi won his 2005 parliamentary seat in Damanhour in a completely rigged vote (I covered the elections in his constituency on that year and I’m witness to the irregularities that happened) and was the one of the regime’s biggest propagandists in dealing with media outlets. In the video above, Fiqqi is praising Sameh Fahmy, the former Petroleum Minister who oversaw the under-priced gas deals with Israel, and who had to resign after the revolution under the pressure of labor strikes in the gas/oil sector.

Fiqqi was also kicked out by the revolutionaries in Tahrir when he tried to visit the square on 10 February, one day before stepped down (as seen in the video above). Hence, it came as a shock for me and many others that this NDP man who praises Israel’s normalizers and who was a cornerstone in Mubarak’s foreign policy, would be Revolutionary Egypt’s candidate for the secretary general of Arab League post.

Please join the activists in their protest on Wednesday 20 April, 2 pm, in front of the Arab League to denounce the Fiqqi’s candidacy.