This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/451
From snake to dhimmi: Sharon praises Mubarak in Arab 'Der Sturmer'
February 20, 2005
MIM: Now that another US funded Egyptian Israeli lovefest is underway, Mubarak has decided that a cheap way of showing his subjects that he is getting concessions from Israel is to order the press to refrain from showing Sharon (and Peres) as snakes and portray him as a useful dhimmi . On the same day the Sharon interview was published, (in which the Israeli PM groveled and gushed about Mubarak and Abbas's attempts to make peace) - arms smugglers from Egypt were shot as they tried to bring weapons to the PA (Paid Assassins) in Gaza.
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2 arms smugglers shot wounded near Egyptian border
2/30/05
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1108869555717
IDF soldiers shot and wounded two suspected Palestinian arm smugglers who attempted to enter the Gaza Strip by jumping over the security barrier between Israel and Egypt overnight Saturday.
The two were taken to a Gaza hospital for treatment.
Earlier in the evening, soldiers spotted and arrested a third suspect who crossed over from Egypt.
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http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=77117
PA Insists On an Israeli Withdrawal from Philadelphi RouteFriday, February 18, 2005
(IsraelNN.com) Mohammed Dahlan is demanding Israel withdraw her forces from the Philadelphi Route in southern Gaza as part of the Gaza Disengagement Plan, warning failure to do so would turn the area into another Shab'a Farm, [the area along Israel's northern border claimed by Lebanon].
Dahlan is promising Israel that if all IDF troops are withdrawn from the strategically vital route, the PA would make certain weapons smuggling from Egypt is halted completely, and all weapons tunnels would be destroyed.
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http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=77134
PA Official Threatens More TerrorismFriday, February 18, 2005 / 9 Adar 5765
The Palestinian Authority's strongman in Gaza, Mohammed Dahlan, threatened today that attacks from the PA will continue if Israel does not withdraw from the strategic Philadelphi Route.
While noting in an interview with Israel Radio that PA president Mahmoud Abbas is committed to maintaining security while the planned Israeli withdrawal from Gush Katif proceeds, Dahlan warned that Israeli failure to withdraw from the border area with Egypt would turn the Philadelphi Route into another "Shab'a Farms", referring to an area along the Israeli border with Lebanon that Hizbullah terrorists demand Israel evacuate. The Shab'a Farms, or Mount Dov area, has been a frequent target of attack by Hizbullah forces.
Israeli control of the Philadelphi Route has been central to the fight against smugglers bringing weapons into Israel and the Palestinian Authority by way of tunnels from the Egyptian side of the border. Dahlan is promising Israel that if all IDF troops are withdrawn from the route, the PA would make certain weapons smuggling from Egypt is halted completely, and all weapons tunnels would be destroyed. However, he explained, the PA would do so only for internal reasons and not specifically to aid Israel.
Earlier this month, Egyptian officials stated that Israel and Egypt are working on an agreement to allow Egyptian troops to patrol the Philadelphi Route. And last month, Labor ministers Shimon Peres and Matan Vilnai both said that the Israeli evacuation from Gush Katif must include the strategic route if the withdrawal is to be "accepted" by the international community. (For an account of Wednesday's Knesset vote on the withdrawal, see http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=77015.)
Dahlan, a negotiator and security figure for the PA, also complained that Israel has thus far failed to live up to agreements to turn over Jericho, a strategic road in Jericho's environs, and other cities to PA control.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=76450
Egypt to patrol Phladelphi smuggling route
2/5/05
An Egypitan official said Israel and Egypt will sign an agreement this week that will allow it to send several hundred soldiers to patrol the problematic Philadelphi route between Gaza and Egypt. |
An Israeli decision to allow a foreign country to secure the corridor would be a departure from the original IDF plan. Israel has always said it must maintain control of the route until Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces prove they can prevent the smuggling of ammunition and terrorists in the area. Arabs from Egypt and Gaza have been involved in digging scores of smuggling tunnels along the route, and it has also been the scene of several bombings and terrorist attacks.Relinquishing responsibility for securing the route to Egypt would give the government of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak more clout in its growing alliance with the PA. The proposal came as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon expressed his dissatisfaction with PA security forces' willingness to prevent terror attacks in Gaza. Terrorists continued last week with shooting attacks on IDF soldiers and mortar shells against Jewish communities on a daily basis. Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz noted that during this past week alone, which has been touted as a quiet one, there were 55 terror attacks or attempts. Egypt also has suggested that if the planned summit at Sharm a-Sheikh Tuesday concludes amicably, Cairo will return its ambassador to Israel. |
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MIM: Prime Dhimmi Sharon is rewarded by Mubarak with this 'puff piece' in the Arab 'Der Sturmer' for letting Egypt over see terrorists arms smuggling into Gaza.
Mubarak promotes a gentler Sharon
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1108783753939
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon granted an interview Thursday night to an Egyptian newspaper that two-and-a-half years ago depicted a Star of David made out of two snakes whose heads were those of Sharon and Shimon Peres.
The interview with Al-Ahram – which for years has been viciously anti-Semitic, anti-Israel and anti-Sharon, but which recently has toned down its attacks – appeared Saturday.
The request to grant the interview came, according to sources in Jerusalem, from the "very highest" echelons in Egypt.
According to diplomatic officials, the interview in Al-Ahram was part of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's attempt to change the public perceptions of both Sharon and Israel in Egypt to pave the way for closer relations.
Sharon, for his part, praised Mubarak in the two-hour Hebrew interview, which was conducted in Sharon's office in Jerusalem by one of the paper's reporters in Gaza.
Al-Ahram has an estimated 10 million readers, and is considered one of the most important and influential newspapers in the Arab world. "There are excellent relations between me and President Mubarak, which are going forward," Sharon said.
The interview, the first Sharon has granted to a newspaper in the Arab world, "is part of the warming-up of relations with Egypt," one official in his office said.
The depiction of the Star of David as a snake was only one example of the virulently anti-Semitic content that has appeared in the paper.
Other examples include a 2002 cartoon showing the picture of a religious Jew, an Israeli tank and a dog-headed Israeli soldier under the heading, "Pawns of the Devil" and an editorial later that year that read: "The Jews act like thieves in the night and strive to destroy the societies in which they live. They are the offspring of snakes whose external characteristics are conspicuous: they are short and have hooked noses."
Sharon said in the interview that Egypt was doing more than in the past to stop arms smuggling into Gaza. Egypt is expected to deploy some 750 troops along the border within the next couple of months.
"If the smuggling stops, it would please me a great deal to withdraw from this place," Sharon said, in a reference to the Philadelphi Route. "If this movement succeeds, we can certainly discuss the deployment of forces such as those Egyptian border guards along the whole length of the border to Eilat," he said.
Sharon repeated what he has told Israeli and international audiences on numerous occasions in the past, but which has not filtered into the Arab press where he is often depicted as a warmonger: That he understood the cost of war and was willing to make painful concessions for the sake of real peace, but not when it came to Israel's security.
Sharon said his participation in all of Israel's wars meant he believed and understood the importance of peace better than other politicians who talked about peace but didn't have his experience. It was important, he said, that his generation took responsibility for pushing the peace process forward.
Sharon said a Palestinian state was possible, but only if the Palestinians realized that terrorism would not be the vehicle for such a state. Asked if the state would be realized during his term in office, Sharon responded by saying that he had no intention of leaving office in the near term.
He said he had the impression that Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas was ready to reach calm, security and a settlement. In this, he said, Egypt's role was very important.
The real dangers Abbas faced, Sharon said, were Syria, Hizbullah and Iran, which he said were the center of regional terrorism.
Sharon said Syria was a problem for the whole region because it provided training and refuge to Iraqi and Palestinian terrorists. He said he hoped Syria would one day make efforts to stop terrorism, and then it could sit down with Israel and each side could put its demands on the table.
Sharon also said that he gave orders following the Sharm e-Sheikh summit two weeks ago to coordinate the Gaza disengagement plan with the PA to ensure the Israeli withdrawal from the strip was calm. He said he also wanted to ensure that the areas Israel withdrew from were handed over to the PA and did not fall into the hands of terror organizations such as Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.
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Sunday, March 27, 2005
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=79103
(IsraelNN.com) Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz today charged that Palestinian Authority (PA) intelligence personnel were involved in smuggling anti-aircraft missiles through tunnels along the Philadelphi Route that borders Egypt and Israel.
Israel has demanded that the PA find the missiles, according to Mofaz. The smuggling of the Strela missiles "crosses the red line" even though the PA has exposed several smuggling tunnels, the defense minister added.
This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/451