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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (16769)	1/18/2002 4:43:03 PM
From: BigBull	Respond to of 281500

And lets not forget the "Terror Summits" hosted by Iran in Teheran and Lebanon(?) last Spring/Summer.

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (16769)	1/18/2002 5:19:38 PM
From: Bilow	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Hi Nadine Carroll; Re Egyptian reaction to the capture of the Karine A; Unlike 9/11, this is recent enough, and has a unique enough search term (i.e. "Karine") that I can search for links in egyptian sites for the news. There is only one hit so far, but this will increase with time as Google gets around to updating its search results. I'll put the search link (for Egyptian news re the Karine) here: google.com Here's a list of websites for various Arabic newspapers: egypt.net The one hit I got in Egypt does not support Daniel Pipes and Jonathan Schanzer's implied contention that the Egyptian media took the Palestinian claims of innocence hook line and sinker: "... The Palestinian leadership denied all charges, as did Iran and Hizbullah. The line rather was that the Karine-A affair was a piece of Israeli 'theatre' aimed at snagging Zinni's mission before it had begun. ..." web1.ahram.org.eg For those who are English - challenged regarding the meaning of the word "line" in the above, try this one: "Line: 24. Informal. Glib or insincere talk, usually intended to deceive* or impress: He kept on handing me a line about how busy he is." dictionary.com More hits from the above newspaper for "Karine": A dangerous mind set* Nevine Khalil, Al-Ahram, January 17-23, 2002 ... While inaugurating the Cairo Telecomp Expo on Monday, Mubarak mocked Israeli accounts of the Karine A's alleged voyage: "First, the information said that the ship would cross the Suez Canal towards Al-Arish -- as if Al-Arish is Micronesia and nobody would know anything -- and then small boats would take the weapons to Gaza -- which by the way is constantly [monitored] by the Israeli navy. The next day, they said that it will be heading to Alexandria where the cargo would be transferred in smaller boats -- as if Egypt would not know anything about Alexandria either. Then they surprised us by saying that the ship was seized in the Red Sea and headed for [the Israeli port of] Eilat. Is this information true? Was it heading to the PA like they say, or another destination? Might this all be a fabrication? The matter is unclear and their statements are confused." ... web1.ahram.org.eg Targeting Tehran Galal Nassar, Ahram.org, January 17-23, 2002 Israel is waging a diplomatic offensive to persuade the US administration that Iran should be next on the "war against terror" hit list. Galal Nassar assesses the implications. web1.ahram.org.eg ... Another is the story of the Karine A, which was seized by Israel in the Red Sea en route from Iran to an unknown destination with 50 tons of weapons on board. Sharon claims the ship was transporting the weapons to terrorist Palestinian organisations, while Washington says intelligence reports indicate they were being sent to Hizbullah in Lebanon, thus exposing Iran as another player in the Middle East equation. ... web1.ahram.org.eg The fact is that the Egyptian people believe that it is perfectly natural that the Palestinians would want to arm themselves. They think that the Palestinians need to defend themselves from Israel. Why would they be in denial about what the Karine-A was doing? Of course they're not in denial. And it's hardly a big surprise that the Egyptians don't trust what the Israelis say. What you don't realize is that by illustrating this sort of thing you're simply making it more certain that the United States is going to give up on you. The more enemies that Israel has, and the more intransigent those enemies are, the higher the cost to the US to support Israel. The massacre you're afraid of is not something that the US (or anybody else other than Israel) really cares about, as any reading of history will clearly demonstrate. Afghanistan has riveted US attention on the Middle East. As long as the only people who cared about the Middle East were a few policy wonks it was possible for a relatively small group of Israeli supporters to tilt US policy towards Israel. But with the increased attention brought by the WTC, everyone is paying attention now, and the inevitable result will be a decision to disengage. The problem is that you have an impossible task in convincing Bilow to take a bullet for Israel. Going on and on about the immorality of the other side is a useless waste of time, in addition to being unconvincing. I suppose you've begun to notice this slow change already, just a few months after the WTC. It will take 5 years to reach completion, so you shouldn't be in too big of a rush to decide what to do. -- Carl