International Women's day Delegation turned away by Egypt

The Lesson? When your plans call for travel through areas dominated by despotic regimes, buy travelers insurance.  You'd think Code Pink would have figured that out by now. They've been detained by Egypt before

Egypt has deported nearly 100 Gaza-bound activists, en route to Gaza for International Woman's day. Egypt controls the Rafah border crossing into Gaza

Anti-Israel activists Mairead Maguire and Medea Benjamin were deported earlier this week. Additionally, eleven women were sent back to Istanbul,  22 to Paris and six to Frankfurt.  65 activists have been deported over the past 24 hours. 

There are reports of a sit-in, or perhaps a stand-in by the unclear on the concept delegates, being staged at the Cairo Airport

Why were these women heading to Gaza?  Were they planning to stand in solidarity with the women of Gaza against the  oppressive Hamas regime?  Were they protesting polygamy, under-aged marriages, forced marriages, forced veilings,  honor killings? Were they protesting the poverty and domestic violence that characterizes many women's Lives in Gaza?

“Women’s rights in Gaza are regressing. Many decisions are being passed in secret and only become public by chance, such as the decision to destroy curriculum books that are thought to be morally corrupting, in addition to the imposition of the hijab in schools and the prohibition of female participation in folklore dancing. When Hamas officials are asked about these matters, they always end up finding shallow justifications,” said feminist activist Dunia al-Amal Ismail.

Ismail contends that whenever women call for change and an improvement in their social situation, they are asked to put their demands on hold under the pretext that it is not the right time; the people are fighting the Israeli occupation. Ismail, however, notes dangerous changes being made by the government pertaining to the endorsement of the penal code without informing the feminist movement. Causes like gender equality are seen as a western product and feminist movements are thought to contradict Islamic feminism. “Accusations are heaped upon the feminist movement, even though the struggle it led — on the level of amending laws and imposing quotas for women — has ushered in the participation of Hamas’ women in the legislative council,” she added...

The regression of the situation of women in the Gaza Strip is not only obvious to female activists, but it is also clear from the figures of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics for 2011. A total of 15% of families with a female majority suffer from extreme poverty in the Palestinian lands, with a rate of 20.6% in the Gaza Strip and 12.5% in the West Bank. In 2011, the unemployment rate among women reached 28.4% in the Palestinian lands compared to 13.8% in 2001.

No, they weren't. This has never been about addressing the real issues that women in Gaza face. International Women's Day - any day, and every day is just another reason for groups like Code pink to bash Israel.

Is Code Pink's Medea Benjamin in jail in Egypt?

I'd have a hard time believing anything spoken, emailed or tweeted from the likes of Code Pink, but even a broken clock is right twice a day. With that in mind, I present "Code Pink goes to jail"

A series of tweets from anti-Israel activist Medea Benjamin(nee Susan Benjamin- yes, she re-named herself after a character in Greek mythology best known for slaughtering her own children)  implies that she is behind bars in Egypt.

 The activist community already had a big laugh at Code pink, who recently used an Israeli platform, Wix to design a website promoting their trip to Gaza. BDS fail, girls.

Fresh from her aborted attempt to disrupt the AIPAC 2014 conference,  Medea apparently flew to Egypt. It was supposed to be a brief a pit stop before journeying on to Gaza for "International Woman's Day".

She's since tweeted  "I'm supposed to go w women's delegation to Gaza via Egypt but Egyptians put me in jail at airport".  Ooops.

Apparently the multimillionaire co-founder of global Exchange does not find the accommodations to her liking.

And the room service is terrible

And because its Code Pink,  they strategize on line, on twitter, so the world can see.

After all, no one in Egypt has ever heard of Twitter.

Alli McCracken, who is so dumb its painful then announces to the world. There are more coming.  Oops.

Its hard for me to muster up any sympathy. After all, Gaza needs Code Pink like a lamb needs a wooly blanket.  Gaza is doing quite well without them.




UPDATE:

Medea Benjamin has been deported to Turkey. A press release issued by Code Pink states she was treated "brutally" by Egyptian authorities.

Mossad Agent captured in Egypt

An elite avian Mossad agent has been captured by Egypt.
As reported from Ahramonline:

Egypt’s police put a duck under arrest late Friday as a device was found attached to its feathers, fueling accusations that it might have been used for espionage, Al-Ahram Arabic-language news website reported.

According to Al-Ahram's Arabic site, a fisherman in the Nile River of Egypt’s southern governorate Qena caught the accused bird, which was among a group of five ducks waddling in the freshwater.

The fisherman became suspicious that the device on the duck's body could be used for spying, prompting him to hand over the bird to the Coalition of Arab Tribes in Qena, who in turn filed a police report.

An anonymous security official told Ahram Online on Saturday that security and environmental experts are currently examining the device in order to determine its intended purposes and whether or not the little bird has repeated national secrets to anyone.

Nearly immediately after, Zionist shills beseiged the twitter website, in an effort to cover up this fowl deed

Breaking: Qena police releases photo of #Spyduck. V @CairoGossip pic.twitter.com/Tq40eMe7Ze
— The Big Pharaoh (@TheBigPharaoh) August 31, 2013

Subsequent reports later identified the agent as a migratory Stork.  He remains behind bars. Qena is on quackdown, and residents have been urged to report suspicious waterfowl to the authorities.

Mossad Spy Stork

As Egypt Burns, Who is blamed?

Why take responsibility for your own conflict when the United States and Israel are just such convenient scapegoats?   

More Antisemitism in the Arab Media

Let My People Go? Egypt plagued by Locusts

We can only wonder what is next in store for Egypt.  A swarm of locusts estimated 30 million strong  is plaguing the region south of Cairo  and is doing massive damage to local agriculture

From the Jewish Press

Passover is not due for another three weeks, give or take a day, but in Egypt they’re already reporting a plague of locusts that’s hitting the agricultural farms in Giza. some 15 miles southwest of Cairo—also known for its cluster of pyramids. Can’t get much more Exodus-related than that.

According to Alwatan News, Egyptian minister of agriculture Dr. Salah Abd Al Mamon has remarked that “against our predictions, a swarm of locusts has reached the region south of Cairo. The swarm is comprised of 30 million individuals, and it is causing great damage to agriculture in the Giza area.”

Dr. Al Mamon added that “Egyptian armed forces and the border guards are attempting to fight the swarm with the means at their disposal.” He requested local residents not to launch their own attempts to stop the swarm, so as not to cause additional damage unintentionally.

“I ask the families living in the locust-plagued areas not to burn tires. This does not chase away the locusts, but only causes damage and could ignite large scale fires that would cost in lives.”

Dr. Al Mamon noted that, based on meteorological data, strong winds that are expect to start soon which will take the locusts with them towards the Red Sea and Saudi Arabia.

Egyptian Team Breaks Adidas Boycott. BDS fail?

Adidas is now being targeted by the BDS'ers for having the unmitigated audacity to have sponsored last month's Jerusalem marathon. Truly a war crime.

The boycott was announced by Saudi Prince Nawaf bin Faisal, chairman of the Arab council of youth and sports ministers and was quickly broken by Egypt, whose team, the "Pharaohs" had nothing else to wear.

From Ahram Online:
"We have no choice but to wear Adidas in the UAE camp as we don’t have any other outfits," the Egyptian national team's Executive Director Samir Adly told Ahram Online...
Earlier this month, Saudi Prince Nawaf Bin Faisal, chairman of the Arab Council of Youth and Sports Ministers, announced during the council’s meeting in Jeddah that "all companies that have sponsored the marathon in Jerusalem, including Adidas, will be boycotted."

From Arutz Sheva
"The head of the Palestinian Authority’s Olympic Committee, Jibril Rajoub said that the boycott will send a clear message to all those who think that the Israeli occupation of Jerusalem can be supported. He added that Jerusalem would remain a Muslim and a Christian city.

Rajoub added that the Jerusalem Marathon “was a provocation to all Arabs living in the city.”

Hamas sets up rocket production line in Sinai

From an article by Yaakov Katz, published in J Post

Hamas has established forward bases and rocket production facilities in the Sinai Peninsula in an effort to protect them from Israeli air strikes, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

By establishing the facilities in Egypt, Hamas aims to protect its assets since it believes Israel will not strike targets inside Egypt due to the affect it would have on bilateral relations.

Israel has called on Cairo to increase its efforts to restore order in Sinai and to prevent attacks, but the Egyptian military has held back from dismantling the Hamas infrastructure in the peninsula.

More than a dozen Egyptian army battalions allowed into Sinai with Israel’s permission (required because of limits placed on Egyptian forces there under the peace treaty) are still operating there, although with limited success in stopping terrorist activity and arms smuggling to the Gaza Strip.

Recent arms smuggled into Gaza have included advanced weaponry stolen from Libyan military storehouses such as Russian- made shoulder-to-air missiles.

Israel’s primary concern with Sinai is that it is being used by Palestinians to launch attacks into Israel while taking advantage of the open southern border.

Read the full article here

The Right To Make And Eat Felafel

Over at Anne's Opinions, she's tearing up Guardian Israel correspondent Harriet Sherwood. Most of the piece is about coverage of the new anti-BDS legislation, but she added something else that caught my Jewish foodie eye. Anne writes:

In a similar, and totally related, development, Harriet Sherwood reports on McDonald’s withdrawing its McFalafel from Israeli restaurants due to its unpopularity.

So far so tasty.

Then she scrambles her omelette by adding in this nasty little aside right at the end:

"Falafel is thought to have originated in Egypt, although Israel now claims it as a national dish."

Oh! Those thieving Israelis! Not only content to steal other people’s land, now they go and steal other people’s foods! They can claim it as their national dish but we liberal-minded people know better.

Once again Sherwood betrays her bias by inserting an unrelated dig at Israel.

May she stew in her own falafel oil.

This sort of tripe is not uncommon with anti-Zionist types. Assuming as they do that Israelis plopped into the Middle East like Martians from outer space, they are constantly on the lookout for examples of appropriated Middle Eastern foods and such, in order to better define Israelis as fundamentally inauthentic and nonindigenous. I thought I should add a note at Anne's blog, reproduced below:

Lemme ‘splain, Harriet. In 1948, Egypt had 75,000 Jews. Currently, it has less than a hundred. Most of those people headed to Israel, after state persecution and confiscation of their property. In 1956, the Minister of Religious affairs announced that ‘all Jews are Zionists and enemies of the state’, and promised to expel them. Almost no one managed to stay after the 1967 war.

In Israel, these fine people continued to make felafel, and along with other Jews from the region popularized it with the multicultural population of the new nation.

Now, of course, not only is their right of return to Egypt not a potent talking point with left-wing pundits, but even their right to make and eat felafel is apparently up for grabs.

Eejit.

The "New Egypt" Looks A Lot Like The Old Egypt

After years of hostility, it looks as though the new Egyptian government may finally simply not allow Jewish worshippers into Egypt for a hilula at the grave of Rabbi Yisrael Abuhatzeira.


"After the January 25 revolution, which toppled over the Hosni Mubarak regime, the Jews will not be allowed to enter Demito any more and endanger the public morals and hurt the feelings of its 5,000 residents," Moustafa Rasslan, a lawyer, said.

He called on the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), which has been ruling the country since February 11, to enforce a 2001 court ruling that compelled the Culture Ministry, responsible for the site where the annual gathering takes place in late December and early January, to cancel the Abu Hasira celebrations all together.

"If the SCAF does not enforce the ruling, Damito residents will not allow the Jews come to their village to attend the week-long Abu Hasira Mulid (festival), where they used to behave in a way that contradicts Islamic traditions and public morals under the very nose of security officials of the ousted regime," he said.

Yeah, those guys up there look like a pretty raunchy bunch. Terrifying, really.

A few days after Mubarak went down, a young man yelled at me (as a representative Zionist) on the Berkeley campus that now that Egyptians were free, they were 'free to hate you'. He was, of course, quite correct. Foolish of me, I suppose, to hope that for once a people might gain freedom without attacking the Jews first thing.