Is Egypt benefiting financially from the plight of the people of Gaza?

[Iqbal Tamimi]

The wheelchairs brought by the convoy to the disabled in Gaza

By Iqbal Tamimi
1/11/2009

No one understands why the Egyptian authorities are insisting on making any effort to help the Gaza people a total misery.

The humanitarian convoy ‘Miles of Smiles’ that is bringing aid to disabled people in Gaza is made of many good ordinary people who abandoned their jobs and home comforts to bring some help to the needy in Gaza, yet since 3 weeks they are held in Port Said in Egypt and forced to pay a $5.000 fine every single day for being on an Egyptian ‘floor’ even though they are held and delayed by the Egyptian authorities.

The Egyptian authorities are insisting that the convoy should only go by sea to AlAreesh instead of the usual path of previous convoys. Even though there is no reason what so ever that they should not be allowed to go by land.

The convoy members proposed to the Egyptian authorities that they can travel at night and load the aid in big trucks, but they were refused such permission.
The convoy also offered to cover all the vehicles just in case the Egyptian authorities are worried that Israel would know that Egypt is helping the disabled and the needy in Gaza, or should the authorities were worried that such convoy will gain the emotional support and momentum from the local Egyptians who are frustrated by their own government's policies, but they were refused such solution as well.
They also offered to go in individual vehicles one at a time and not as a convoy, and their request was denied too.
They even proposed that instead of paying $100.000 cost fee just to go through the sea from Port Saed to AlAreesh, that they can donate $30.000-£40.000 for any local charity project in Port Said, and be allowed to continue their trip by land, but the Egyptian authorities also refused this proposal and said NO.

Every single solution proposed by the humanitarian aid group ' Mile of Smiles' was rejected by the Egyptian authorities.

All the above proposals were refused by the Egyptian government, even though the same people on the convoy came earlier in June along with the 'Hope' convoy and entered then from Rafah.
The Egyptian authorities also allowed the convoy of George Galloway to go through the same route only two months ago, what is going on? Why they are tightening their fists on every help coming to Gaza?
Is Egypt benefiting financially and economically and politically from the Gaza plight? By the way does anyone know how much money was pouring in Egypt through fining the convoys? Pricing the supplies that are bought in Egypt? The expenses and costs those humanitarian convoy members have paid on stamps and living cost day by day? Thousands of people came to help Gaza through Egypt and held against their will in Egypt for long periods...does anyone have a calculator guys?
I would love to receive any comments on such costs.
Shame on those whose pockets' swell with money out of the misery of the hungry, the poor, the homeless and the disabled.

[ko shin, Bob Hanson]

yes of course this all is so mixed up and lacking in justice!

[Sami Joseph]

Thank you Sami Jadallah for your comment. Admittedly, the Egyptian army was ill prepared for 1967 but Israel would have attacked irrespective of anything any Arab leader had done or not done. All Arab leaders are no differtent than their counterparts in the western world; they are all spineless and dare not oppose Zionist designs and whims. The Zionists specialise in fabricating excuses; always relying on corroboration by the major western powers. As a proof of what I am saying, Israel's war on Iraq by its proxies, was justified by the claim of existence of fictitious WMDs!!! Blair even told the British parliament that Iraq had the means of delivery of WMDs to London within 45 minutes! Palestinians of my age group predicted as far back as 1979 that Israel had the jitters when Iraq was perceived to be winning the war with Iran and suspected that in consequence it will make plans to destroy Iraq. Regrettably, disunity in Arab ranks enables Israel to pick and chose its victims.

[Sami Jamil Jadallah]

Sami. When as a leader you know the enemy was preparing for war, you should be careful not to provoke an incident knowing well that your leadership, your troops and your army are not ready. Nasser was reckless. He knew his army was a tiger army, corrupt and incompetent from top down and is no match for the Israeli army. Why get caught with your pants down. Nasser knew his military leadership was unfit and yet he was afraid to face up to "Marshal" Abdul-Hakeem Amer who failed in Syria and yet he did not replace him. His army was routed out of Sinai left defenseless. Why should we give excuses to these failed leadership. Nasser presided over a failed state. He was a good talker but his government was failing at every corner. Generals who failed in their own fields could and should never be trusted to run ministries, trains, factories etc. They were unable to even run a brigade right. Nasser did not learn from his war in Yemen, and he knew his army was not ready, yet he took a reckless risk.. tried to cover it up with claims that America joined the war with Israel. His army simply lost because they were ill trained and with incompetent command. Same is true of Saddam and his "Mother of all Battles" too bad it took the American to catch him, he should have been put on trial by his own people after the First Gulf War. No need to ever give Arab leaders excuses they had too many for too long.

[Sami Joseph]

In a nutshell, the mind boggles. The Egyptian regime is under intense Zio/US pressure. Its stance vis-a-vis the people of Gaza stems from cowardice and is, of course, disgraceful to say the least. Briefly, no good blaming Nasser for what happened in 1967. All Zionist wars are NOT the result of provocation. Their plans to occupy the rest of Palestine must have been in place right from the day Israel came into existence, if not much earlier. Watch 10-minute video at:
http://ww3zionism.blogspot.com/2009/10/protocols-of-learned-elders-of-zion-12.html
for an informative presentation of how well in advance they planned and achieved (western) world domination. Lastly, let us hope the good people of Egypt will do something to faicilate the channeling of aid to the Palestinian in Gaza.

[Sami Jamil Jadallah]

Yes, I do hold the Egyptian leadership of Nasser totally responsible for the loss of Jerusalem and the loss of what remained of Palestine, Golan Heights and Sinai. It is this reckless, incompetent and inept leadership that failed in the 67 War should have been put on trial and executed for such a massive crime against the Arab people. And yes, I do hold Egypt as a partner in the conspiracy with Ramallah, Israel and the US for the siege of Gaza, but most of all I hold the PLO/Fatah leadership together with Egypt responsible for the their reckless self serving role in the Protocols to Manage Gaza Access that allowed Israel to keep the squeeze of Gaza after Israel deployed its forces. The Gaza Access Protocols were as treasonous as the Oslo Accord and those responsible for both should be put on trial. And yes, I do hold Hamas leadership responsible for its reckless and irresponsible leadership, the same leadership that allowed the continuing firing of the useless worthless Qassam rockets knowing that Israel was gaining lots of mileage out of these, knowing well that these rockets did not do any mentionable damage while putting Gaza at great risk. The same leadership that decided after Israel destroyed Gaza to stop the firing of these rockets. I also hold Hamas leadership responsible for its reckless behavior of announcing the public open air graduations of its police academy knowing Israel was about to attack thus contributing to the cold blooded murder of dozen innocent police graduates. And yes the Palestinians are simply inept and not ready to rule and manage their own affairs. Salam Fayyad announced few weeks ago he was building institutions for a new independent state within 2 years. My question what were the PLO and Fatah doing all of these years? We know they failed at liberation and they failed at building viable credible competent institutions of governenance and Fayyad statements and declaration proved that. The fact that Hamas was able to end the mayhems on the streets of Gaza does not mean it was able to build viable institutions of governance. A nation and a leadership that base its power and authority on militias and armed thugs do not build nations. That is why after years of PLO/Fatah and after few years of Hamas, the people need an international trusteeship to save them from Israel, from Hamas and Fatah. It is time to be self-critical and not give excuses for reckless behavior and incompetence. Simply take a look at the well dressed healthy looking Hamas spokesperson speaking behind anointed desks to think that there are no 45,000 people left homeless.

[jerry gates]

Sami Jamil Jadallah seems to blame Palestinian leadership for the loss of East Jerusalem due to their inability to govern? While even Haniyeh would readily admit that when his party won so heavily in the US forced election, he and others were taken aback by their new responsibilities, but if supported by the US Egypt, Jordan and Israel in their Islamic form and asked politely to make adjustments in their charter statement before assuming power, Hamas would have risen to the occaision as any other party assuming power in any nation,slowly and carfully.

Whay Jadallah.s comment misses is the conspiracy that Israel perpetrated to oust Hamas by starvation since this election. EU, UK US Russia, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Canada are sychophants for Israel and always heel to the dogma, as Sami Jadallah does, of Palestinian inability to rule. This, in my opinion, is a very shortsighted statement that takes to consideration of what Muslim rule looks like or how it works in it's democratic form. Hamas runs and rules Gaza now, with little outsode help, no free trade and no alliance with major powers as Israel has or Egypt, and this is the difference between success and failure.

My question for Sami Jadallah is if Egypt had not signed a treaty and cooperation agreement with the US and Israel, made provisions to accept their funding, steering committees in intituions and univercities and accepted terms of agreement to undermine any Islamic Brotherhood assimilation into governance leadership, where would Egypt be today? Would this nnation be as Paletine is today if it had not yielded to pressure from France, Israel and the USA to turn against the brotherhood, Islam and the caliphate dream for the Middle east? EWgypt's Hosni Mubarack is NOT FIT TO RULE.

Netenyahu is NOT FIT TO RULE

Sarkozy NOT FIT TO RULE

Saudi princes, NOT FIT TO RULE

When these nations admit that they are ruled by proxy and funded by complicity, It becomes apparent , at least to me, that Hamas, Hezbollah and the Islamic Muslim brotherhood do rule in these nations in terms of spirituality, functional support for the people and represent the true voices of the people as Hamas does,

The West and Jadallah need to do a gut check and ask themselves if leadership is selling ones nation to devils and corruption or guiding people through turmoil born of such corruption and graft. It makes my furious when a western stooge for US military intelligence presents a case where Arab Palestinians are 'Unfit to rule" Bullshit!

The US and Israel MURDERED and imprisoned the leadership of Palestine . If this cut throat evil had been perpetrated in the US congress, would Obama be fit to rule??? You people make me sick!!

[pam hardyment]

and I guess they will benefit from the three events about to happen, shame on Egypt who with Jordan stand propping up Israel's faltering stance, I do not understand why they do this

[Sami Jamil Jadallah]

No doubt. Egypt was and is part of the siege of Gaza from day one. it allowed the entry of thousands of well armed and well equipped Fatah unites to enter Gaza as part of an American/Israeli/Ramallah plan to crush Hamas and prevent Hamas from ever governing after winning the election. Of course $57 millions of American money to train and equip Fatah went down the drain when Hamas took over and Fatah militia ran away, some to Egypt, and many to Israel. Egypt will never allow any government that come close to resemble the Muslim Brotherhood to rule Gaza and as such Egypt is like the US not an impartial broker, and is biased in favor of Ramallah and Fatah. The siege of Gaza was negotiated between Israel, Ramallah and Egypt and one needs to go back to the protocol signed for the access to Gaza after Israel decided to leave Gaza and to seal its borders. Too bad Hamas fell into the trap and now it is too benefiting from hundred of millions of dollars in smuggling operation and Hamas is using income from these proceeds to finance its own militia. Hamas is acting no different than Fatah when Fatah ran Gaza. Both are operating a racketeering and protection operations. A leadership responsible for the loss of Jerusalem putting some 3.5 million Palestinians under virtual prison due to its incompetency and reckless behavior could not be trusted. That is why Egypt is the wrong address for any reconciliations between Hamas and Fatah. That is why I always called for placing the entire Occupied Territories, the West Bank and Gaza under an international Trusteeship similar to Kosovo. The PLO, Fatah and Hamas are simply unfit and unqualified, self serving militias and mafia, and could not be trusted with the future of the Palestinian people. Of course not only Egypt is benefiting from the smuggling operations, but Hamas as well.