ELECTION 2008 | The Pub | The Field Mess | The Staff College | Bookmark WAB



Go Back   World Affairs Board > International Strategic Affairs > Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Register FAQ WAB RSS Feed Forum GuidelinesMembers List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Greetings, and welcome to the World Affairs Board!

The World Affairs Board is one of the premier forums for the discussion of the pressing geopolitical issues of our time. Topics include foreign & defense policy, international security, military developments, weapons proliferation, terrorism, international strategic affairs, and politics. Our membership includes many from military, defense industry, and government backgrounds with expert knowledge on a wide range of topics. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so why not register a World Affairs Board account and join our community today?
Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Rate Thread Display Modes
Old 02-24-2008, 02:52 AM   #1 (permalink)
Ironduke
Burgomaster
 
Join Date: 08-02-03
Location: Minneapolis
Posts: 6,662
Country:
Hamas discusses Gaza-Egypt border

Quote:
Hamas discusses Gaza-Egypt border

A Hamas delegation has been meeting security officials in Egypt to discuss future arrangements for the control of the Egypt-Gaza border.

The Palestinians, led by former Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahhar, are trying to come to an agreement with Egypt over the contentious frontier.

It was the third such meeting between the two sides in the past two weeks.

Gazans poured into Egypt last month when the border fence was breached by Palestinian militants.

They streamed across the border in their hundreds of thousands to buy goods before the fence was eventually re-sealed.

For several hours on Saturday, shopkeepers across the Gaza Strip kept their stores closed as part of a strike protesting against the continuing Israeli blockade of the territory.

Three dead in airstrike

Egypt and Israel severely restricted access to Gaza following the take-over of the territory by Hamas last year.

Meanwhile, three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli missile strike in the Gaza Strip.

Israel says it targeted militants in the attack, but local people said the three were civilians.

The incident happened near Beit Hanoun, in the northern Gaza Strip.

Palestinian militants regularly fire rockets from Gaza into Israeli territory.
BBC NEWS | Middle East | Hamas discusses Gaza-Egypt border
__________________
The Buck Stops Here
Ironduke is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 02-24-2008, 08:20 AM   #2 (permalink)
captain
Patron
 
captain's Avatar
 
Join Date: 06-19-07
Location: South Australia
Posts: 195
Country:
It would appear that some in Egypt are not very impressed with their muslim brothers from Gaza.

Below is a transcript of a TV interview with retired Egyptian General Hussam Sweilem.

Some of the things he is claiming about the Gazans I have not heard before and of particular interest is his claim that the gate crashers were paying for goods with counterfeit dollars. Hamas must be indulging in some cottage industry, and to what extent I wonder.

If the views of the General are indicative of The Egyptian authorities, I would doubt Hamas will gain much ground with Egypt so what will Hamas do next and how much are they prepared to let their own people suffer?



Quote:
February 6, 2008 Clip No. 1685

Retired Egyptian General Hussam Sweilem Slams Hamas for Destroying Egyptian Border and Warns of Extremist Religious Regimes Neighboring with Egypt

Following are excerpts from an interview with retired Egyptian general Hussam Sweilem, which aired on Al-Al-Mihwar TV on February 6, 2008.

General Hussam Sweilem: The most important issue today is the organized crime that came from across the border. This is a violation of Egypt's sanctity, a transgression of its borders, which [Hamas] has called "the great raid." They called the transgression of our borders "a raid"...

Interviewer: Who did?

General Hussam Sweilem: Those Hamas members from Hamastan.

[...]

Interviewer: Why is it a crime, if these people came to buy medical supplies, and to look for food?

General Hussam Sweilem: How would you explain that the people who got into Egypt... We allowed them in, but they violated Egypt's sanctity, and entered our country with bulldozers, and then with men wearing masks from the 'Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades... Those are Hamas members, not the Palestinian people... But it was completely organized. It was organized four months ago, not now.

[...]

How can I sympathize with people who smuggled into Egypt cars with explosives belts, weapons, ammunitions, and explosive devices? How can I sympathize with a man with an explosives belt at Bani Sweif? What's he planning to do with his explosives belt there? Two [Palestinians] were arrested with explosives at Bani Sweif. What, they were going to fight the Jews at Bani Sweif? Is this proper Islamic behavior, with which I can sympathize, when they break into homes of women at Al-'Arish and Rafah, and attack Egyptian women for not allowing them to sleep in their homes? Who would allow a stranger to break into his home, when there are women there? How can I sympathize with someone who detonated an explosives device in Rafah? How can I sympathize with them, when after taking all the goods from the shops of the Egyptians, they paid with counterfeit dollars?

[...]

I sympathize with the people, but not with Hamas, because this was a criminal act. They should get it into their heads that the road to Jerusalem does not pass through Al-'Arish.

[...]

[Khaled Mash'al said] that the Palestinian refugees who entered Al-'Arish would only leave Egypt to the liberated and independent Palestine. They are talking about a Palestine from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River, not to a Palestine with the 1967 borders. They would only leave to a liberated and independent Palestine, and they would only return [to Palestine] along with all the refugees living in Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq. So they got in, and they will not leave before the Palestinian issue is resolved, Palestine is liberated and Israel is driven into the sea.

Interviewer: How many years will it take?

General Hussam Sweilem: It depends on their ability to launch Qassam rockets... Mash'al also said that the attempt to get the Palestinians out of the Nahr Al-Bared refugee camp failed. Nahr Al-Bared in Lebanon is where Fath Al-Islam attacked the Lebanese army. He is implying that our attempts to get the Palestinians back to Gaza will also fail. This is nonsense, uttered by a man who is hallucinating. He also said that if a Palestinian sets up a tent anywhere, nobody on the face of the earth would be able to force him to take it out. That's just great! Nobody would be able to take it out... Do you know what the size of Palestine was in the Partition Resolution of 1949? The Palestinians got 55% of the land, and Israel got 45%. Today, Israel controls 70% of the land of Palestine. They didn't just uproot tents – they uprooted the entire Palestinian people.

[...]

If you recall, before Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, Fatah was present in South Lebanon. Do you know what they used to call it? "Fatahland." Now they want to establish a "Hamasland" in Al-'Arish.

[...]

The only thing that interests Hamas is to establish what it calls the "Islamic Emirate" in Gaza, even if only on the 360 square kilometers of Gaza. 'Issam Al-'Arian [of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood] said that sooner or later, Hamas would take over the West Bank, which is now controlled by the Palestinian Authority from Ramallah, and thus, Hamas would control the area that the PA and Fatah control now. 'Issam Al-'Arian, the political advisor of the Muslim brotherhood, said this recently. You must understand that the main issue is the establishment of an Islamic mini-state, or an emirate, east of Egypt, and I don't want to talk about what the Muslim Brotherhood does on the West.

[...]

Interviewer: I have doubts about [Mash'al's] mental stability if he says they should stay in Egypt for 50 years, and return with the refugees...

General Hussam Sweilem: That is nonsense, uttered by somebody who has lost his mind. Unfortunately, some Egyptians sympathize with all this, and say: Why not let them in? Why not let them stay in Sinai? Why not give them food and drink? According to this logic, he has the right to do so.

[...]

Egypt must build a defensive fence with depth – not a simple fence like there is now, but several fences, one after the other, in order to prevent the recurrence of what happened on January 23. We must completely prevent this. We must be able to protect ourselves if these things recur in the future. We must be suspicious toward Hamas and all the extremist religious organizations around Egypt. Do not forget that in 1995, we didn't take seriously Hassan Al-Turabi's extremist religious regime south of Egypt [in Sudan]. What was the outcome? They threatened to cut off the water of the Nile, they sent trucks full of weapons from Sudan to Egypt, and they demanded to annex Halaeb and Shalatin. Do you remember this? We sent our forces to deal with that. Then there was the assassination attempt on President Mubarak in Addis Ababa. All this happened because we didn't take seriously the extremist religious regimes bordering with us. What happened in Sudan is happening again, with an extremist religious regime [in Gaza], which wants to establish an Islamic emirate. We know that Hassan Al-Turabi had an Islamic party in Sudan. That is exactly what Hamas is doing. They want to establish an Islamic emirate. This must not be allowed!




Close
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is an independent, non-profit organization providing translations of the Middle East media and original analysis and research on developments in the region. Copies of articles and documents cited, as well as background information, are available on request.
MEMRI holds copyrights on all translations. Materials may only be used with proper attribution.

The Middle East Media Research Institute
P.O. Box 27837, Washington, DC 20038-7837
Phone: [202] 955-9070 Fax: [202] 955-9077 E-Mail: memri@memri.org
Search previous MEMRI publications at our website: MEMRI: The Middle East Media Research Institute
Source: Clip Transcript

The vid is also available from Memritv.

Cheers.

Last edited by captain : 02-24-2008 at 08:24 AM. Reason: clarity
captain is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-27-2008, 10:04 AM   #3 (permalink)
rj1
Regular
 
Join Date: 02-19-08
Location: North Carolina
Posts: 100
Country:
Quote:
Originally Posted by captain View Post
If the views of the General are indicative of The Egyptian authorities, I would doubt Hamas will gain much ground with Egypt so what will Hamas do next and how much are they prepared to let their own people suffer?
I think the issue from the Egyptian President Mubarak's standpoint is he doesn't want too much to do with Hamas and Palestine. Mubarak and his parliamentary party are elected but the elections are "managed" much like Russian elections are. The main electoral opposition to him is the Muslim Brotherhood, which are friends with Hamas and openly supported the gate-crashing. It's a case of "don't help the friend of an enemy".
rj1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-28-2008, 03:01 AM   #4 (permalink)
Stan187
WAB BOUNCER
Senior Contributor
 
Stan187's Avatar
 
Join Date: 11-24-06
Posts: 2,152
Country:
Quote:
Originally Posted by rj1 View Post
I think the issue from the Egyptian President Mubarak's standpoint is he doesn't want too much to do with Hamas and Palestine. Mubarak and his parliamentary party are elected but the elections are "managed" much like Russian elections are. The main electoral opposition to him is the Muslim Brotherhood, which are friends with Hamas and openly supported the gate-crashing. It's a case of "don't help the friend of an enemy".
They aren't just friends, Hamas was initially formed as a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.
__________________
In Iran people belive pepsi stands for pay each penny save israel. -urmomma158
The Russian Navy is still a threat, but only to those unlucky enough to be Russian sailors.-highsea
Stan187 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-30-2008, 03:10 AM   #5 (permalink)
JBG
Regular
 
Join Date: 09-10-06
Location: Sydney
Posts: 138
"They aren't just friends, Hamas was initially formed as a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood."

That is the key. The Egyptian Govt. has been contending with the MB for years. The last thing they wanted was an enclave of such on their border.

Jonathan
JBG is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-08-2008, 11:46 AM   #6 (permalink)
zeus920
New Member
 
Join Date: 03-31-08
Location: Egypt
Posts: 23
still nothing clear about muslim brotherhood involving with hamas . i live in bani swief and i know many muslim brotherhood members ... trust me what u hear from Egy government is not always right .. our government is based on lies .. but yet there are more groups jihad groups and soldiers of god) .. theese are terrorists and they are suspected to be involved with qaada .
zeus920 is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply




Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools
Display Modes Rate This Thread
Rate This Thread:


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Hamas 'spent months cutting through Gaza wall in secret operation' Parihaka Israeli-Palestinian Conflict 9 01-25-2008 06:05 AM
Fatah surrending en masse to Hams, Hamas seizing control of Gaza Druze Israeli-Palestinian Conflict 12 10-22-2007 13:29 PM
Hamas claims full control of Gaza glow Israeli-Palestinian Conflict 0 06-14-2007 22:05 PM
Future of afghanistan raja khan Operation Enduring Freedom 113 09-20-2004 19:23 PM


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 05:05 AM.


Rochen is the business hosting sponsor of World Affairs Board and a provider of reseller web hosting services.

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2008, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.0.0 RC8