Israel Struts and Gloats

[Ariadna: The annual AIPAC conference was watched and analyzed more closely this year due to (and from the angle of) the US presidential campaign, which is understandable. After all, it is where the candidates for the presidency of the most powerful country in the world get their decisive interview for the job.

Nevertheless, there were other themes well worth paying attention to, such as the open gloating and strutting by Israeli officials over their successes in undermining, destabilizing and controlling the fate of the Arab world. Case study: Egypt. Does it mean we have seen the end of the mewling, whining, victim howling of “the little state surrounded by tens of millions of enemies” and the era of in-your-face, defiant gloating, of “Do you have a problem with it?” “If so, make my day!” is here to stay?]

Israel Admits Role in Overthrow of Mohamed Morsi and Installation of President Al-Sisi, Planned in Cooperation with Egypt’s Military

By Seif al-Din Abdel-Fattah

Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon admitted in his speech at the annual AIPAC conference, the largest Zionist lobby supporting Israel in the US, that the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi and the installation of Egyptian President Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi was planned, in cooperation with generals in the Egyptian and Gulf armies and intelligence agencies. He also said that Israel’s interests will always be served by having military regimes in the Arab world, especially in Egypt.

He apologised that the military regimes usually disregard democracy in Egypt but called on the lobby to provide more support for Al-Sisi. Ya’alon also explicitly said: “We decided to allow General Al-Sisi, who was the defence minister at the time, to take over power by mobilising the army in order to become a president. The West should consider this of strategic interest for them as well.”

This is not the first testimony made by the Israeli occupation’s generals and rabbis regarding the need to keep Al-Sisi as president of Egypt in order to serve Israel’s interests. The archive of relations between the two countries is full of flattery and statements of complete support for this government, which Israel has dreamed about for years, according to Wael Qandil. The coup was an opportunity for Israel to practice its extortion in order to continue its normalisation strategy.

Moshe Yaalon, Defense Minister of Israel. [File photo]

With regards to relations between Arab countries and Israel, normalisation means that these countries, or their institutions or figures carrying out cooperative projects, have economic and trade exchanges and spread the culture of acceptance of the enemy in a context of political poisoning and cultural normalisation while the occupation continues. Normalisation in this case not only means allowing for natural relations to develop between the oppressor and the oppressed in the absence of justice and continued occupation and settlement activity. It also means that those who normalise relations with Israel are voluntarily stripping Israel of its label as an enemy and instead accuses those resisting the Israeli occupation of hostility.

One of the ironic things we are hearing today, despite the crimes committed by Israel, are dangerous statements made by Arab leaders and PA officials, as well as a chorus of Arab writers and intellectuals who have become “Zionised”. They are trying to change the label of “enemy” given to Israel into other attributes associated with partnership or friendship. Normalisation and lifting the boycott is an old Israeli dream since the establishment of their state in occupied Palestine. This vision consists of establishing normal and ordinary relations between the two sides, just like any relation between two sides during a time of peace, bonded together by respect and love, without any form of contradiction or hostility.

We can all see the magnitude of the normalisation of Egyptian and Israeli relations since the 3 July 2013 coup, on the political, economic, security and defence levels, as well as on the cultural level, as many Egyptian intellectuals, media personalities and sports figures have publicly called for normalisation on all levels.

The normalisation operations have reached an extraordinary level where relations between the two countries have surpassed the normal relations between most nations. Frankly, it has reached a level closer to dependency on the enemy and nothing proves this more than the almost regular official and unofficial statements made by Israeli officials gloating about this.