The Traveller Within: August 2011

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Israeli press roundup: on Egypt, Sinai, and military action [Dynamic post, to be updated regularly]

UPDATE: 21 August, 3:15 PM

Haaretz is respected, ‘reference’ newspaper. Left-wing, supposedly. Has around 10-12% marketshare. Generally solid reporting. (Even if their diplomatic correspondent Barak Raviv was speaking out of his ass this week.) yesterday in his coverage of the Eilat attacks, throwing accusations everywhere.)

Yediot Aharonot (and its website, Ynet) is centre-right; the country's mainstream newspaper, with over a 50% market share.

Jerusalem Post: English speaking newspaper. Right/far-right. Very pro-settlers, IDF cheerleader.

Israel National News is the website of Radio station 7 (Arutz Sheva), which is far-right/super pro-settlers, and almost rabidly Arab-hating. The radio station is widely followed by right-wingers.

21 August 2011

Video: Angry Egyptians Break into Israeli Embassy Compound

Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu, Israel National News (Arutz 7 radio)

Well, apart from the fact that the title is a lie...

Summary: Egyptians bad, Israel good.

Highlights:

"Egypt had requested and received permission from Israel last week to place armed forces in the Sinai despite it being against the peace treaty, in an attempt to put down the chaos reigning in the peninsula since Mubarak's fall."

"Israeli officials have contacted American and French counterparts in an effort to calm down Egypt’s diplomatic furor, and Defense Minister Ehud Barak reportedly spoke with the head of Egypt’s Supreme Military Council, Mohammed Hussein Tantawi."The peace agreement between Israel and Egypt is of great importance and strategic value to stability in the Middle East," Barak said."

'Egypt: Jerusalem using Gaza escalation against PA statehood'

News, Jerusalem Post

>> Apparently, Egypt is currently mediating between Israel and Hamas? Huh.

"According to the report, Egypt delivered a message from Jerusalem to Hamas that Israel was only targeting the elements responsible for the terror attack in Eilat that left eight people dead on Thursday and would stop its strikes on Gaza if rocket fire into Israel stopped."

Egypt report: Talks on gas supply halted

Roee Nahmias, Yediot Aharonot

Header:

"Source in Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum says secret negotiations on amending price of gas sold to Israel stopped following escalation in south. Meanwhile, attempts continue to repair Sinai gas pipeline"

'Egyptian army shoots to kill'

Tsur Shezaf, Yediot Aharonot

Weird piece. The title is irrelevant. The author's sources are, ummm, a friend of his. Not a bad read though.

It seems that if the Israeli government avoids invading Egyptian territory, and investigates the killing of the Egyptian soldiers hastily, cooperation will be restored and the fight for Sinai's control will still have a chance.

Israel has no strategy

Nahum Barnea, Yediot.

Intelligent piece, imho.

Egypt is currently ruled by a provisional military regime that exists at the street’s mercy. The commitment to the treaty with Israel exists, but is under daily assault. We can assume that the next regime will further minimize its commitment to the agreement. The Camp David Accord is a vital security asset. Israel must not give it up. The Israeli government must draw lessons from its failure to manage the crisis with Turkey: We must not lose Egypt.

Egyptian becomes hero after removing Israeli flag from embassy

Roee Nahmias, Yediot Aharonot

With videos of the protest. I'm most amused that it's only at the second to last paragraph, after describing the flag and quoting Ahmed El-Shahat, the reporter realizes the following:

The young Egyptian also linked his actions to events on the border on Thursday, when six Egyptian soldiers were killed, saying that it was "the simple reaction to what Israel did to Egyptian soldiers in Sinai." He expressed hope that his actions would be repeated by "a billion Arabs."

Egypt deems Israel's apology for policemen deaths 'insufficient'

News, Haaretz

Highlight:

"The cabinet, with army generals in attendance, has been holding crisis meetings daily since Friday after thousands of Egyptians protested in front of the Israeli embassy in Cairo overnight, burning Israeli flags, tearing down metal barriers and demanding the expulsion of the Israeli envoy.
Hundreds of Egyptians continue to protest outside the embassy. One protester burned the Israeli flag and replaced it with the Egyptian one, a Reuters witness reported."

Israel must maintain neighborly relations with Egypt

Haaretz Editorial

Rather short-sighted piece that seems to believe, umm, anything anybody declares. But it's okay nevertheless.

"The new Egyptian leaders have also declared their allegiance and commitment to peace accords and commercial agreements with Israel. This is the government that is declaring its determination to fight terrorist organizations in Sinai, a government with which Israel must continue to cooperate and which it must view as an ally in advancing the same goals"

Israel needs to apologize to Egypt

Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz

Reasonable piece, though giving more strategic thinking credit to the Egyptian 'government' than it deserves.

Operative line: " This is a relationship that obligates Israel to exercise extra caution"

-------------------------

19 August

For the past days, the Israeli media has been beating the war drums with Egypt - first accusing Egypt of not protecting its borders properly and letting Palestinian militants through, then accusing it of complicity. That they murdered 6 Egyptian policemen and officers over the past 36 hours something that hasn't registered in their media.

Noticeably, the media's tone vis-a-vis Egypt is aggressive, threatening, and clearly inciting.Warmongering, I daresay.

I’ll try to update this space frequently, once or twice daily for the next few days, as articles come by. Most of those are the English version of Hebrew mainstream media, unless otherwise noted.

So check frequently! Also send me articles you think should be included and I’ll try to.

19 August 2011

Retired General: Time to Intervene in the Sinai Peninsula

Israel National News

Israel National News is the website of radio station 7 (Arutz Sheva), which is far-right/super pro-settlers, and almost rabidly Arab-hating. The radio station is widely followed by right-wingers.

Highlights:

“General (res.) Uzi Dayan, who headed the Israeli National Security between 2003 and 2005, said Thursday in the wake of the combined terror attack in southern Israel that it is time to restore the IDF’s ability to operate in the Sinai Peninsula.

“Just last week I sat down with the chief of staff and discussed the issue of southern Israel,” Dayan told Arutz Sheva. “I won’t disclose the contents of the meeting, but I will say that from a military perspective we need to prepare for a new reality.”

The Egyptian revolution has created a vacuum in Sinai

Avi Isacharoff, Haaretz.

Haaretz is respected, ‘reference’ newspaper. Left-wing, supposedly. Has around 10-12% marketshare. Generally solid reporting. (Even if their diplomatic correspondent Barak Raviv was speaking out of his ass yesterday in his coverage of the Eilat attacks, throwing accusations everywhere.)

The tone of the article is overall worried, but not threatening as every other newspaper in the country.

Highlights:

“It should be noted that Cairo is making considerable efforts to reinstate order in Sinai. Since it sent 1,000 soldiers accompanied by tanks and armored vehicles about a week ago, the Egyptian army has exposed a plant for producing weapons in the El Arish area and several arms smugglers have been killed.

In this sense Israel has no choice but to continue and rely to a large extent on the Egyptian army's activity to quash Islamic terror in Sinai. But reinforcing the forces is a drop in the sea in n area more than twice as large as Israel. As long as completion of the border fence between Egypt and Israel drags on, another attack like yesterday's is only a matter of time.”

Cairo: Israeli flags torched before embassy

Roee Nahmias, Yediot Aharonot

Yediot is centre-right; the country's mainstream newspaper, with over a 50% market share.

Coverage of the afternoon demo. Second hand reporting so nothing genius there. The article describes some of the slogans he alleges were sung at the protest, then moves on to describe the killing of the soldiers... and denying it:

Highlight:

“GOC Southern Command Tal Russo explained the six Egyptian deaths, saying a border patrol had hit explosive devices apparently laid by the terror cell near the border. He did not comment on reports by al-Jazeera, which said the Egyptian soldiers were victims of an Israeli airstrike.”

Let IDF into Sinai

Ron Ben Yishai, Yediot Aharonot.

Yediot is centre-right; the country's mainstream newspaper, with over a 50% market share.

From the veteran military correspondent of the country’s largest newspaper, this is seriously worrisome shit.

Summary: Egypt needs to let the Israelis deal with their security threats in the Sinai; otherwise, the author hints that the Israelis should go in themselves.

Highlight:

“Egyptian army cooperating with terrorists:

To be on the safe side, [the terrorists] chose to come out directly from an Egyptian military post located on the border. It's unlikely that the Egyptian soldiers didn't notice them, but they did nothing to stop them or warn the Israelis of their arrival.

Later, they even fired on IDF forces dispatched to the area, probably with the intention of covering for the terrorists who remained alive and continued to exchange fire with the Israeli soldiers. This cooperation with terrorists is a phenomenon which must be dealt with.”

Blood in the streets

19.08.11. Caroline Glick in the Jerusalem Post. [English speaking newspaper. Right/far-right. Very pro-settlers, IDF cheerleader].

Try to get through the vitriol if you can...

Highlights:

“Since the Palestinian terror war began in 2000, then-Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak did almost nothing to prevent massive arms smuggling by Palestinian terror groups through Sinai. The Palestinians - from Hamas, Fatah and Islamic Jihad - were assisted by Sinai Beduin as well as by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and Hezbollah. Mubarak also did next to nothing to prevent human and drug trafficking from Sinai into Israel and Gaza.”

“We need to increase the Southern Command’s force levels by at least one regular division, preferably an armored one. We need to equip the IDF with more tanks and other platforms designed for desert warfare. We need for the IDF to begin training in desert warfare for the first time in 30 years. We need to drastically ramp up the quality of our intelligence about Egypt.”

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Telecoms are the leading ad spenders in Ramadan

In case you were wondering as I did, telecom companies are the biggest ad spenders in Ramadan.
Apparently a single running costs around 32,000 EGP on private television channels (which is a little less than double the regular price).

The numbers for last year's advertising expenditure were recently made available by PARC, the Pan-Arab Research Center; they're only a guideline for this year's ad spending, but you can get idea of the money these companies are putting down:

1. Etisalat Egypt: $56 million.
2. Zain (all markets): $52 million
3. Mobinil: $50 million
4. Chevrolet (global): $38 million
5. Mobily (Saudi Arabia)

Four out of the five top spenders are telecoms, apparently spending about $200 million. Just that.

This year, it is clear that Coca Cola, Pepsi and Vodafone Egypt are also sparing no expense to be on people's radar. I'll look forward to this year's numbers!

Then when the numbers are out, I'll compare those to the money spent on their CSR campaigns. Mobinil has a training programme for the unemployed; Etisalat Egypt has a water and sanitation project; Vodafone Egypt promises a massive literacy programme.

Not that I can claim adv money would be better spent otherwise - the return on this investment needs to be calculated. But just for comparison purposes... :)

#ThawretWeladElKalb, #J14 protests, and the Hashtags of Perception

There was a “Walk Like an Egyptian” sign, in English, on Rothschild boulevard in Tel Aviv. And even a giant إرحل"” - “Leave” in Arabic - on a banner on Kaplan street, followed by “Egypt is here” in Hebrew.

The Egyptian non-violent revolution was impressive in many respects, and the Israelis admired the events as much as anyone else; their banners this week reflected this.

A couple of days ago many in the Egyptian twittersphere took part in a running joke: #ThawretWeladElKalb, which can be roughly interpreted “those bastards’ revolution”. (before anybody goes in the comments to tell that it translates to"the dogs' children revolution", the word-for-word translation sounds more rude than it actually is in Arabic, and is completely irrelevant).

The jokes were mostly about translating the events of the Egyptian revolution into the Israeli context. (my favourite joke was about the Man Behind Shimon Peres). Some were insulting but most weren’t. But the hashtag itself is insulting, so to an outside reader the content of the tweet matters little.

The Israelis weren’t particularly amused. Some were insulted, shocked, surprised. Some, like @Elizrael, attempted to reason; some had ready-made responses. Haaretz was the first media outlet to pick up on the story (translation here).

The discussion within the Egyptians was interesting, too. Some people attempted to object to the unnecessary insults; some pointed out that there are Palestinian Israelis taking part in the protests (There are, but very few). the responses they got ranged from intelligent to utterly-insane-must-block-the-SOB.

"The Egyptian revolution is undoubtedly inspiring, but this does not justify any compassion to protesters demanding to improve their living conditions on occupied land"

This post isn’t about whether we should care about or support the J14 protests. (especially that it seems that, surprise surprise, it is ending by the construction of more settlements in occupied Palestine). Nor is it to object - yet again - to the unnecessarily offensive humour, which I did the very first moment, and still do.

What I am trying to figure out in all that is the difference of perception. Columnist Nawara Negm summed it up best - even if she only meant to crack a joke:

"The Israelis are shocked that the Egyptians hate them.
The Egyptians, in turn, are shocked that the Israelis are shocked."

See this is fascinating. Many Israelis pray daily for the demise of every Arab and would like nothing more than a replay of the 10 plagues; but many, like the rest of the world, know nothing about us, and were actually fascinated by our revolution, hence the tributes on the streets of Tel Aviv. We can safely assume that most did not expect the #ThawretWladElKalb hashtag.

At the same time, for many Egyptians, the state of animosity is a given; that the counterpart - the adversary - fails to see it is also rather surprising.

There’ll be no conclusion here about “30 years after the peace agreement, etc etc”. Draw your own.