Nostalgia Sunday – End of an Era
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, education, General, History and Culture, Life, News, Nostalgia Sunday, Politics, Profiles, War
The events in Egypt over the past two weeks, which culminated in the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak, are being watched with no little trepidation in Israel. The media, both international and local, have focused on Mubarak to the exclusion of anything that came before, as if there was no Sadat, no Nasser, no King Farouk, no British Mandate, no Ottoman Empire… in short, reportage without historical context.
Before history is forgotten completely, this would be a good time to dig into the Israel National Photo Archive for a glimpse at relations between Israel and Egypt over the years.
In 1956, for example, this float at the annual Purim Adloyada parade featured paper mache figures of Israel’s David Ben Gurion shaking hands with Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser above a banner emblazoned with the ironic, “Prophecy of the End of Days”.
Photo by Moshe Pridan
And yet, peace with Egypt did come. In 1977, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat made his historic visit to Israel and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin then visited Egypt.
Photo by Yaacov Saar
In 1979, peace talks were held at Beer Sheva, led by Begin and Sadat, who was accompanied by his then-Vice President Hosni Mubarak.
Photo courtesy of Ben Gurion University of the Negev
Begin and Mubarak met again at the funeral of Sadat who was assassinated in 1981.
Photo by Chanania Herman
Mubarak became president and continued to maintain Egypt’s commitment to peace with Israel. Together with Jordan’s King Hussein and US President Bill Clinton, he oversaw the signing of the Oslo Accords by Israel’s Yitzhak Rabin and the PLO’s Yasser Arafat.
Photo by Avi Ohayon
Mubarak’s only other visit to Israel was in 1995, to attend the funeral of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. (He is shown here with interim Prime Minister Shimon Peres).
Photo by Tsvika Israeli
It is too early to tell whether the current days mark a watershed in our relations with Egypt. But as the age of Mubarak comes to a close, we can look back fondly to the time when the impossible suddenly became possible; the day in 1979, for example, when the Israeli-Egyptian air corridor was inaugurated, Sadat, Mubarak and Begin took to the skies and the smiles — at least for that moment — were real.
Photo by Yaacov Saar
Egyptian Revolution Blues
Filed under: A New Reality, Blogging, coexistence, Entertainment, General, Music, News, Pop Culture, tv, War
Sandy Cash
Israel always seems to be the odd man out when looking at world events on a geo-political level. Take, for example, the revolution in Egypt.
Almost all the free world is ecstatic over the downfall of President Hosni Mubarak an his decade-long dictatorship which was full of fear and repression. The sights of Egyptians protesting in Tahrir Square conjured up well-deserved images of freedom fighters through the ages and warmed the cockles of all liberty-loving people.
Leave it to Israel to douse the historic turn of events with some sober, some would call it paranoid, observations on where the revolution is headed – to a progressive democracy or a dark, Islamic-led repressive society.
While utterances of those sorts by the prime minister or opinion pieces by pundits may just add fuel to the ammunition of those who see Israel as supporting a cruel regime as opposed to supporting the downtrodden, veteran Israeli folk/country singer Sandy Cash came up with a more subtle way of raising the reservations some Israelis have of the events in Egypt.
A long-time participant of American-style folk festivals and hootenanies in Israel, Cash decided to write and record a song and video – “Eyptian Revolution Blues.” Even if you disagree with her premise and conclusions, I bet that you’ll have to laugh anyway. It’s a brilliant distillation in music, lyrics and images of the last two weeks of turmoil as seen through the rose-tinted glasses of those who, in Cash’s words, “think the unrest in Cairo is all about Power to the People (not to mention Peace, Love and Yellow Sunshine).”
Those that disagree with Cash’s thesis should have the good humor to guffaw throughout, those that see eye to eye with her will discover a new rallying point for their views and those that aren’t sure may be running for the dictionary function on their keyboard to decipher the world “Caliphate.”
Whatever the outcome, it’s worth the next three minutes of your time.
A look back at a different Egypt
Our family trip to Egypt a few years back
As Egypt continues to rock with turmoil from the past weeks’ revolution in Tahrir Square and beyond, I found myself reflecting on a trip we took with the whole family to the land of the Nile several years ago.
This wasn’t a trip to the Sinai (which is what most Israelis think when we tell them we visited Egypt). Rather, we flew to Cairo, spent a couple of days touring the pyramids and taking in the treasures of the Egyptian Museum, then took the night train to Luxor, toured the astounding tombs in the Valleys of the Kings and Queens, before heading further south to Aswan with its laid back water-faring vibe.
As tourists, we were struck by a palpable feeling of safety. I remember telling my wife that this is what it would be like if the Palestinian Authority truly had peace with Israel and we could sip coffee in Ramallah and Nablus. Yes, the security check as we entered the hotel grounds was thorough, but we’re used to such things in Israel, I figured.
That security, I now realize, was the result of a heavy-handed police state that kept the quiet by squashing dissent and rounding up anyone vaguely suspicious. And I can’t fail to mention that we scrupulously hid our Israeli identity, traveling on U.S. passports and speaking only English (although our son tried his hand at a little Arabic he learned in school, prompting our tour guide to comment, “I didn’t know they taught Arabic in American schools!”)
The stories from travelers evacuated from Egypt that I’ve read in the news – violence in the streets, tanks in Luxor, the economy in shambles – is unnerving of course, with the potential political ramifications even more so. Will a post-Mubarak still be safe for tourists? I hope so. But I suppose that’s the least of our problems…
Just another day in the neighborhood
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, General, Israeliness, Life, News, Politics, tv
Tahrir Square in Cairo on Tuesday.
Tonight for examples, Channel One’s nightly Mabat news broadcast and its presenter Inon Magal didn’t know what to do first – report on:
1 – the ‘Million Man March’ in Cairo and the nearing of the end of President Hosni Mubarak’s reign
2 – the decision by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak to cancel the nomination of Maj.-Gen. Yoav Galant as the next chief of staff adue to ‘ethical flaws’ in allegedly shady, if not illegal, behavior regarding a number of land affairs on his moshav, Amikam
3 – or Jordan’s King Abdullah feeling the domino effect of what’s transpired in Tunisia and Egypt and proactively sacking his prime minister and cabinet as thousands of Jordanians also began taking to the streets.
So they decided to mix all three up, switching back and forth from reports in Cairo to Galant’s bitter interview to the scene in Jordan.
That’s not even mention the other stories that, on any other day, might have been the big news – a Grad rocket fired into Israel from Gaza last night which landed so close to a wedding hall with an event taking place that all the attendees jumped out of their seats when it hit.
We like to take pride at Israelity in the fact that Israel is indeed a place of much more than strife and conflict – you can read about all the other aspects of the amazing country we live in here every day.
But it’s times like these that remind us there is something just a little crazy about life here – there is strife and conflict all around us. And even though it’s our neighbors who are experiencing the brunt of it right now, we can never forget that anything can be right around the corner.
Egypt revolt strangely missing Israeli element
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, General, Life, News, Politics, War
A demonstrator in Cairo - where's Israel? (Photo: Melanie Lidman)
Notwithstanding unfounded rumors that President Hosni Mubarak might find refuge if he flees his country in Tel Aviv, or fear of what an Islamic takeover of Egypt will mean for our southern border and future ties with the Arab country we’ve had a peace treaty with for over 30 years, the most glaring element of the whole revolt is how little Israel has to do with it.
As Herb Keinon wrote in The Jerusalem Post on Sunday, “for the tens of thousands of protesters who took to Egypt’s streets over the weekend, defying the curfew and calling for the departure of President Hosni Mubarak, Israel and the Palestinians were simply not on the agenda.
“And the same was the case during the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia earlier this month, and in the demonstrations intermittently taking place in Jordan, Yemen, Algeria and Morocco. No cries of death to Israel, no signs to “lift the siege” of Gaza, no chants against housing projects in Ariel.”
Melanie Lidman, the Post’s report in Cairo, wrote that anti-US and anti-Israel sentiment is growing over those country’s lack of overt support for the popular uprising. But from an Israeli perspective, it’s refreshing to have demonstrations and riots in the region that seemingly have nothing to do with us.
Which doesn’t diminish our vested interested in what transpires an iota. While the anti-government, pro-democracy demonstrators are demanding Mubarak’s ouster, there’s the extremist Muslim Brotherhood just waiting for a vacuum to rush in and turn Egypt into another Iran, this one with borders abutting Israel.
No matter how it turns out, one thing is clear. Settlements, Jerusalem and Israel’s policy on Gaza are not the main issues threatening stability in the Middle East.
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