Egypt Razes Homes, Plans Moat Near Gaza CAIRO - Egypt began razing houses and moving hundreds of families living along the Gaza border Wednesday, as part of sweeping efforts to stop what authorities say are "terrorist operations" originating in the Palestinian territory via tunnels. The plan reportedly includes digging a channel filled with sea water to stop further tunneling under the border, according to Arab media. The evacuation follows a state of emergency declaration in northern Sinai prompted by an attack that killed more than 30 Egyptian soldiers last Friday. Authorities also announced a dawn-to-dusk curfew in the wake of the attack, the deadliest on Egyptian soldiers in years. Footage shown by Al Jazeera showed a bulldozer knocking down a cement- and cinder-block buildings in the northern Sinai town of Rafah. The report said Egyptian authorities had ordered 600 families in one area of Rafah to leave their homes. Egyptian media reported that local army commanders gave residents 48 hours to remove belongings. Reports said families were being paid to move out. Officials believe last week’s attack was linked to forces inside Gaza, Egyptian political sociologist Said Sadek said. "Their aim is to reduce social or military support from Gaza. The idea is that you create a real buffer zone that makes it difficult for any big operation to take place. Egypt and Israel agree on this,” Sadek said. “There is a lot of security coordination between the two countries, because they have a common enemy: terrorism.” Al Arabiya said the Egyptian military was planning to build what amounted to a moat, filled with sea water, along the 9-mile border between Gaza and the Sinai, to flood existing tunnels and deter building new ones. Complicating matters is the population of northern Sinai, which is dominated by Bedouin, who have a history of prickly relations with Cairo, Sadek said. Egypt has been roiled by unrest since July 2013 when the military ousted Islamist President Mohamed Morsi. Militant attacks on the Sinai have killed hundreds of soldiers and law enforcement officers since that time. http://www.voanews.com/content/egypt-plans-gaza-buffer-zone/2501043.html
Neither has Israel. And Egypt is getting attacked by terrorists anyway. Proof that the "but they are occupying our land" excuse is just that, an excuse.
It's a fair point, but for perspective, the Egyptian response to the death of 30 soldiers is to pay people to leave their homes so they ca build a moat. The Israeli response to the ,under of to teenagers is a all out bombing campaigns that kills hundreds of innocent people and children.
Yeap. No one argue against responding. How you response and react is how people view you. Israel 'cruel' reactions is what people don't like and thus, the 'bad' press for them.
Fair enough, but Israel was also having rockets fired at them constantly for years. In any case, both Egypt and Israel are having to deal with ruthless terrorists, and I hope they manage to isolate them and get them out of power, eventually.
Israel ethnically cleansed Palestinians from their homes resulting in the death and mass migration of 100's of thousands of people. They also razed a 1/3 of Gaza just a few months ago. That's comparable to Egypt building a moat? Give up this attention whoring non-sense ATW.
A moat. Brilliant! Why the hell didnt someone think of this earlier? And you really cannot compare the reaction to a moat being built with the mass bombing response of Netanyahu. You have to know that that is a bogus complaint, ATW.
People have been condemning Egypt's atrocities in "defending itself against terror by unleashing terror" very loudly---but people who actively condone butchers like Saddam, Assad, and Mubarak + El Sisi might not have heeded that. http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2014/...mpaign=Feed:+DailyNewsEgypt+(Daily+News+Egypt) http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/29/opinion/political-executions-in-egypt.html By THE NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL BOARD APRIL 28, 2014 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...t-a-system-everything-is-corrupt-9558293.html http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/08/12/egypt-rab-killings-likely-crimes-against-humanity Human Rights Watch
Nope and you can't compare digging tunnels with firing rockets into civilian populated areas. What you can compare is that neither bordering population is safe.
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL so delusional. Just a few weeks ago you agreed that Israel was the bad guy when it illegally land-grabbed and occupied a thousand acres in the West Bank. That has been happening for over 50 years.
Egypt has every right to defend itself against terrorists who just murdered 30 people in the Sinai. Just like Israel does. I was in Sharm-el-Sheikh, walked in front of the Moevenpick hotel, just a few weeks or months before it was blown up (don't some of you guys wish they could have done it sooner...). THAT was an atrocity.
How does locking up journalists, mass executing a whole bunch of people, killing minors, trying minors, crimes against humanity, and the mass imprisonment of 41,000 people add up to stopping terror in Sinai? Never mind the question of proportionality. ATW, you have a problem with the surveillance state in America, but not a problem with the detention of journalists, suppression of freedom of expression, mass execution of political opponents, and a prison state in Egypt? Why shouldn't America have every right to defend itself against terror? Or are you really concerned about your privacy being invaded in the name of the war against terror---but could give two ****s about people's lives being ended elsewhere, so long as it's not near you?
Where did I ever talk about this topic? Stop making things up. It should. I am not even in America. In your desperate quest to say something, anything and pretend to be outraged, you make stuff up.
http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showpost.php?p=9076108&postcount=16 but apparently a fan of the excesses of the Egyptian state which is doing 100x worse.
The big difference of course being that the Islamists are much, much stronger in Egypt, and have been committing terror attacks and murders over many years so that the state has no choice but to react. Does that mean I agree with everything that is done? Probably not. But it is typical for those who are intellectually lazy and/or intellectually incapable to not take all factors into account when assessing a situation, and to have a very one-sided view of the world.
Glad to see that you have it in your heart to condemn mass executions, the execution and trial of minors, and the imprisonment of journalists, although very tentatively---even if many of these policies will aggravate violence rather than have any rational effect on stopping it. Try to remember what you claimed to believe like three months ago, and where you made your views clear on a topic before accusing others of intellectual laziness, jesus.
The question is always what you are dealing with. Some people can only be dealt with with violence. I haven't seen you whine and complain about Erdogan's mass imprisonment of journalists - who are NOT terrorists, NOT violent, NOT fanatical. Erdogan has imprisoned more journalists than any other dictator in the world, including those in China. But you have been whining a whole lot about actions which had to be taken against Islamists in Egypt. What these people are capable of is what we have been seeing in Iraq and Syria - mass beheadings (even of women and children), mass murders, ethnic cleansing, rape, enslavement - all in the name of Islam. The government in Egypt has to deal with the exact same kind of people - same ideology. There is simply no way to reason with these people - as their actions in Iraq and Syria show. And, by the way, you are complaining and whining less about their actions in Iraq and Syria than about the actions that had to be taken against them in other places, like Egypt. Everything in your whiny post above has been happening by the hands of the Islamists, and a thousand times worse. Yet, the only time you whine, complain and scream is when actions against the Islamists are taken (e.g. by Israel and Egypt) - hardly ever when they commit much worse atrocities. That shows where you stand (or sit, in your mom's basement).
Oh right, I have to hold Egypt, a staunch American ally, to the standards of ISIS. Got you. Well, they are trying to build a state I suppose. Anyways, you seem to have gone off the reservoir again, so have yourself a good day. Remember, be intellectually consistent. And look up my views on Erdogan before you find yourself forgetting again. And append a note to that image of yours: silence is relative I suppose. Way to join the chorus, no matter how tentatively.
Thank you for admitting that your standards are flexible: If America is involved, it has to be a higher standard. Whereas if Islamists are involved, you hold them to the lowest standard possible. Here is something to learn for you, intern-boi: Human rights are inalienable. You should not ignore human rights violations because they are committed by your Islamist friends. They are the bad guys. But in your messed up bizarro world, it's ok because you apply lower standards. Thank you for admitting that. P.S.: Turkey is pretending to be an American ally as well. Yet, you ignore Erdogan's horrific human rights record, his corruption, his support of ISIS - you would rather complain about those you think are actually on the side of the USA. We understand. It's hard to be an intern looking for friends.