Robert Fisk: A new truth dawns on the Arab world

The Palestine Papers are as damning as the Balfour Declaration. The Palestinian "Authority" – one has to put this word in quotation marks – was prepared, and is prepared to give up the "right of return" of perhaps seven million refugees to what is now Israel for a "state" that may be only 10 per cent (at most) of British mandate Palestine.

And as these dreadful papers are revealed, the Egyptian people are calling for the downfall of President Mubarak, and the Lebanese are appointing a prime minister who will supply the Hezbollah. Rarely has the Arab world seen anything like this.

It is not possible any more, for the people of the Arab world to lie to each other. The lies are finished. The words of their leaders – which are, unfortunately, our own words – have finished. It is we who have led them into this demise. It is we who have told them these lies. And we cannot recreate them any more.

In Egypt, the future of Hosni Mubarak looks ever more distressing. His son, may well be his chosen successor. But there is only one Caliphate in the Muslim world, and that is Syria. Hosni's son is not the man who Egyptians want. He is a lightweight businessman who may – or may not – be able to rescue Egypt from its own corruption.

Hosni Mubarak's security commander, a certain Mr Suleiman who is very ill, may not be the man. And all the while, across the Middle East, we are waiting to see the downfall of America's friends. In Egypt, Mr Mubarak must be wondering where he flies to. In Lebanon, America's friends are collapsing. This is the end of the Democrats' world in the Arab Middle East. We do not know what comes next. Perhaps only history can answer this question.

The First martyr in Egypt : Mustapha Rajab Mahmoud.

صـور وفيديو: يوم الغضب في مصر يكسر حاجز الخوف

Video and many excellent photos: Uprising in Egypt.

عرب 48 اعداد: رامي منصور صور: رويترز

"في مشاهد ريما تذكر ببداية احداث الثورة التونسية، خرج الالاف من المصريين في تظاهرات "يوم غضب" متحدين المئات وربما الالاف من رجال الأمن الذين انتشروا في انحاء مختفلة من القاهرة وعموم مصر.

كسر المتظاهرون الشباب حاجز الخوف عند من هم اكبر منهم سناً من خلال اصرارهم على البقاء في الشوارع والميادين الرئيسية في القاهرة . وذكرت صحيفة "اليوم السابع" المصرية أن "رغم الكردونات الأمنية المشددة لتنظيم المرور وحماية المواطنين ومنع المتظاهرين، إلا أن آلاف المتظاهرين نجحوا فى تخطى الحواجز الأمنية فى ميادين التحرير ودوران شبرا والقصر العينى بالقوة، وهو ما تسبب فى سقوط العشرات من الإصابات والإغماءات بين المتظاهرين إثر الاشتباكات التى وقعت بين الطرفين".

أما الشعارات، فقد تنوعت منها السياسي ومنها الإجتماعي والإقتصادي، لكن البارز هذه المرة كان التصعيد من قبل المتظاهرين بعدم الإكتفاء بمهاجمة الحكومة، بل وجهوا سهامهم مباشرة الى شخص الرئيس المصري حسني مبارك ونجله جمال.
"

Al-Jazeera Video: Thousands join Cairo protests

"Thousands of protesters are marching in Cairo, the Egyptian capital, to demand that Hosni Mubarak, the president, step down.

They clashed with riot police in a rare show of strength by the people.

Many in the crowds called for a Tunisian style ousting of Mubarak. "

Egypt anti-govt protests escalate (Video included)

Thousands call for Tunisia-style ouster of president Hosni Mubarak, while two protesters and a police officer have died.

Al-Jazeera

"Two Egyptian civilians and a police officer have died after a wave of unusually large anti-government demonstrations swept across the country.

The two civilians died in the eastern city of Suez, according an interior ministry offical. One, who had respiratory problems, died after inhaling tear gas; the other died after being hit with a rock thrown during a protest, the official said.

Meanwhile, in Cairo, a police officer died after being hit in the head with a rock during the capital's biggest protest in Tahrir Square in the city centre, the official said.

Thousands of Egyptians took to the streets on Tuesday in what were reportedly the largest demonstrations in years, and which they explicitly tied to the successful uprising in nearby Tunisia..... "

The Palestine Papers and What They Reveal About the US/Israeli Agenda

We Told You So!

By KATHLEEN CHRISTISON
CounterPunch


".....Policymakers clearly couldn’t be bothered. Scat, these Americans said to the pesky Palestinians in effect; we’re not interested in your silly grievances. In a blunt commentary on al-Jazeera, former CIA officer Robert Grenier has written that his reaction to what the Palestine Papers reveal about U.S. conduct is “one of shame.” The U.S., he says, has always followed a path of political expediency, “at the cost of decency, justice and our clear, long-term interests. More pointedly, the Palestine papers reveal us to have . . . demanded and encouraged the Palestinian participants to take disproportionate risks for a negotiated settlement, and then to have refused to extend ourselves to help them achieve it, leaving them exposed and vulnerable.” The papers “further document an American legacy of ignominy in Palestine.”

Shameful indeed. A London Guardian editorial captures the essence of U.S. policy as it has been pursued since the first days of the Obama administration and indeed since the first days of Israel 63 years ago: the Americans’ neutrality, the Guardian writes pointedly, “consists of bullying the weak and holding the hand of the strong.”

It may be too much to hope for serious change in this U.S. policy anytime soon, but the Palestine Papers revelations may at least open discussion on the wisdom of continuing to pursue a policy that virtually everyone throughout the world recognize as a “legacy of ignominy.”"

Al-Jazeera Video: The Palestine Papers: Refugees' right of return on bargaining table

"Since 1948, millions of Palestinian refugees have held out the hope of returning to their own state one day.

But the Palestine Papers reveal that their leaders were willing to make major concessions on the issue of the Palestinians' right of return.

Al Jazeera's Barnaby Phillips reports from Shatila Refugee Camp in Lebanon."

Al-Jazeera Video: The Palestine Papers: Secret talks over a Jewish state

"One and a half million of Israel's citizens are Palestinian Arabs, that is roughly 20 per cent of the population.

However, Israel still insists on calling the country a "Jewish state".

And the Palestine Papers reveal the human price that they were willing to make that a reality.

Al Jazeera's Barnaby Phillips reports from Baqah al Gharbiyyeh, Israel. "

Al-Jazeera Video: The Palestine Papers: Obama envoy shunned Bush parameters

"The Palestine Papers also reveal that US president Barack Obama's administration refused to build upon agreements made under his predecessor George Bush.

The documents show that they wanted to start negotiations from scratch.

And as Al Jazeera's Mike Hanna reports, that is something that the Palestinian negotiators found extremely frustrating."

The price of Jerusalem

By Jody McIntyre
The Independent

"......Mr. Erekat went on Al Jazeera to defend himself, but his argument was pathetic, at best:

“Is it not strange that we would accept all these concessions that Israel is asking for and there is still no peace deal?”

Yes, Mr. Erekat, that is exactly what we think. We think that the PA have offered concessions of epic proportions, concessions that sell out the most basic rights of their people, with nothing offered in return, and that Israel have still rejected your offers. In fact, Mr. Erekat, we have thought it for a long time, but it is now documented fact.

Mahmoud Abbas, the disputed President of the Palestinian Authority, expressed his “shock” at the release of The Palestine Papers. I think Mr. Abbas has a lot more shocks to come in the next few days. Perhaps the Saudis should keep a room free for him and Erekat; I’m sure they’d be happy to stay with the recently deposed Tunisian President Ben Ali."

Al-Jazeera is a vital source in the Middle East

The news network deserves praise for its coverage of the Palestine papers – as well as the Tunisian uprising

Nesrine Malik
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 25 January 2011

"News network al-Jazeera is having quite a month. Its finest hour came with its coverage of the Tunisian uprising – while the BBC was focusing on the plight of British tourists, al-Jazeera became the go-to destination for up-to-the-minute news on the historic events in the region.

Now, with the leak of the Palestine papers, the network is again under the spotlight. Palestinian representatives interviewed on its programmes over the past few days are foaming at the mouth....

It is a poor testament to the state of media independence in the Arab world that Palestinian representatives can only see this episode as the airing of dirty laundry by a channel hosted by a sister Arab country that should be more protective. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat ranted that al-Jazeera had "declared war" on the Palestinians and was "serving the interests of their enemies". Surely the channel would not pick on the Arab world's most prominent victims for something as trivial as "news"? Well, here's the real scoop, the facts remain the facts: a scarce commodity for which people are hungry.

The Arab authorities can speak of agendas and puppet masters, but in the wake of the toppling of Ben Ali in Tunisia, there is an emerging climate in the region, one in which people are increasingly bypassing official sources and seeking the truth from the media – both social and satellite. Al-Jazeera, a channel with a history of healthy disrespect for authority, is now the natural vehicle for this circumvention."

Steve Bell's Latest

The Stooge is Dead!
Long Live the Stooge....

Arab world's rattled leaders have to prove their worth to disaffected public

The ball is in the governments' court as people demand the democratic voice they have been denied for too long

Martin Chulov in Beirut
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 25 January 2011

"Angry demonstrations in Egypt, Tunisia and Lebanon today cast a spotlight on grievances throughout the Arab world that are often aired but rarely dealt with. For the first time in generations, dissidence is gathering momentum and many leaders seem rattled.

Egypt's interior minister urged the country's intellectuals to impart their wisdom on the "young people" that he said were clearly behind the protest movement. The elders have shown no intention of stepping in. They know the Tunisian revolt was driven largely by a disaffected middle class, not by the rage of a dispossessed youth. They know also that in Egypt, the ball is very much in the government's court.

Across the region, regimes are in the unusual position of having to prove their worth to people they have ruled over almost unchecked for decades. Two days after the Tunisian revolt, the Syrian government announced a social aid fund that would pay around $300m to the country's low earners and unemployed......"

Current Al-Jazeera (Arabic) Online Poll

This brand new poll, illustrates the utterly hopeless condition of the Palestinians. Even after this latest Hiroshima-size bombshell, revealing the cravenness and maximum collaboration of the PA, the public is split 50-50 about whether even these revelations would change anything. Go to sleep now.

The question is:

Do you believe that the publication of secret documents about the conduct of the negotiations with Israel can change the current Palestinian political reality?

With over 1,100 responding so far, 50% said no.

Al-Jazeera Interview with Azmi Bishara About the Tunisian Revolution

في العمق - ثورة تونس .. الخلفية .. المغزى .. المآلات

DON'T MISS THIS PROGRAM!
Courtesy of Arabs48.com

Qurei to Livni: "I'd vote for you"

The Palestine Papers reveal that Kadima's leaders refused to compromise on even the most basic issues.

Gregg Carlstrom
Al-Jazeera

"Tzipi Livni, Israel's main opposition leader, has sought in recent months to position herself and her Kadima party as the voice of moderation in Israeli politics - the "pro-peace" alternative to the country's current hard-right governing coalition.

She frequently accuses Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, of choosing short-term political expediency over a peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority (PA).

"When Netanyahu needs to choose between a coalition and peace, he prefers his political survival," she said in a December interview with Israel's Army Radio. "There is a political majority, a national consensus and a public majority for a [peace] agreement and Netanyahu's political decision indicates his intentions."

The PA embraces this view of Kadima as a "partner for peace”. Negotiators frequently express concern over how their actions might affect Kadima's standing in Israel's domestic politics. One senior PA official even says he would vote for Livni if he had the chance – a striking sentiment, even if intended as a joke.

However, the Palestine Papers reveal that Kadima's leadership took an extremely hard line during negotiations, refusing to compromise on even the most basic issues. Livni endorsed the transfer of Israeli Arab villages into a Palestinian state, the same plan endorsed by Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s current right-wing foreign minister. She refused any right of return for Palestinian refugees. And she dismissed Palestinian concerns about the territorial integrity of their future state.

Kadima's actions, in other words - particularly Livni's - offer little evidence to support the popular view of the party as a more flexible partner for the "peace process"......"

PA selling short the refugees

Palestinian Authority proposed that only a handful of the nearly six million Palestinian refugees be allowed to return.

Laila Al-Arian
Al-Jazeera

".......They each have a story about how they or their parents managed to escape their homeland over 60 years ago - and their wounds are still raw.

Some six million Palestinian refugees are scattered around the world, including more than 400,000 in Lebanon. Here, they are deprived of basic rights, not permitted to buy or sell property, and are banned from more than 70 job categories. Mired in abject poverty, they are dependent on an increasingly incapable United Nations agency for aid.

A "symbolic number" of returnees

The Palestine Papers show that Palestinian Authority (PA) negotiators were prepared to make major concessions on the refugees’ right of return: on the numbers potentially allowed to return to their homes in what is now Israel; on whether refugees would be able to vote on any peace agreement; and on how many would be able to settle in a future Palestinian state.

In an email Ziyad Clot, a legal adviser to Palestinian negotiators on the refugee file, writes, "President [Mahmoud] Abbas offered an extremely low proposal for the number of returnees to Israel a few weeks only after the start of the process."

The papers also reveal that then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert proposed that 1,000 Palestinian refugees be allowed to return annually to Israel over a period of five years - totalling just 5,000, a tiny fraction of those displaced after Israel’s creation.

On January 15, 2010, Erekat told US diplomat David Hale that the Palestinians offered Israel the return of "a symbolic number" of refugees.

According to the documents, not only did Palestinian officials offer a low figure of returnees, the chief negotiator of the PLO, Saeb Erekat, said that refugees would not have voting rights on a possible peace deal with Israel....."

Al-Jazeera Cartoon

The Lebanese National Orchestra.....
Playing the Overture to "Lebanese Unity!"

Al-Jazeera Video: Palestine Papers anger East Jerusalem residents

"Palestinian negotiators apparently put forward East Jerusalem, the area of Jerusalem claimed by the Palestinians but occupied by Israel, in negotiations for a Palestinian State, according to documents obtained by Al Jazeera.

These revelations from The Palestine Papers have particularly angered Palestinans living in East Jerusalem.

Al Jazeera's Alan Fisher spoke to some of the residents."

Misunderstanding Israeli motives

Why is there no Palestinian state? Because the Israeli government's objective is not a Jewish state, but a Zionist one.

By Alistair Crooke
Al-Jazeera

"Al Jazeera’s release of The Palestine Papers helps to make clear why there is no Palestinian state. It illuminates a key flaw in Palestinian and western understanding of Israeli thinking. It is this flaw which helps explain why a state has failed to emerge – despite the many, many opportunities in the last nineteen years in which it could have......

Creating a Zionist state

The Palestine Papers show that still the Ramallah leadership misreads Israeli motives. What is even more striking is how they misread them, even when they are ‘hidden’ in full view. An angered Tzipi Livni, in a pre-Annapolis negotiating session with Ahmed Qurei, spells out Israeli motivations: “I think that we can use another session – about what it means to be a Jew and that it is more than just a religion. But if you want to take us back to 1947, it won’t help. Israel is the state of the Jewish people -- and I would like to emphasize the meaning of “its people” is the Jewish people -- with Jerusalem the united and undivided capital of Israel and of the Jewish people for 3007 years....”

Two months later, Livni tells Ahmed Qurei and Saeb Erekat, “Israel was established to become a national home for Jews from all over the world. The Jew gets the citizenship as soon as he steps in Israel, and therefore don’t say anything about the nature of Israel…The basis for the creation of the state of Israel is that it was created for the Jewish people. Your state will be the answer to all Palestinians including refugees. Putting an end to claims means fulfilling national rights for all.”

What Livni is saying is clear: She never mentions ‘Jewish majority’; her objective is a Zionist state. A Zionist state is one, she emphasises, that is open to any Jew who knocks at the door. It follows therefore it is a state that must conserve land and potential water resources for the new arrivals: ‘Jews from all over the world’. Israel in this conception cannot be a multi-cultural state: It is fundamentally a conceptualisation of differential rights for Jew and non-Jew. Minorities claiming equal political rights within a Zionist state represent an internal contradiction, a threat to this vision of a state based on special rights for Jews......"

A dangerous shift on 1967 lines

US position on borders perhaps opens the door to dangerous Israeli ambitions to transfer non-Jewish citizens.

By Ali Abunimah
Al-Jazeera

"One of the more astonishing revelations in The Palestine Papers -- detailed records and minutes of the Middle East peace process leaked to Al Jazeera -- is that the administration of US President Barack Obama effectively repudiated the Road Map, which has formed the basis of the "peace process" since 2003. In doing so it has backed away even from commitments made by the George W. Bush administration and blown an irreparable hole in the already threadbare "two-state solution."

But even worse, the US position perhaps unwittingly opens the door to dangerous Israeli ambitions to transfer -- or ethnically cleanse -- non-Jewish Palestinian citizens of Israel in order to create an ethnically pure "Jewish state.".....

This is not only catastrophic for Palestinian rights and the prospects for justice, but represents a return to nineteenth century notions, banished in the wake of two world wars, that population groups can be traded between states without their consent as if they were mere pieces on a chess board."

Al-Jazeera Video: Al Jazeera interviews Abdel Bari Atwan, Editor Al-Quds Al-Arabi

"In the largest leak in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Al Jazeera has obtained 1,676 classified documents in total.

The documents are derived from a decade of meetings, internal emails, reports and studies, notes, maps and draft agreements.

They detail talks between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority, along with the United States.

However, the most controversial revelation so far is the apparent willingness of the Palestinian Authority to give concessions on disputed areas of Jerusalem.

Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) executive committee, said in his reaction to the revelations, "They want to compete with WikiLeaks and come up with parallel stories. But WikiLeaks doesn't bring those presenters or people such as Atwan in order to sensationalise and provoke and serve a preordained position."

Al Jazeera's Teymoor Nabili interviewed Adbel Bari Atwan, editor of the Al-Quds Al Arabi newspaper, the man in question named in Rabbo's reaction to the leaked documents."

Al-Jazeera Video: Swapping land in East Jerusalem

"Al Jazeera's Clayton Swisher explains the Palestinian Authority's offer to concede most of Israel's illegal settlements in East Jerusalem. "

Al-Jazeera Video: Erekat's act equals up to treason: Political analyst

"Talking to Al Jazeera, Mohammad Oweis, Palestinian-American political analyst, has said that Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat has lied to the Palestinian people and this equals up to treason."

Rashid Khalidi: Leaked "Palestine Papers" Underscore Weakness of Palestinian Authority, Rejectionism of Israel and U.S.

Democracy Now!
With Amy Goodman



"Newly-released documents show Palestinian negotiators agreed to give up large tracts of West Bank land, and nearly all of East Jerusalem, in peace talks with the Israeli government. The disclosure is among many contained in what is being called the "Palestine Papers"—over 1,700 files from inside Israeli-Palestinian negotiations dating from 1999 to 2010. The news network Al Jazeera began publishing details of the documents on Sunday. We speak with Columbia University professor, Rashid Khalidi...."

Documents reveal PA offered Israel "biggest Yerushalayim" in history

Report, The Electronic Intifada, 24 January 2011

".......More Palestine Papers documents will be released in the coming days.

Later this week, the network said it will expose details about compromises the PA has considered regarding the Palestinian refugees' right of return, as well as detailed information on the "security cooperation" plans between the PA and Israel.

Additionally, documents including "private exchanges between Palestinian and American negotiators in late 2009, when the Goldstone Report [on the 2008-09 Israeli assault on Gaza] was being discussed at the United Nations" will be released, Al Jazeera stated.

"The material is voluminous and detailed," the network said. "It provides an unprecedented look inside the continuing negotiations involving high-level American, Israeli, and Palestinian Authority officials."

The entire Palestine Papers archive is being made available online on the Al Jazeera English website: http://english.aljazeera.net/palestinepapers/."

The Palestinian papers: Pleading for a fig leaf

The secret notes suggest one requires Panglossian optimism to believe that these negotiations can one day be resurrected

Editorial
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 23 January 2011

".....One requires Panglossian optimism to believe that these negotiations can one day be resurrected. Nineteen years of redrawing the 1967 borders, of expanding the boundaries of Jerusalem, of refusal to accept the return of Palestinian refugees, and of pleading for a fig leaf, has sullied the concept of peace.

The Palestinian Authority may continue as an employer but, as of today, its legitimacy as negotiators will have all but ended on the Palestinian street. The two-state solution itself could just as swiftly perish with it. If that is to be saved, three things have to happen: America must drop its veto on Palestinian unity talks and take up Hamas's offer of a one-year ceasefire; a negotiating team that represents all major Palestinian factions must be formed; and Israel has to accept that a state created on 1967 borders, not around them, is the minimum price of an end to the conflict. The alternative is to allow the cancer of the existing one-state solution to grow and to prepare for the next war. No one will have to wait long for that."

The story behind the Palestine papers

How 1,600 confidential Palestinian records of negotiations with Israel from 1999 to 2010 came to be leaked to al-Jazeera

Seumas Milne and Ian Black
The Guardian, Monday 24 January 2011



"The revelations from the heart of the Israel-Palestine peace process are the product of the biggest documentary leak in the history of the Middle East conflict, and the most comprehensive exposure of the inside story of a decade of failed negotiations........

The documents – almost all of which are in English, which was the language used by both sides in negotiations – were leaked over a period of months from several sources to al-Jazeera. The bulk of them have been independently authenticated for the Guardian by former participants in the talks and by diplomatic and intelligence sources....."

Palestinian leaders weak – and increasingly desperate

Leaked documents show PA and PLO leaders pleading with dismissive US officials in face of Israel's unyielding negotiators

Seumas Milne
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 23 January 2011

"The overwhelming impression that emerges from the confidential records of a decade of Middle East peace talks is of the weakness and desperation of Palestinian leaders, the unyielding correctness of Israeli negotiators and the often contemptuous attitude towards the Palestinian side shown by US politicians and officials.

It is a picture that graphically illustrates the gradual breakdown of a process now widely believed to have reached a dead end. The documents reveal Palestinian Authority leaders often tipping over into making ingratiating appeals to their Israeli counterparts, as well as US leaders. "I would vote for you," the then senior Palestinian negotiator, Ahmed Qureia (also known as Abu Ala), told Tzipi Livni, Israel's foreign minister, during talks at the King David hotel in Jerusalem in June 2008, as she was preparing for elections in her Kadima party. Given the choice, Livni shot back, "you don't have much of a dilemma."....

Her predecessor, Rice, had been even more dismissive. In July 2008 during talks with Palestinian leaders over compensation for refugees who fled or were forced from their homes when Israel was established in 1948, she said: "Bad things happen to people all around the world all the time."

If the Palestinians kept insisting that Israel could not keep the large settlements of Ma'ale Adumim (near Jerusalem) and Ariel (in the heart of the West Bank), Rice told them: "You won't have a state". No Israeli leader could accept a deal "without including them in an Israeli state".

As to the most neuralgic issue – Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount holy sites in Jerusalem – she declared: "If we wait until you decide sovereignty ... your children's children will not have an agreement.""

This seemingly endless and ugly game of the peace process is now finally over

The peace process is a sham. Palestinians must reject their officials and rebuild their movement

A GREAT COMMENT
By Karma Nabulsi
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 23 January 2011

"It's over. Given the shocking nature, extent and detail of these ghastly revelations from behind the closed doors of the Middle East peace process, the seemingly endless and ugly game is now, finally, over. Not one of the villains on the Palestinian side can survive it. With any luck the sheer horror of this account of how the US and Britain covertly facilitated and even implemented Israeli military expansion – while creating an oligarchy to manage it – might overcome the entrenched interests and venality that have kept the peace process going. A small group of men who have polluted the Palestinian public sphere with their private activities are now exposed.

For us Palestinians, these detailed accounts of the secretly negotiated surrender of every one of our core rights under international law (of return for millions of Palestinian refugees, on annexing Arab Jerusalem, on settlements) are not a surprise. It is something that we all knew – in spite of official protests to the contrary – because we feel their destructive effects every day. The same is true of the outrageous role of the US and Britain in creating a security bantustan, and the ruin of our civic and political space. We already knew, because we feel its fatal effects.

For the overwhelming majority of Palestinians, official Palestinian policy over these past decades has been the antithesis of a legitimate, or representative, or even coherent strategy to obtain our long-denied freedom. But this sober appreciation of our current state of affairs, accompanied by the mass protests and civil society campaigns by Palestinian citizens, has been insufficient, until now, to rid us of it....

Whatever one's political leanings, no one, not the Americans, the British, the UN, and especially not these Palestinian officials, can claim that the whole racket is anything other than a brutal process of subjugating an entire people.

Why has this gone on for so long and at such high cost? And why haven't the Palestinians been able to create the democratic representation so urgently needed to advance their cause? ....

The Palestinian leadership's weak and incompetent posturing is the opposite of dignified and honourable national representation, and proves useless to boot.....

The increasingly popular view that the Palestinian revolution was a failure from its inception, always corrupt, driven from above and never from below, is false – but it has gained credibility through the actions of the current regime. Its behaviour has nearly erased the record of the contribution made by tens of thousands of ordinary Palestinian citizens who, through the sheer force of their devotion to public life, fought for principles and created real and democratic self-representation under the worst of conditions. It is our most valuable freedom, and one well worth fighting for: the release of these devastating documents paves the way for its restoration."

Secret papers reveal slow death of Middle East peace process

• Massive new leak lifts lid on negotiations
• PLO offered up key settlements in East Jerusalem
• Concessions made on refugees and Holy sites

Seumas Milne and Ian Black, Middle East editor
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 23 January 2011

"The biggest leak of confidential documents in the history of the Middle East conflict has revealed that Palestinian negotiators secretly agreed to accept Israel's annexation of all but one of the settlements built illegally in occupied East Jerusalem. This unprecedented proposal was one of a string of concessions that will cause shockwaves among Palestinians and in the wider Arab world.

A cache of thousands of pages of confidential Palestinian records covering more than a decade of negotiations with Israel and the US has been obtained by al-Jazeera TV and shared exclusively with the Guardian. The papers provide an extraordinary and vivid insight into the disintegration of the 20-year peace process, which is now regarded as all but dead.

The documents – many of which will be published by the Guardian over the coming days – also reveal:

• The scale of confidential concessions offered by Palestinian negotiators, including on the highly sensitive issue of the right of return of Palestinian refugees.
• How Israeli leaders privately asked for some Arab citizens to be transferred to a new Palestinian state.
• The intimate level of covert co-operation between Israeli security forces and the Palestinian Authority.
• The central role of British intelligence in drawing up a secret plan to crush Hamas in the Palestinian territories.
• How Palestinian Authority (PA) leaders were privately tipped off about Israel's 2008-9 war in Gaza.

As well as the annexation of all East Jerusalem settlements except Har Homa, the Palestine papers show PLO leaders privately suggested swapping part of the flashpoint East Jerusalem Arab neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah for land elsewhere.

Most controversially, they also proposed a joint committee to take over the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount holy sites in Jerusalem's Old City ......

Many of the 1,600 leaked documents – drawn up by PA officials and lawyers working for the British-funded PLO negotiations support unit and include extensive verbatim transcripts of private meetings – have been independently authenticated by the Guardian and corroborated by former participants in the talks and intelligence and diplomatic sources. The Guardian's coverage is supplemented by WikiLeaks cables, emanating from the US consulate in Jerusalem and embassy in Tel Aviv......

The overall impression that emerges from the documents, which stretch from 1999 to 2010, is of the weakness and growing desperation of PA leaders as failure to reach agreement or even halt all settlement temporarily undermines their credibility in relation to their Hamas rivals; the papers also reveal the unyielding confidence of Israeli negotiators and the often dismissive attitude of US politicians towards Palestinian representatives....."

Giving Away Palestine, Creatively. Because Life is "Negotiations."

They Have Already Agreed to Liquidate the Palestinian Cause.....
Where Are the Palestinian People? Do They Exist? Do They Matter? Do They Care?

The Great Tunisian Poet Said, "If the People Choose Life, Then Destiny Will Oblige!"

The Palestinian People are Not Sure if They Want Life.

Can I Get The Tunisian Citizenship, Please?

Al-Jazeera Video: Discussing the Palestine Papers

"Shlomo Ben Ami, former Israeli Forign Minister, Daud Abdullah, director of Middle east monitor UK and Ali Abunimah, co-founder of Electronic Intifada make up the panel of analysts who discuss the Palestine Papers."

Part 1:



Part 2:



Part 3:

Al-Jazeera Video: Creativity on the Haram

Al-Jazeera Video: "The biggest Yerushalayim in Jewish history"

مفتي السعودية يحرّم قتل النفس حرقاً للاحتجاج

3 days ago I was challenged by a commenter to provide information/link which proves that what I had wrote about Islamists condemning Bouazizi's immolation as "unislamic" was correct. I had no time then to dig up for what I had read here and there in its time. Fortunately today I discover this bit of news which tends to prove that not only I wasn't hallucinating, but also that my point that there are as many who speak of themselves as authorities on this matter as others claiming the same right saying the contrary..
And no I'm not asking for an apology although it would be appreciated!

بقلم أريبيان بزنسThis email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it في يوم الجمعة, 21 يناير 2011

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أصدر المفتي العام للسعودية فتوى بتحريم قتل النفس حرقاً للاحتجاج، داعياً المسلمين إلى الصبر والاحتساب بعد أن شهدت دول عربية عدة حوادث من هذا النوع.

ذكرت وكالة "فرانس برس" نقلاً عن صحيفة "الحياة" اللندنية الجمعة، أن الشيخ "عبد العزيز آل الشيخ" حرم قتل النفس حتى وإن كانت الظروف المعيشية صعبة، وأكد أن قتل النفس بالإحراق جريمة نكراء.

وأضاف مفتي السعودية في محاضرة ألقاها في الرياض: "إن إحراق وقتل النفس من كبائر الذنوب وهو إقدام على شر، بل على المرء الصبر والاحتساب وبذل الأسباب النافعة والإقدام".

وقال: "إن قتل النفس بالحرق جريمة نكرة ومصيبة عظمى لا يجوز انتشارها بين المسلمين ولا ينبغي للمسلم اللجوء لمثل هذا العمل الذي يعد انتحاراً، وانتقد المفتي من يطبل ويعظم هذه الممارسة، معتبراً أن هؤلاء من ضعفاء الإيمان والنفوس، وشهدت دول عربية عدة خلال الأيام الأخيرة العديد من محاولات الانتحار حرقاً. وهو من الجرائم النكرة، وهذه الأعمال تشوه صورة المسلمين، وعلى المسلم التحمل والصبر
".

تنازلات غير مسبوقة للسلطة بالحرم

Erekat's solution for the Haram

The PA's chief negotiator suggested unprecedented compromises on the division of Jerusalem and its holy sites."

"Saeb Erekat, the chief negotiator of the Palestinian Authority (PA), had suggested unprecedented compromises on the division of Jerusalem and its holy sites, the Palestine Papers obtained by Al Jazeera show.

Minutes of negotiations at the US State Department in Washington DC indicate that Erekat was willing to concede control over the Haram al-Sharif, or Temple Mount, to the oversight of an international committee.


The highly controversial issue of who controls the Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary), home of the Al Aqsa mosque - Islam’s third holiest site - has been a major sticking point during decades of negotiations between Israelis and the Palestinians...."

خرائط لتنازل السلطة بشأن الاستيطان

"أظهرت خرائط قدمها الوفد الفلسطيني المفاوض لتكون أساسا لدولته المفترضة -وفقا لمحاضر سرية حصلت عليها الجزيرة- مستوىً كبيرا من التنازل بشأن مستوطنات كل من القدس والضفة الغربية.

ففي اجتماع في الرابع من مايو/أيار 2008 قدم الوفد الفلسطيني برئاسة رئيس طاقم المفاوضات في السلطة الفلسطينية أحمد قريع إلى المفاوضين الإسرائيليين هذه الخرائط، مشفوعة بتأكيد من قريع على أن "هناك مصلحة مشتركة في الإبقاء على بعض المستوطنات
...."

EXPLOSIVE!! Introducing The Palestine Papers

Al Jazeera has obtained more than 1,600 internal documents from a decade of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

"Over the last several months, Al Jazeera has been given unhindered access to the largest-ever leak of confidential documents related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There are nearly 1,700 files, thousands of pages of diplomatic correspondence detailing the inner workings of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. These documents – memos, e-mails, maps, minutes from private meetings, accounts of high level exchanges, strategy papers and even power point presentations – date from 1999 to 2010.

The material is voluminous and detailed; it provides an unprecedented look inside the continuing negotiations involving high-level American, Israeli, and Palestinian Authority officials.

Al Jazeera will release the documents between January 23-26th, 2011. They will reveal new details about:

•the Palestinian Authority’s willingness to concede illegal Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem, and to be “creative” about the status of the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount;
•the compromises the Palestinian Authority was prepared to make on refugees and the right of return;
•details of the PA’s security cooperation with Israel;
•and private exchanges between Palestinian and American negotiators in late 2009, when the Goldstone Report was being discussed at the United Nations.

Because of the sensitive nature of these documents, Al Jazeera will not reveal the source(s) or detail how they came into our possession. We have taken great care over an extended period of time to assure ourselves of their authenticity.

We believe this material will prove to be of inestimable value to journalists, scholars, historians, policymakers and the general public.

We know that some of what is presented here will prove controversial, but it is our intention to inform, not harm, to spark debate and reflection – not dampen it. Our readers and viewers will note that we have provided a comments section in which to express opinions. In keeping with our editorial policies, we reserve the right to excise comments that we deem inappropriate, but all civil voices will be heard, all opinions respected.

We present these papers as a service to our viewers and readers as a reflection of our fundamental belief – that public debate and public policies grow, flourish and endure when given air and light."

"The biggest Yerushalayim"

PA offered to concede almost all of East Jerusalem, an historic concession for which Israel offered nothing in return

Al-Jazeera

".....But The Palestine Papers reveal that Israel had no reason to halt construction in Ramat Shlomo. That’s because Palestinian negotiators agreed in 2008 to allow Israel to annex this settlement, along with almost every other bit of illegal construction in the Jerusalem area – an historic concession for which they received nothing in return.

"We proposed that Israel annexes all settlements"

The unprecedented offer by the PA came in a June 15 trilateral meeting in Jerusalem, involving Condoleezza Rice, the then-US secretary of state, Tzipi Livni, the then-Israeli foreign minister, Ahmed Qurei, PA's former prime minister, and Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator.

Qurei: This last proposition could help in the swap process. We proposed that Israel annexes all settlements in Jerusalem except Jabal Abu Ghneim (Har Homa). This is the first time in history that we make such a proposition; we refused to do so in Camp David.

Erekat went on to enumerate some of the settlements that the PA was willing to concede: French Hill, Ramat Alon, Ramat Shlomo, Gilo, Talpiot, and the Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem’s old city. Those areas contain some 120,000 Jewish settlers. (Erekat did not mention the fate of other major East Jerusalem settlements, like Pisgat Ze’ev and Neve Ya’akov, but Qurei’s language indicates that they would also remain a part of Israel.)....."

A New Al-Jazeera Site for Publishing 1,600 Secret Documents Revealing the Collaboration and Sellout of the PA!

موقع خاص لنشر الوثائق

"أطلقت شبكة الجزيرة موقعا جديدا سمته "كشاف الجزيرة" يتضمن نحو 1600 وثيقة حول المفاوضات الفلسطينية الإسرائيلية التي جرت خلال عدة سنوات.

ويستهدف إطلاع المهتمين على ما يدور في غرف السياسيين المغلقة أو ما يتاح من أسرار حول قصص الفساد ومواضيع انتهاك حقوق الإنسان، وغير ذلك.

وتبدأ الشبكة اليوم كشف العديد من الوثائق المرتبطة بالمفاوضات الإسرائيلية الفلسطينية، بادئة بالقدس، فيما تتضمن الايام التالية وثائق ومعلومات حول اللاجئين والتنسيق الأمني بين السلطة الفلسطينية وإسرائيل، وفيما بعد الأسرار المرتبطة بالعدوان على غزة قبل سنتين، وتأجيل تقرير غولدستون ومواضيع أخرى مهمة.

ولللاطلاع على الوثائق الأصلية، التي ستنشر تباعا والانتقال إلى موقع الكشاف

اضغط هنا."

This is a Part of a Huge Bomb Shell: Al-Jazeera Started Airing (and posting) Secret Details of Negotiations Between Israel and the Puppet PA!

وثائق سرية تكشف تنازلات السلطة بالقدس

"كشفت وثائق سرية اطلعت عليها الجزيرة أن السلطة الفلسطينية تنازلت عن المطالب بإزالة كل المستوطنات الإسرائيلية في القدس الشرقية باستثناء مستوطنة جبل أبوغنيم أو "هارحوما" بحسب التسمية الإسرائيلية، وأبدت استعدادها لتقديم تنازلات غير مسبوقة في الحرم الشريف وحييْ الأرمن والشيخ جراح.

وأظهرت محاضر جلسات المحادثات المتعلقة بما بات يعرف بـقضايا الوضع النهائي في المفاوضات الفلسطينية الإسرائيلية أن مفاوضي السلطة قبلوا بأن تضم إسرائيل كل المستوطنات في القدس الشرقية باستثناء مستوطنة جبل أبوغنيم.

وبحسب محضر اجتماع بتاريخ 15 يونيو/ حزيران 2008 حضره مفاوضون أميركيون وإسرائيليون، قال رئيس طاقم المفاوضات في السلطة الفلسطينية أحمد قريع إن "هذا المقترح الأخير يمكن أن يساعد في عملية التبادل".

وأضاف "اقترحنا أن تضم إسرائيل كل المستوطنات في القدس ما عدا جبل أبوغنيم (هارحوما)". ويتابع "هذه أول مرة في التاريخ نقدم فيها مقترحا كهذا وقد رفضنا أن نفعل ذلك في كامب ديفد".
وقد مثل حديث قريع هذا خلاصة صريحة وواضحة لما عرضه -بالخرائط- الوفد الفلسطيني المفاوض برئاسته في الرابع من مايو/أيار 2008، وهو الاجتماع نفسه الذي قال فيه قريع للإسرائيليين إن هناك مصلحة مشتركة في الإبقاء على بعض المستوطنات.
....."

War is Peace...Freedom is Slavery...and Islamic Leader Ghanoushi Praises Gadhafi for "Supporting Tunisian Revolution!" What a LIE!

Islamic Leaders for $Sale to the Highest Bidder!
الزعيم الاسلامي التونسي راشد الغنوشي يشيد بدور القذافي في دعم الثورة الشعبية في بلاده

"طرابلس - اشاد راشد الغنوشي رئيس حزب النهضة الاسلامي المحظور في تونس بدور الزعيم الليبي معمر القذافي في دعم "الثورة الشعبية" في تونس، وذلك في اتصال هاتفي اجراه مع سيف الاسلام نجل القذافي بحسب ما ذكرت صحيفة قورينا الليبية الاحد.
واوردت صحيفة قورينا القريبة من سيف الاسلام ان الغنوشي اكد لسيف الاسلام "نحن على دراية بموقف القائد (القذافي) المساند دائما للشعوب فقد دأب طوال مسيرته على دعم الثورة الشعبية وحرض عليها".

واضاف "اننا نعرف حقيقة موقف القائد معمر القذافي من طبيعة التغيير الذي شهدته تونس، فهي ليست ثورة احزاب او نخبة".

واشار الغنوشي الى ان مسميات وآلية عمل اللجان الشعبية التي شكلها التونسيون للحافظ على الامن عقب الاطاحة بالرئيس زين العابدين بن علي "تقترب كثيرا مما تطبقه ليبيا في عملية التسيير الشعبي".

وكان الزعيم الليبي معمر القذافي اعلن غداة الانتفاضة الشعبية في تونس التي اطاحت ببن علي انه "متألم جدا" للاطاحة بالرئيس التونسي الذي "لا يوجد احسن منه في هذه الفترة" لرئاسة تونس.

وفي كلمة موجهة الى "الشعب التونسي الشقيق" بثتها وسائل الاعلام الرسمية قال القذافي "انا معكم ومتألم جدا وانا قريب منكم (...) وان شاء الله تعودون لرشدكم وتضمدون جراحكم"، مشيدا في جزء كبير من كلمته ببن علي.

ونقلت صحيفة قورينا ايضا عن راشد الغنوشي قوله لسيف الإسلام "إننا نعرف أنكم قاطعتم زين العابدين بن علي منذ ست سنوات عندما رفض الاستجابة لوساطتكم بإطلاق سراح سجناء حزب النهضة".

واضاف الغنوشي "ولاحظنا أنكم قد امتنعتم منذ ذلك الحين عن زيارة تونس (...) سنلتقي المرة القادمة في تونس بعد أن تعودنا أن نلتقي دائما في المنفى".

واعلن الغنوشي زعيم حزب النهضة الاسلامي التونسي المقيم حاليا في منفاه بلندن والذي يتطلع الى العفو، في حديث مع مجلة در شبيغل الالمانية ينشر الاثنين، انه يأمل في العودة "قريبا جدا" الى تونس.

وقد اسس راشد الغنوشي حركة النهضة الاسلامية سنة 1981 مع مفكرين من انصار جماعة الاخوان المسلمين في مصر.

وبعد ان كان متسامحا معه لدى توليه السلطة سنة 1987، قمع الرئيس المخلوع زين العابدين بن علي الحزب بعد انتخابات 1989 التي حصلت فيها النهضة على 17% من اصوات الناخبين.

وغادر الغنوشي اثرها تونس الى الجزائر ثم لندن وفي 1992 حكم عليه غيابيا بالسجن مدى الحياة مع مسؤولين اخرين بتهمة التآمر على الرئيس.
"

Al-Jazeera Video: Tunisian 'Caravan of Liberation' reaches Tunis

"Tunisians who defied an overnight curfew to march towards the capital, are demanding the resignation of the interim prime minister.

They described their journey as a "Caravan of Liberation".

But the interim prime minister and his cabinet are refusing to bow to public pressure.

From Tunis, Hashem Ahelbarra reports. "

Al-Jazeera Video: Tunisian media free of fear. Yes, Believe it or not, Arabs are Capable of Thinking and Speaking Freely! Who Would Have Thunk That?

"One of the outcomes of Tunisia's revolution has been a clear increase in media freedoms.

The La Presse newspaper in Tunis has a new editor and a new outlook. The paper that tended to carry the president's picture on the front of each edition is now focused on reporting that is free of fear.

Books once banned are now on display publicly, and radio stations host call-in shows where people are free to air their views.

From Tunis, Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin reports."

Religion to the Rescue of the Arab Regimes: Dispirited Arabs Burning for Change

By Cam McGrath

"CAIRO, Jan 23, 2011 (IPS) - Upset over a policy that prevented him from buying subsidised food, Egyptian restaurant owner Abdou Abdel Moneim travelled to Cairo to find someone in parliament to help. When security officers prevented him from submitting his complaint to MPs entering parliament, the 49-year-old man doused himself in fuel and cursed the Egyptian regime as he disappeared into a ball of fire.

Abdel Moneim survived with severe burns to his legs and face, but by the end of the day similar incidents had occurred in three different North African countries. In the past week, nearly two dozen attempted self-immolations have been reported across the Arab world, three of them fatal.

The horrifying public suicide attempts echo the iconic act of Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old Tunisian who set himself on fire in mid-December after police confiscated the produce cart he was using to make a living. Bouazizi died weeks later of his burns, but his desperate act triggered protests that eventually led Tunisian president Zine Al-Abdine Ben Ali to flee the North African country he had ruled with an iron fist for 23 years.....

Arab governments have appealed to religious leaders to stress Islam’s injunctions against suicide in order to discourage Muslim youth from taking their own life. Imams at state-monitored mosques in Egypt and Algeria condemned self-immolation during their weekly sermons on Friday, claiming suicidal thoughts stemmed from a lack of faith[What was that thing about religion being the opiate of the masses?].

Al-Azhar, the highest authority in Sunni Islam, issued a statement last week reaffirming that suicide violates Islam even when it is carried out as a social or political protest.

"Islam categorically forbids suicide for any reason and does not accept the separation of souls from bodies as an expression of stress, anger or protest," its spokesman said.

Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, the spiritual leader of Egypt’s outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, had a different take on the state-endorsed message. In a statement the influential cleric urged Arab youth to honour the sanctity of life, blaming repressive regimes for conditions that have driven them to despair.

"Dear young men, take care of your life because it is a great bounty from Allah, and do not set yourself on fire as it is the tyrants who should burn. Be patient, endure and be steadfast. Tomorrow will come soon enough [Inshallah, Bukra, Ma'lish (IBM)]." "

Witness for Gaza's victims of conflict - audio slideshow

Photographer Kai Wiedenhöfer talks about his compelling photographs documenting the damage left after Israel's assault on Gaza in 2009, published in The Book of Destruction.

The book is published by Steidl/Fondation Carmignac Getion in June. The Book of Destruction exhibition is at The Mosaic Rooms, London, from 28 January to 6 June

Jim Powell, Peter Beaumont and Ben Kape
The Observer, Sunday 23 January 2011

This is an audio and slide show.

Victim tells of ordeal in Tunisia's jails

Savagely beaten after being pushed from an upstairs window by police, a newly released Adem Boukadida talks of a corrupt regime's daily brutality

Peter Beaumont in Tunis
The Observer, Sunday 23 January 2011

"When the guards came to release Adem Boukadida with 20 other men from the white-walled compound of Tunisia's Mornghouia prison, just outside the capital, Tunis, they told him: "Go and get your stuff." That's all.

The 30-year-old graduate of Al-Azhar University, which the old regime of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali regarded with suspicion for its Islamist links, could barely walk.

The stories of men like Boukadida, finally released last Thursday, fuel the continuing anger against those in the interim government who were closely associated with the Ben Ali regime. The stories are of brutality, corruption and everyday cruelty at the hands of his police state. These accounts are at last emerging uncensored on television and radio and in the press.....

Tunisia's new government has said it will pay compensation to prisoners who suffered under the 23-year regime of Ben Ali. But Boukadida is anxious that those who tortured him should be brought to account, which he believes will happen.

"I'm sure those who did this to me will be brought to justice and made to account for their criminal acts."....."

Egypt's frustrated young wait for their lives to begin, and dream of revolution

In Cairo, as in places all over the country, all eyes are fixed on the drama that is unfolding in Tunisia. Jack Shenker travelled across Egypt and heard people increasingly asking: could it happen here, and if so, when?

A GOOD, LONG ARTICLE

Jack Shenker
The Observer, Sunday 23 January 2011

"...."We couldn't believe our eyes," grinned Shamad, recalling the sight of Tunisia's ousted despot, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, fleeing a land he had ruled for 23 years. "I'm so proud of the Tunisian people. When you see a friend or brother succeeding in some great struggle, it gives you hope, hope for yourself and hope for your country."

In common with two-thirds of Egypt's population, Shamad has lived his entire life under the presidency of Hosni Mubarak, a key western ally whose three-decade grip over one of the most pivotal states in the Arab world has looked marginally more shaky following the events in Tunisia.....

"It's not as if we want to sit here passively and accept the situation," Shamad said. "But the instinct of our generation is to avoid the state, not confront it. I know that there are big demonstrations planned for next Tuesday, but we're taught from birth to be fearful of the police. They know how to hurt you, and hurt the ones you love."

Tuesday's demonstrations will take the form of a nationwide set of anti-Mubarak protests, dubbed "revolution day" by opposition activists who hope that Tunisia's uprising will embolden the vast number of individuals like Shamad and persuade them that the time is right to make their voices heard......

"At the informal level – blogs, social media – there's been an explosion of political activity, entirely disconnected from the official mechanisms of government," said Amr Hamzawy, research director at the Carnegie Middle East Centre in Beirut. Yet this dynamism has largely failed to spill on to the street, where Mubarak's ubiquitous security apparatus still maintains near-total control. The only sector of society that has succeeded in physically occupying areas controlled by the state is Egypt's beleaguered workforce, which has confronted the regime over a range of economic grievances and succeeded in extracting concessions.

"This is where the regime is most fearful," said Gamila Ismail, a dissident politician who unsuccessfully challenged the NDP in the recent elections. "They don't want the young, online activists with their political demands linking up and inspiring the labour force who are campaigning for a better standard of living. If youth in Cairo and Alexandria are connecting with Mahalla, then the government knows it is in trouble."[This should be a part of the strategy! This is how they did it in Tunisia.].....

... "Of course, we are all excited about Tunisia; the people there threw off their shackles and I pray we could do the same," said Mahmoud Abdel Halim, 29, a construction worker. "But I don't see how we could repeat Tunisia here. I haven't heard about any protests, and even if I had it's not like I can afford to stop work and go and get arrested [Here is the problem in Egypt: not enough people willing to take the risk.].".......

Not everyone agrees. Another 70 miles north-west, in a wood-panelled Alexandrian coffee shop facing the Mediterranean, Hossam al-Wakeel shook his head angrily at the suggestion that his own organisation, the Muslim Brotherhood, was betraying the anti-Mubarak movement by refusing to participate in Tuesday's "revolution day".[That is the "Brotherhood" for you! What weasels!]

"Will those coming out on Tuesday bring down the regime? I think not," said al-Wakeel, 23, a journalist. "The Muslim Brotherhood believes that change must come from below, that we must rebuild society layer by layer as part of a gradual process, not chase revolution [What a cop out! These people are not interested in revolution, they just want a place at the Pharaoh's dinner table.] and impose new leaders from the top." Earnest, cardigan-clad and sporting a trim black beard, Wakeel explained why he had thrown in his lot with the only opposition movement that has the capacity to bring hundreds of thousands on to the streets – and yet persistently refuses to do so.....

It seems doubtful that protests on Tuesday will provide that spark, although anything could transpire on the day. But when the spark does come, there can be no doubt the country's angry youth will be leading the way."