RSS
Anti-Israel Activists, Lawmakers Largely Silent After US Waives Human Rights Conditions on Military Aid to Egypt
People take part in pro-Hamas protest in Brussels, Belgium, Nov. 11, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Yves Herman
After the US decided to waive human rights conditions in order to send military aid to Egypt, many of the prominent advocates of an arms embargo on weapons sales to Israel remained silent, raising questions about consistency.
On Wednesday, the Biden administration announced it would override human rights concerns in order to send $1.3 billion in military to Egypt. This is the first time the Biden administration has sent the full amount of assistance since it took power in 2021, as a portion of the aid is conditional.
A review of social media posts by The Algemeiner found that many of the most outspoken supporters of imposing a US arms embargo on Israel have remained silent regarding Washington waiving human rights conditions on Egypt’s aid.
US Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Cori Bush (D-MO), and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), along with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), have not commented on the waiving of human rights conditions, despite making human rights as it relates to foreign policy a central theme of their respective terms recently. Major anti-Israel groups such as Code Pink have also not spoken against the decision on Egypt, despite their intense focus on foreign affairs issues.
The fact that such leaders and organizations have remained silent on the issue — yet been so vocal when it comes to opposing Israel — raises questions about whether their true motivations have been concern with human rights or if they were primarily political, performative, or motivated by a particular animus or a double standard toward Israel.
Some, however, have remained more consistent.
US Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) spoke out against the move on X/Twitter.
“It should be simple: don’t sell arms to anyone who violates human rights,” she wrote. “We should not be sending this aid to one of the worst human rights abusers in the world. Not only have they failed to make clear progress on releasing political prisoners, they were caught bribing the former Chair of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee.”
Omar was referring to US Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) being convicted in July of accepting bribes of gold and cash from three New Jersey businessmen and acting as an agent for the Egyptian government.
Human Rights Watch, which has been intensely critical of Israel both during the current war with Hamas and prior to it as well, also criticized the US’s decision. “The decision to roll through them might seem to serve a short-term gain but only adds to impunity for the Egyptian government as it continues its assault on its own population,” its Washington director said. “Rights protections for the Egyptian people are the point of these congressional conditions.”
Human Rights Watch noted that “in May 2024, a prominent opposition leader was imprisoned for trying to challenge President [Abdel Farrah el-] Sisi in the December 2023 elections. In recent weeks, Egyptian authorities arbitrarily detained and referred for prosecution at least four critics of the government for exercising their freedom of expression.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, “This decision is important to advancing regional peace and Egypt’s specific and ongoing contributions to US national security priorities, particularly to finalize a ceasefire agreement for Gaza, bring the hostages home, surge humanitarian assistance for Palestinians in need, and help bring an enduring end to the Israel-Hamas conflict.”
There had previously been concern that Egypt was helping or at least not trying to stop Hamas from using the Gaza-Egypt border to smuggle weapons as well.
However, it was recently discovered by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that none of the nine tunnels Israel identified in Gaza as crossing into Egypt were currently operational, suggesting Egypt had taken some steps to stop the smuggling.
Claims that such tunnels were operational were key in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s argument that it was important to take — and retain — the Philadelphi Corridor on Gaza’s border with Egypt. The issue became a major sticking point in the failure to achieve a hostage deal last month.
The post Anti-Israel Activists, Lawmakers Largely Silent After US Waives Human Rights Conditions on Military Aid to Egypt first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Treasure Trove: An Israeli stamp reflects the complex mix of emotions about Oct. 7
Michelle Shalmiev was born in a village in the Caucasian mountains and immigrated to Israel and settled on a kibbutz when she was 14. Her series “Putting Your Stamp on History” […]
The post Treasure Trove: An Israeli stamp reflects the complex mix of emotions about Oct. 7 appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
RSS
Download a special Oct. 7 print edition of The Canadian Jewish News
Printable obituaries of eight Canadian victims and more of our original coverage.
The post Download a special Oct. 7 print edition of The Canadian Jewish News appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
RSS
The Jewish People Perform Another Miracle
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is seen addressing supporters, in Beirut, Lebanon. Photo: Reuters.
JNS.org – This Oct. 7 will not only be an anniversary of tears, of pure contrition, even if the memory is burning as the people of Israel live. As to how, it wasn’t at all obvious. Our whole history is made of miracles—from the splitting of the sea to escape from the Egyptians to the Inquisition to the pogroms to the thousand other genocidal attacks to which the Jews have been subjected. In every case, the results are always incredible and surprising, especially for how we have emerged active, faithful to our Torah tradition and committed to the return to Jerusalem until we made it happen.
The War of Independence in 1948 was fought by concentration-camp veterans, yet we defeated all the Arab armies, united in hatred, who marched against us. Later, in 1967, 1973 wars were won by a hair’s breadth with miraculous strokes of imagination and leaders who gave birth to ideas that people would have expected. No one would have ever bet a euro, penny or shekel on the idea that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and his entire hierarchy could be eliminated, petrifying Iran, especially since we have already reduced its other favorite proxy, Hamas, to pieces. And now we have bombed Iran’s other proxy, the Houthis, some 2,000 kilometers away, destroying the airport from which they receive their weapons and aid from the ayatollahs. The Islamic Republic’s leader, Ali Khamenei, is reportedly hiding underground, the Iraqi and Syrian Shi’ites are waiting to see if they are next, and cities controlled by Tehran are shaking.
As President Joe Biden said, it is a measure of justice, but one that Israel has undertaken in an impossible fashion, defending its citizens amid a thousand prohibitions with determination and without fear. Only in this way can a 76-year-old young state, which has been attacked from all sides, defend itself. The country’s existence is the latest chapter in the history of a people born many millennia ago in the Land of Israel, who are finally back home and defending their state.
The war is certainly not over, as Hezbollah reportedly had 100,000 fighters. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knows that he must see this fight through to the end, despite the international pressure to which Israel has been subjected for nearly a year. Israel’s leadership understands that its very existence is at definitive risk if there is no “new Middle East” in the aftermath of Oct. 7.
While previous generations and Israeli leaders hoped that peace agreements would establish peace in the region, today’s leaders know that there is also a need for battle to stop those who, dominated by absurd fanatical and religious beliefs, wish to kill you. (After all, what do the Houthi rebels in Yemen have to do with the Jews and Israel?)
This is the lesson of our time—not just for Israel and the Jewish people but for everyone. The Jewish people are writing a new page in history, one in which the free world must write and fight alongside them, as it is a battle for the survival of Western ideals. Israel has eliminated the two most dangerous terrorist groups in the world—Hamas and Hezbollah—with operations that will set a precedent for decades. And it challenges Iran. I would like to hear the applause, please.
The post The Jewish People Perform Another Miracle first appeared on Algemeiner.com.