We welcome your comments to this and any other CIJR publication. Please address your response to: Rob Coles, Publications Chairman, Canadian Institute for Jewish Research, PO Box 175, Station H, Montreal QC H3G 2K7 – Tel: (514) 486-5544 – Fax:(514) 486-8284; E-mail: rob@isranet.wpsitie.com
Tunisia Takes on Militants, Pushes Back Against Shariah Law: Sarah Lynch, USA Today, Mar. 31, 2014— Islamist militants across North Africa have been fighting governments in Egypt, Libya, Algeria and Mali for not imposing harsh Shariah law.
How the U.S. Can Help North Africa's Democracy Champion: Isobel Coleman, Foreign Policy, Apr. 3, 2014 — On April 4, Tunisia's Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa will meet with President Obama during an official visit to Washington, and will kick off the first session of the Tunisian-American strategic dialogue.
Egypt Is on the Brink of Chaos. Here’s Why It Should Matter to Washington: Lee Smith, Tablet, Apr. 2, 2014 — It was no surprise last week when Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Egypt’s de facto leader, announced his plans to run for president in the country’s next round of elections.
Imprisoned Journalist Mohamed Fahmy Symbolizes Autocrats’ Brutal Backlash Against the Arab Spring: Jonathan Kay, National Post, Apr. 7, 2014— “I drink alcohol” may seem like an odd way to protest your innocence in a Muslim country.
A Look at Mideast Judicial Systems: Associated Press, Mar. 25, 2014
Even Out of Office, a Wielder of Great Power in Yemen: Robert F. Worth, New York Times, Jan. 31, 2014
Syria’s Displaced Children Need Our Help: Vanessa Saraiva, National Post, Feb. 14, 2014
Former Dubai Police Chief Was a Hero in the Arab World Until He Said He’d Help Israel: Joseph Braude, Tablet, Feb. 19, 2014
PUSHES BACK AGAINST SHARIAH LAW
Sarah Lynch
USA Today, Mar, 31, 2014
Islamist militants across North Africa have been fighting governments in Egypt, Libya, Algeria and Mali for not imposing harsh Shariah law. But Tunisia is pushing back. The first to cast off a dictator and herald the Arab Spring uprisings elsewhere, Tunisia has been dealing with political unrest and terrorism from those who hoped to take advantage of the uncertain times to establish a Muslim theocracy. Yet this country seems intent on not letting go of the fledgling democracy that came out of its Jasmine Revolution, to date perhaps the most successful of the Arab Spring. The protest movement that began with a simple act — a desperate fruit vendor set himself on fire in December 2010 — and gave rise to uprisings across the country that led to the ouster of longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011.
The country has developed significant counterterrorism forces that have been given the means to fight back, say analysts. And the government is infiltrating the once-sacrosanct haven of the mosque to root out imams accused of inciting violence. “I would describe the overall sweep as a stunning success for the first phase of the crackdown,” said Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Places like Benghazi and the Egyptian North Sinai are under widespread militant sway, and Mali needed a French invasion force to turn back a 2013 Islamist insurgency. Militias roam Libya flush with weapons liberated from the stores of the deceased dictator Moammar Gadhafi, and in some cities control major governing functions. The northern Sinai is a nearly lawless zone where weapons trafficking is rampant. Al-Qaeda has infiltrated Western Iraq and has resisted Baghdad military efforts to force it out.
Tunisian authorities have faced billowing security threats as well. In August, security forces launched heavy air and artillery strikes on militant hideouts in the Mount Chaambi area and have attacked repeatedly there for months. More than 20 members of Tunisia’s security forces were killed last year during operations against Islamist militants in the western portion of the country. In 2013, two well-known secular political figures who opposed overt religious influence in the government were assassinated. In February, Islamist militants ambushed Tunisia security forces in the west of the country, killing three policemen. Earlier that month police killed seven militants armed with suicide bomb vests and explosives in a raid just north of the capital.
Gen. Carter Ham, who headed the U.S. Army’s Africa Command, warned last year that al-Qaeda was trying to get a foothold in Tunisia. But Tunisia’s response has been forceful. The Interior ministry created “crisis cells” to gather intelligence on terrorist activity and act on it. Last year 1,343 defendants were prosecuted in connection to terrorism, according to Tunisia Interior Minister Lotfi Ben Jeddou. Weapons caches were also seized, including 250 rockets, more than 200 homemade bombs and over 350 guns. In a recent visit, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry heralded Tunisia’s security operations as “well carried out, well planned and well executed.” He also announced that the U.S. would give the nation a mobile crime lab for police forensics investigations and a high-tech mobile command post vehicle for conducting terrorism investigations.
Militancy in the Arab world is often fueled by repressive political policies; many experts say Tunisia is wisely steering away from despotic edicts that have rocked Arab Spring movements in Egypt and Libya.
More than three years after its 2010 revolution, the country is moving toward elections based on a new constitution passed with broad support among competing parties. “Tunisian politicians and the political system in general have just graduated from elementary school to middle school — where you always squabble and you’re not too mature … to now having a bit of a structure, more knowledge and a bit more experience,” said Firas BenAchour, president and founding member of Tunisian American Young Professionals, a Washington-based association. “We’re moving from the self-serving politicians, or their political parties, to actually meeting the needs of the people or the country.”
Things looked bleak in July when massive protests were going on against the government because of the assassination of a popular political rival to the ruling Islamist Ennahda Party. The party, which won elections in 2010, blamed the murder on radical adherents of harsh Islamic law known as Salafists. In response, Ennahda entered into negotiations with rival parties to make long-delayed reforms to the political system. The National Constituent Assembly approved a new constitution endorsed by 200 of 217 members of the body that wrote the draft. And in January, Ennahda stepped down from power to allow an appointed government to preside over new elections in a peaceful relinquishing of power not seen elsewhere in the region from elected Islamist parties. Ennahda’s party leader, Rachid Ghannouhchi, said at the time that, “Tunisia will not follow the Egyptian scenario. We will hold on.” Noureddine Arbaoui, a member of Ennahda’s executive bureau, said the party chose to compromise to serve the country’s collective interests. “Among the five countries of the Arab Spring — Tunisia, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Egypt — Tunisia has reached the right political climate and a certain stability,” he said. “The passing of the constitution proves Tunisians left their clashes and differences behind and they now coexist and live together peacefully.”…
[To Read the Full Article Click the Following Link –Ed.]
HOW THE U.S. CAN HELP NORTH AFRICA'S
Isobel Coleman
Foreign Policy, Apr. 3, 2014
On April 4, Tunisia's Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa will meet with President Obama during an official visit to Washington, and will kick off the first session of the Tunisian-American strategic dialogue. Tunisia has a population of just 10 million and little in the way of natural resources, yet it matters enormously. It is the only Arab Spring country that has so far managed to forge a new political future through a consensus-driven process. In this respect, Tunisia is a vital demonstration case for the rest of the Arab world. Its new landmark constitution, emphasizing freedom, equality, and rule of law, is a significant milestone. Still, the road ahead for Tunisia is long and arduous. Good neighbors — including economic partners and political-military alliances — can and should help fragile democracies succeed through tough times. While both the United States and the European Union have supported Tunisia's transition, their promises of assistance have outstripped what's been delivered. Both need to do more at this important inflection point to ensure that Tunisia builds on the gains it has made. Here are a few recommendations for measures that Washington can take — in coordination with the European Union — to help Tunisia reach its goals:
1. Collaborate with European partners to facilitate high-return infrastructure investments that can help jump-start Tunisia's economy and provide jobs.
More than three years after Tunisia set off the Arab Spring, national polls demonstrate that Tunisians continue to view the economy as the country's biggest challenges. Tunisia today faces a tough macroeconomic picture: an unsustainable budget deficit, a bloated public sector, stagnating employment, and low growth rates. Though its economic future is brightening — with a new constitution, a legitimate government, and the second tranche of a $1.7 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund — Tunisia now needs to improve productivity levels to remain competitive. This requires regulatory and tax changes, and infrastructure improvements in roads, water, electricity, and information technology, especially in the impoverished interior areas of the country…
2. Deepen trade and investment relations and increase market access for Tunisian producers, including in agriculture.
The benefits for a transitioning country of tighter economic integration with a "good neighbor" go well beyond increased trade (as Mexico's experience with NAFTA and Poland's experience with EU ascension attest). The process can offer powerful incentives to promote rule of law, anti-corruption practices, transparency, and tax and regulatory code reform, as well as consolidating democracy. The potential for increased trade between the United States and Tunisia is significant, and the process of negotiating some sort of trade agreement could amplify many of the positive reforms already being discussed as a part of the EU's Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (DCFTA). Washington's current antipathy to free trade agreements unfortunately makes one with Tunisia a non-starter. Instead, the United States should work to improve trade and investment possibilities by deepening the bilateral Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) which sets the strategic framework for discussing these issues…
3. Encourage Tunisia to pursue greater intra-regional trade.
North Africa generally, and the Maghreb countries in particular, have one of the lowest levels of intra-regional trade in the world, despite numerous attempts foster it. Political tensions have resulted in structural trade barriers deeply resistant to change. This is a huge missed opportunity. Tunisia should position itself as a relatively stable gateway not only to its oil-rich neighbors, but also to the high-growth markets of sub-Saharan Africa. The United States and Europe should promote that idea by bringing trade delegations to meet not only with leading North African businesses, but also with sub-Saharan executives in Tunisia…
[To Read the Full Article Click the Following Link –Ed.]
EGYPT IS ON THE BRINK OF CHAOS.
HERE’S WHY IT SHOULD MATTER TO WASHINGTON.
Lee Smith
Tablet, Apr. 2, 2014
It was no surprise last week when Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Egypt’s de facto leader, announced his plans to run for president in the country’s next round of elections. Contrary to the hopes of White House officials, the balloting—now scheduled for May—is unlikely to be “free and fair,” because Sisi, by far the most popular Egyptian political figure since Gamal abd al-Nasser, is going to win no matter what. What’s much less certain is the fate of the country Sisi aspires to rule—and whether or not what happens to Egypt ultimately matters to anyone but Egyptians.
The fact that millions of Egyptians hail Sisi as a hero who saved democracy by toppling their first and only freely elected president—Muslim Brotherhood member Mohamed Morsi—last July is an index of the country’s astonishing decline. In the aftermath of the January 2011 Tahrir Square uprising, Egyptians appear to be incapable of implementing even the most rudimentary concepts of government by consent. Street protests are not a referendum, even if 33 million people—the improbably high number claimed by some Sisi partisans—went out into the streets to demand Morsi’s ouster. Rather, they are advertisements of chaos and a sign that Egyptians are mistaking the rule of a capricious mob for democracy.
The paradox is that Egypt, with a rapidly growing population of 83 million, is actually shrinking in some vital ways. Its influence and significance on the world stage have dwindled to such an extent that not just the Israelis next door but even some European states fear that in the years to come Egypt’s most relevant export will simply be terrorism. What was thousands of years ago one of the cradles of civilization and in modern times the most influential of Arab states is significant now for only two reasons: the Suez Canal and the peace treaty with Israel. The former remains important to the United States and other world powers, but it’s no longer vital. Maritime routes allowing ships to circumvent the Suez are costly and time-consuming, but the newly proposed Israeli land rail line connecting the Mediterranean to the Red Sea offers a very real challenge to the Suez—especially since rampant terrorist operations against ships crossing the canal are threatening to make the Egyptian waterway un-navigable and to render Egypt’s role in world commerce redundant. In February, Cairo sentenced 26 men to death for plotting attacks on the Suez; it’s hard to imagine that they’ll be the last. Meanwhile, the peace treaty, signed 35 years ago last week, made Cairo one of the pillars of the Pax Americana in the eastern Mediterranean. It remains a vital Israeli interest, but it’s no longer the only thing stopping other Arab armies from launching attacks on Jerusalem and Tel Aviv; we are a long way from 1967, or 1973.
The Obama White House is clearly eager to divest itself of American commitments in the Middle East. Minimizing the American footprint in the Middle East and elsewhere makes sense since, it claims, we don’t have the resources to regulate the rest of the world. Americans are war-weary, the president repeatedly intones, and besides, American military force just tends to make things worse. But it’s not clear that any other global actors are willing to spend billions of dollars to prevent Egypt from further spinning out of control. The White House and its surrogates in the press and intelligentsia speak of American decline, which even if it’s true is relative only to the status of a superpower weakened by a financial crisis. But when Washington policymakers talk about the decline of other states, it is a much more tangible thing because, as we see with Egypt, what it generally means is chaos. Egypt shows that things not only can but usually do go from bad to worse to mayhem with a minimum of American involvement. Whether the Obama White House likes it or not, Washington underwrites the international order, and when it withdraws—even from places that seem outside our immediate sphere of interest, from Egypt to Ukraine—things get worse for everyone.
It’s not an accident that an Egypt in decline gets a man like Sisi to step forward. Prideful and incompetent, Sisi nonetheless sees himself as part of a continuum of great Egyptian leaders, like Nasser as well as Anwar al-Sadat. Sisi told a journalist in an off-the record interview leaked to the media that he’s been dreaming about his own greatness for 35 years. But the many choices Sisi made to get there show him to be dangerously over his head. First and foremost was his decision to topple Morsi. The fact that a popular vote put Morsi in the presidential palace is evidence that at least half of Egypt supported him. Consequently, to take sides against him and the brotherhood also meant nullifying the political will of millions of Egyptians who backed him, and on behalf of their opponents. By definition, Sisi created the conditions for a civil war, a conflict that he can win only at great cost to the country he now rules.
Worse yet is that he’s not winning the war, nor does he even seem capable of it. Last week an Egyptian court sentenced 529 people to death for an August attack on a police station in Minya province that left one policeman dead during the riots that followed Sisi’s coup. The court’s decision was criticized not only by international and domestic rights groups, but also by analysts hardly sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood. Sisi’s extra-legal crackdown on Islamists, as Daniel Pipes recently wrote, “will likely backfire and help the Islamist cause by winning them broad sympathy.” Other times, the Islamists have simply outmaneuvered Sisi. Consider, for instance, Israel’s interdiction of a ship smuggling Iranian arms in the Red Sea last month. The fact that naval commandos boarded the Klos C before it unloaded its cargo at Port Sudan destined for Gaza or Sinai suggests that the Israelis have taken an accurate measure of Sisi. Yes, Jerusalem is said to be pleased with the high level of coordination with Cairo on security and military issues, but what Israel says in public is different from what it believes, for it can’t afford to fool itself about allies, adversaries, and neighbors. The weapons seizure is evidence the Israelis know Sisi is incapable of preventing arms from traversing the entire length of his country, from the Sudanese border to the border with Gaza.
An even worse scenario than Iranian missiles in Gaza is the possibility of them raining down on Israeli cities from Sinai when the Netanyahu government is forced to choose between two bad options: If the Israelis give Egypt first shot at the terrorists, then Sisi’s adversaries will be able to paint him as a Zionist collaborator; if the Israelis simply do it themselves, then they’ll be violating the “honor” of the Egyptian army. Either puts Sisi, a man incapable of managing difficult situations, in an impossible one. It’s true that Egypt has neither the will nor the materiel to make war on Israel right now, but the Egyptian army has arguably never chosen to make war on Israel. Rather, from the 1948 war until the last conflict with Israel in 1973, Egypt has been compelled to do so by a number of domestic, regional, and international forces. What we’re watching build is a perfect storm—an emboldened and energized Iranian regime smuggling weapons to Israel’s borders, Islamist militants in the Sinai, Hamas looking to rebuild its prestige in Gaza, a brotherhood-backed insurgency against Sisi building inside major Egyptian cities, and the stunning incompetence and arrogance of the man who would be president….
[To Read the Full Article Click the Following Link –Ed.]
IMPRISONED JOURNALIST MOHAMED FAHMY SYMBOLIZES AUTOCRATS’ BRUTAL BACKLASH AGAINST THE ARAB SPRING
Jonathan Kay
National Post, Apr. 7, 2014
“I drink alcohol” may seem like an odd way to protest your innocence in a Muslim country. But in the case of incarcerated Canadian-Egyptian journalist Mohamed Fahmy, the tactic makes sense: He stands among a group of 20 Al-Jazeera workers being prosecuted by Egypt’s ruling junta on terrorism-related charges. In declaring to a judge last week, “Have you ever heard of a [Muslim] terrorist that drinks alcohol?” Fahmy drew attention to the fact that he is the furthest thing from a fundamentalist jihadi. Nevertheless, Mr. Fahmy remains in jail. Monday marked his 100th day behind bars, and it seems Egyptian prosecutors have every intention of proceeding with the trumped up case against him.
When Mr. Fahmy and his colleagues were arrested, the Egyptian Interior Ministry alleged that they had broadcast news “damaging to national security.” This is a coded reference to any material derived from interviews with the Muslim Brotherhood, a broad and venerable Islamic movement that has been declared a terrorist organization by the Egyptian government. An estimated 20,000 Brotherhood supporters are now in jail. Last month, an Egyptian court summarily sentenced 529 Brotherhood supporters to death at a single stroke for their alleged involvement in violent protests.
Even those of us in the West who are concerned about the global Islamist agenda should be appalled by Egypt’s backsliding from democracy into repression over the last year. In 2012, Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated candidate Mohamed Morsi became the country’s first democratically elected president in the country’s history. His removal from office a year later was effectively a coup. And in the nine months since his ouster, the military officials who engineered that coup have turned their anti-Brotherhood campaign into a sort of brutal reverse jihad — of which Mohamed Fahmy is both victim and symbol. This is part of a larger pattern. We once yearned to believe that the politics of the Middle East world would be defined by the Arab Spring, which began in Tunisia in December, 2010. But since then, the monstrous brutality of Syria’s civil war, as well as the violent chaos of post-Gaddafi Libya, destroyed any lingering Arab Spring euphoria and empowered reactionaries. Egypt’s military autocrats gave themselves carte blanche to use any means available to suppress dissent — including not only a campaign of arrests against journalists and activists in the large cities, but also a scorched earth campaign in Sinai that has resulted in the destruction of whole towns.
The ironic result is that Muslim Brotherhood supporters currently have more rights and freedom in the Christian West than they do in the Muslim Middle East. (Indeed, the MB media headquarters now operates above a kebab take-out restaurant in a suburb of London, England). In Turkey, the country’s paranoid (and likely corrupt) leadership is engaged in a witch hunt against an Islamic movement whose leader is based in Pennsylvania. In Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, a new law targeting Syrian civil-war jihadis prohibits “contact or correspondence with any groups, currents [of thought], or individuals hostile to the kingdom,” as well as “calling into question the fundamentals of the [Wahabi strain of Sunni] Islamic religion on which [the] country is based.” Where the lives of Canadian citizens are at stake — as in the case of Mohamed Fahmy — we have a duty to make our voices heard…
[To Read the Full Article Click the Following Link –Ed.]
A Look at Mideast Judicial Systems: Associated Press, Mar. 25, 2014 —An Egyptian court's decision this week to sentence to death 529 alleged supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood after a two-session trial has triggered criticism from governments and rights groups around the world.
Even Out of Office, a Wielder of Great Power in Yemen: Robert F. Worth, New York Times, Jan. 31, 2014—The old man still rises at 5:30 a.m., as he did during the three decades he ruled this tumultuous country.
Syria’s Displaced Children Need Our Help: Vanessa Saraiva, National Post, Feb. 14, 2014 —The little boy smiled shyly up at me as he showed me his picture. The message he had written on the page was simple: “Muhammad loves Vanessa.”
Former Dubai Police Chief Was a Hero in the Arab World Until He Said He’d Help Israel: Joseph Braude, Tablet, Feb. 19, 2014 —The January 2010 assassination in Dubai of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a cofounder of the military wing of Hamas, briefly drew international attention to the man who went on to investigate it: Lt. Gen. Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, Dubai’s long-serving chief of police.
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