WarSclerotic

U.S urges dialogue as Egypt braces for protests; American Jewish student killed in Alexandria – Middle East – Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper.

Protest organizers say 22 million Egyptian signed petition to remove president Morsi; Andrew Pochter, 21, of Chevy Chase, Maryland, was stabbed to death on Friday.

A scene of the aftermath of a fire in Sedy Gaber in Alexandria, June 28, 2013; in small frame: Andrew Pochter of Chevy Chase, Maryland. Photo by AP, Reuters

U.S. President Barack Obama called on Egypt‘s government and opposition on Saturday to engage each other in constructive dialogue and prevent violence spilling out across the region.

Political violence on Friday killed three people, including an American Jewish college student, and mass rallies are planned for Sunday aimed at unseating Islamist President Mohamed Morsi. Obama said he was “looking at the situation with concern.”

Hundreds have been wounded and at least eight killed in street fighting for over a week as political deadlock deepens.

The U.S. citizen who was killed Friday was Andrew Pochter, 21, of Chevy Chase, Maryland. Pochter, who was active in his college’s Hillel, died after being stabbed in the chest in the coastal city of Alexandria.

A statement on a Facebook page entitled “R.I.P Andrew Driscoll Pochter”, which appeared to have been posted by his family, said Pochter had travelled to Alexandria for the summer to teach English to 7- and 8-year-old Egyptian children and to improve his Arabic.

The page had also been posted on by colleagues of Pochter at the U.S. educational non-profit organization where he was working.

The family statement read: “He went to Egypt because he cared profoundly about the Middle East, and he planned to live and work there in the pursuit of peace and understanding.”

The youth group leading the campaign against Egypt’s president says it has collected the signatures of 22 million Egyptians who want to remove the Islamist leader.

Mahmoud Badr, a leader of the Tamarod, or rebel, movement said Saturday that 22,134,460 Egyptians have signed the petition demanding Morsi’s ouster.

Badr did not say whether there had been an independent audit of the signatures. Morsi’s supporters have long questioned the authenticity of the collected signatures.”Every party has to denounce violence,” Obama said at the other end of Africa, in Pretoria. “We’d like to see the opposition and President Morsi engage in a more constructive conversation about how they move their country forward because nobody is benefiting from the current stalemate.” He added that it was “challenging, given there is not a tradition of democracy in Egypt.”

Morsi’s critics hope millions will march on Sunday when he marks a year in power to demand new elections. They accuse his Muslim Brotherhood of hijacking the revolution of 2011 and using its electoral majorities to monopolize power.

“Egypt is the largest country in the Arab world,” Obama said. “The entire region is concerned that, if Egypt continues with this constant instability, that has adverse effects more broadly.” U.S. missions would be protected, he said. Last year, a consulate in Libya was overrun and Americans killed.

The Egyptian army, heavily funded by Washington since before Hosni Mubarak was overthrown, is on alert. It warned politicians it may step in if they lose control of the streets – an outcome some in the diffuse opposition coalition may quietly welcome, but to which Morsi’s Islamist allies might respond with force.

It is unclear how big the rallies will be or when they may start. Protest organizers said on Saturday a petition calling on Mursi to quit had 22 million signatures – over 40 percent of the electorate and 7 million more than they announced 10 days ago.

The figure could not be verified, but independent analysts say there is a real prospect of very large demonstrations.

Some few thousand activists in Cairo were camping out at rival centers on Saturday. There was no sign of renewed trouble.

Several offices of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood were attacked on Friday, including one in Alexandria where two men died, including 21-year-old American Andrew Procter. In Port Said on the Suez Canal, a home-made hand grenade killed a protester and wounded 15. The Health Ministry said 236 people were injured on Friday.

The U.S. embassy evacuated non-essential staff and warned citizens to avoid Egypt. An airport source said dozens of U.S. personnel and their families left Cairo for Germany on Saturday.

The U.S. ambassador has angered liberals by saying Morsi was legitimately elected and that protests may be counter-productive for an economy crippled by unrest that has cut tourism revenues.

In the capital, Islamist supporters were still camped outside a suburban mosque where they had gathered in the many thousands on Friday to vent anger and fear over a return of army-backed rule. Some speakers also urged reconciliation.

On Tahrir Square, seat of the uprising of early 2011, flags and tents formed a base camp for protesters. They hoped for millions on the streets under slogans accusing Morsi and the Brotherhood of hijacking the revolution against Hosni Mubarak to entrench their own rule. A rally was also planned outside the presidential palace, where some had already taken up position.

With short supplies of fuel adding to long-standing economic woes, many said they would turn out on Sunday, when Morsi marks his first year in office as Egypt’s first ever freely elected leader, to demand a new president who can bring them prosperity.

Liberal opposition leaders dismissed an offer of cooperation from Mursi this week as too little too late. The Brotherhood, which says at least five of its supporters have been killed in days of street fighting, accuses liberals of allying with those loyal to Mubarak to mount a coup against the electoral process.

The opposition says the Brotherhood are trying to monopolize power, Islamize a diverse society and throttle dissent. They cite as evidence Morsi’s broadsides against critical media and legal proceedings launched against journalists and satirists.

“Mursi is no longer the legitimate president of Egypt,” Mohamed Abdelaziz, a protest organizer, told a news conference where others called for peaceful sit-ins to last until Morsi made way for an interim administration led by a senior judge.

“Come June 30, the people will run Egypt!” chanted people attending the event. The opposition, which has lost a series of elections, wants to reset the rules that emerged in a messy process of army and then Islamist rule since early 2011.

Egypt’s leading religious authority warned of the risk of “civil war” after violence in the past week that left several dead and hundreds injured. The clerics backed Morsi’s offer to talk to opposition groups before Sunday’s protests.

A senior figure at Cairo’s Al-Azhar institute said Sunday should be a day of “community dialogue and civilized expression of opinion”, a “catalyst” for political leaders to understand their national duty – and the “dangerous alternative.”

Senior Brotherhood figure Essam el-Erian was dismissive of middle-class protest organizers in a Facebook post: “Millions of farmers will wake early, perform their morning prayers and go to their fields to harvest food for the people,” he wrote.

Warning again that Mubarak-era “thugs” would spread violence among peaceful protesters, he said government would continue: “President Mohamed Morsi will go to his office tomorrow to sign new planning and budget laws for the new financial year.”

Jewish college student stabbed to death in Egypt protests | The Times of Israel.

21-year-old Andrew Pochter, an intern at an educational NGO, killed in Alexandria as he watched clashes

21-year-old Andrew Pochter, the American college student who was killed in Alexandria on Friday, June 28, 2013. (photo credit: Facebook)

An American Jewish college student, Andrew Driscoll Pochter, 21, a native of Chevy Chase, Maryland, was killed in Alexandria, Egypt on Friday as he watched clashes between supporters and opponents of the country’s Islamist president, it was confirmed Saturday.

Pochter, one of three people killed in Friday’s clashes, was stabbed to death by a protester, his family said.

Originally reported to have been an employee of the American cultural center in Alexandria, Pochter was later identified by his parents and university, Ohio’s Kenyon College, as an intern at AMIDEAST, a nonprofit organization devoted to promoting education in the Middle East and North Africa.

“Our beloved 21-year-old son and brother Andrew Driscoll Pochter went to Alexandria for the summer, to teach English to 7- and 8-year-old Egyptian children and to improve his Arabic. He was looking forward to returning to Kenyon College for his junior year and to spending his spring semester in Jordan,” Pochter’s parents told CNN.

“As we understand it, he was witnessing the protest as a bystander and was stabbed by a protester. He went to Egypt because he cared profoundly about the Middle East, and he planned to live and work there in the pursuit of peace and understanding. Andrew was a wonderful young man looking for new experiences in the world and finding ways to share his talents while he learned. Andrew cared deeply about his family and his friends. We won’t have any further comment and ask for privacy now at this difficult time for the family.”

Marcela Colmenares, a Venezuelan scholar at Kenyon College who was a friend of Pochter’s, paid tribute to him in her blog Saturday, saying he exemplified the “difference between a talker and a doer.”

Colmenares related her first meeting with Pochter in the college library, where they became caught up in a political argument and discovered their mutual interest in the Middle East.

“The last time we spoke, he was already in Egypt and we agreed to eat a falafel in August, when he would come back to Maryland. After a long discussion, he planned to prove that — against my predictions — the falafels in Adams Morgan were better than those in Berlin,” wrote Colmenares.

“But he is never going to come back, because he was killed in a protest in Alexandria, where he was — according to the news — teaching English during the summer. In fact, Andrew was doing much more than teaching English, he was absorbing every bit of the Egyptian culture, he was learning about the Middle East, and he was doing what so many people avoid — following his passion,” she wrote.

Andrew Pochter. (photo credit: Facebook)

In 2011, Pochter wrote an article for Al Arabiya on the effects of the Arab Spring on Moroccan society. He was an active member of a group of Kenyon students interested in the Middle East, was involved in Middle East activism on campus and took part in a forum Colmenares had created for students willing to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and collaborate to organize events.

Pochter was also active with Hillel, the Jewish campus organization.

“I don’t know the details about his death, and I don’t want to know them,” Colmenares wrote.

“But I know that it was provoked by an unreasonable amount of hate, a hate that does not have owners and that will never have a proper explanation –because it is irrational. This hate managed to kill an American who genuinely cared about the Middle East, and who would have had an extremely positive impact on the region. Violence is increasing in Egypt, especially towards Americans,” she lamented.

Late Friday, Alexandria security chief Gen. Amin Ezz Eddin told Al-Jazeera TV that an American later identified as Pochtor was killed in Sidi Gabr Square while photographing the battle. The US State Department later confirmed the death, in a statement from Patrick Ventrell, a press office director.

“We are providing appropriate consular assistance from our Embassy in Cairo and our Bureau of Consular Affairs at the State Department,” he said.

An Egyptian medical official, in an earlier unconfirmed report, had said Pochtor died of gunshot wounds at a hospital. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

In the aftermath of Friday’s deadly clashes, the US State Department issued a travel warning cautioning citizens to avoid Egypt.

“The US Department of State warns US citizens traveling to or living in Egypt to defer non-essential travel to Egypt at this time due to the continuing possibility of political and social unrest. On June 28, 2013, the Department of State authorized the departure of a limited number of non-emergency employees and family members. US citizens are urged to remain alert to local security developments and to be vigilant regarding their personal security,” the warning read.

Iran’s Rohani vows to moderate foreign policy – Israel News, Ynetnews.

President-elect condemns extremism, states commitment to inclusive cabinet, moderate views, urges ‘effective, constructive interaction with world’

Reuters

Iran’s president-elect Hassan Rohani said on Saturday he would appoint ministers from across its political spectrum as Iranian voters had chosen a path of moderation over extremism.

His victory in the June 14 vote has lifted hopes of a thaw in Iran’s antagonistic relations with the West that might create openings for defusing its nuclear dispute with world powers. Rohani has pledged a more conciliatory approach than Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, under whose belligerent presidency the Islamic Republic drew ever more punishing international sanctions.

Rohani’s pledge of an inclusive cabinet could reassure conservative hardliners who look askance at the endorsement he was granted by reformists in the election.

In turn, reformists will hope to regain some political influence – with the aim of easing repression at home and Iran’s isolation abroad – after being sidelined under Ahmadinejad, who by law could not run for a third consecutive term.

“The future government must operate in the framework of moderation …(and it) must avoid extremism, and this message is for everyone,” Rohani, a former chief nuclear negotiator, said in a speech carried live on state television.

“The next cabinet will be trans-factional … This government is not obligated to any party or faction, and will work to choose the most qualified people from all sides and factions, under conditions of moderation and temperance.”

Analysts say Rohani, a mid-ranking Shiite Muslim cleric who has held sensitive security posts since the 1980s, enjoys an insider status and close relationship with theocratic Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and may be able to build bridges between factions to yield reforms.

But Khamenei will retain the final say on policies that most concern world powers, including Iran’s nuclear program and its support for Syrian President Bashar Assad against rebels trying to overthrow him.

Constructive Interaction

Rohani also urged moderation in Iranian policies towards the rest of the world and called for a balance between “realism” and pursuing the ideals of the Islamic Republic.

“Moderation in foreign policy is neither submission nor antagonism, neither passivity nor confrontation. Moderation is effective and constructive interaction with the world,” he said.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran, as a major regional power or the biggest regional power…, must play its role and for this we need moderation.”

Western powers suspect Iran of seeking to develop a nuclear weapons capability, which Tehran denies. The Islamic Republic is now languishing under increasingly tough sanctions limiting its oil sales, a crucial source of revenue, obstructing its foreign trade and stoking higher inflation and unemployment.

Iran’s friends and foes indicated shortly after Rohani’s election triumph they did not believe it would bring fundamental change in Iranian foreign policy.

Tehran is at loggerheads with Western powers on a range of foreign policy issues including its shadowy nuclear program and its support for Syria’s Assad, the Lebanese Shiite militant movement Hezbollah and

the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas .

US-allied Gulf Arab countries have also accused Iran of interfering in their affairs, though Tehran denies trying to subvert Saudi Arabia and its wealthy Gulf neighbors.

Rohani, who will take office in early August, said he was dedicated to “mutual relaxation of tensions” with other states.

IDF combat unit spies on Hezbollah in North | JPost | Israel News.

Rowhani’s double-edged nuclear strategy – Alarabiya.net English | Front Page.

One of the most controversial geopolitical and geostrategic issues in today’s international and regional affairs is Iran’s nuclear defiance towards the international community and its tensions with the International Atomic Energy Agency. Tehran’s crippling economy, four rounds of economic and political sanctions, high inflation, significant unemployment rate, and regional and international isolation are all directly and indirectly linked to Iran’s nuclear ambitions. The next president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, who in less than two months will replace the provocative and inflammatory President Ahmadinejad, will have to confront all these issues.

The major question raised asks whether Hassan Rowhani, as a moderate, will halt Iran’s nuclear program. In addition, speculation also concerns whether Iran’s newest president will suspend Tehran’s nuclear enrichment in various strategic cities such as Arak, Natanz, Isfahan, and Bushehr.

The diplomatic sheikh

The widespread belief is that since Rowhani is a reformist and well-known for his political initiatives as the “diplomatic sheikh,” he will bring about a change to Tehran’s nuclear defiance and will halt Iran’s nuclear program – or at least agree to suspend it. Moreover, it is also argued, and asserted by the Islamic Republic of Iran, that Rowhani will support a proposal to send Iran’s twenty percent enriched uranium abroad so that it can be transformed into fuel for the Tehran Research Reactor.-

However, it is crucial to pay a closer analysis to Rouhani’s political ideology and stance within the Islamic Republic of Iran. Hassan Rowhani, who during Iran’s three televised national debates attempted to project himself as a reformist to win votes, is in actuality from the centrist political camp. Iran’s centrist political camp has always attempted to juggle ties with both the hardliners – including the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – and the reformists. For example, Rowhani has had close political and personal connections with Ayatollah Khamenei as well as Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a political figure perceived as a rival to the supreme leader. Rowhani served for twenty-two years on the Expediency Council; an advisory body long chaired by Rafsanjani, and also serves as a member of the Supreme National Security Council, where he served as Ayatollah Khamenei’s personally appointed representative. He is also a member of the Assembly of Experts; a political body with close ties to the supreme leader.

Primarily, Iran’s centrist ideology supports using softer and more diplomatic tones on regional and international platforms. Nevertheless, and more fundamentally, the centrists strongly insist on pursuing Tehran’s current political status quo, foreign policy objectives, and continued assistance towards the survival of the Shiite cleric-ruled regime. While Rowhani is nicknamed the diplomatic sheikh and while he calls for applying less hostile language when dealing with the West, it is nevertheless unrealistic to argue that Rowhani will alter Tehran’s nuclear program and foreign policies or challenge the supreme leader.

Concrete evidence

The most concrete evidence supporting this argument is Rowhani’s recent writings and interviews in the Persian language. In a recent interview, Hassan Abedini, the host of one of Iran’s state media channels, IRIB, said that Iran’s nuclear work had been halted as a result of the negotiations that Rowhani took part in. Rowhani then immediately interrupted Abedini by exclaiming: “What you said is a lie. You know it’s a lie. This statement is what ignorant people say; you are taught in this….Maybe the person speaking to you in your earpiece doesn’t know, but you know.” After Iran’s state media host pressured Rowhani further, Rowhani said “we suspended the [nuclear] program? We completed the [nuclear] program. This is unethical act of the IRIB [channel] that has permeated into you. And the person who is talking with you into your earpiece, this unethical act has permeated into him, as well.”

In this interview, Rouhani supported his position that although the West and international community believe that Iran was halting its nuclear program, Rowhani – as the chief nuclear negotiator – was in fact further completing the program to achieve nuclear capabilities. In addition, at the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council, Rouhani made clear his position on Iran’s nuclear program: “While we were talking with the Europeans in Tehran, we were [simultaneously] installing equipment in parts of the [nuclear] facility in Isfahan, but we still had a long way to go to accomplish the project. In fact, by creating a tranquil environment, we were able to finfish the work in Isfahan.”

Furthermore, after Hassan Rouhani was elected as the Islamic Republic of Iran’s seventh president, he declared that the United States must recognize Iran’s nuclear rights and pledge not to interfere in its internal and domestic affairs. Additionally, in his press conference, the president-elect clearly stated, “the era of [enrichment] suspension is gone.”

Therefore, the major question actually surrounds what the political and ideological differences between Rowhani and Ahmadinejad will be regarding Iran’s nuclear program. On one hand, Rowhani will attempt to display on-the-surface semblance of “transparency,” “openness,” “dialogue,” and “communication” with the West. On the other hand however, Rowhani will also employ policies that will ensure the survival of the Shiite regime in the Islamic Republic of Iran. As a veteran politician and the regime insider who has proven his loyalty to the supreme leader and the ruling clerics, Rowhani will continue Tehran’s domestic and foreign policies geared towards Iran’s pursuit of nuclear capabilities. This is due to the fact that the regime and its beneficiaries, including Rowhani, strongly believe that nuclear weapons can serve as a strong deterrent to any foreign intervention in Iran, a powerful tool for the survival of the current clerical establishment, and can also serve as leverage for continuing regional hegemonic ambitions and tipping the balance of power in favor of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Column One: Obama’s war of ideas | JPost | Israel News.

( In my opinion, Glick mistakenly attributes the failures of US foreign policy to Obama’s ideological bent.  I see it more as the product of ignorance and ineptitude. – JW )