Cairo mob ransacks, torches Israeli embassy. Ambassador flown out
The Israeli embassy in Cairo stands empty Saturday, Sept. 10 after thousands of demonstrators using sledgehammers smashed through the wall enclosing the building broke in and dumped the flag and hundreds of documents through the windows. DEBKAfile: Egyptian security forces using tear gas and shooting in air failed to contain the howling mob led by Muslim Brotherhood adherents.
Egyptian sources report that classified papers were seized by demonstrators.
At least 5 Egyptian soldiers killed and more than 500 police and demonstrators were injured in the clashes. . Ambassador Yizhak Levanon, his family and 80 embassy staff members were taken from their homes to Cairo airport and flown home aboard by two Israeli military planes. Six Israeli security officers remained on guard until early morning and were later rescued from a room with steel doors by Egyptian commandos who drove them to the airport in an armored car. The first secretary stayed in Cairo in a secure place.
The Egyptian government after declaring a high alert sent armored vehicles to the burning building and cut off the power in the street. The demonstrators attacked police and other vehicles in the vicinity with Molotov cocktails. Some moved on to attack a police station.
US President Barack Obama expressed concern at the attack and told Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu he was taking steps to help resolve the situation without further violence. He called on the Egyptian government to honor its international obligations to safeguard the embassy. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak asked US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta for assistance for securing the building.
Israel takes a grave view of this violation of every diplomatic norm, Netanyahu said later.
The attack came two days before a scheduled visit by the Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan to Cairo amid an escalating Turkish diplomatic offensive against Israel which the US is seeking to contain.
Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood whipped up the Israeli embassy attack to show the military rulers in Cairo who calls the shots and pressure them into breaking off three decades of peace ties with the Jewish state.
The Turkish leader set the scene for the rampage in Cairo by his spiraling anti-Israel hate campaign which is winning him popularity on the Arab Muslim street.
Not only have Egyptian-Israeli ties entered a crisis phase, but so have US relations with the Arab world.
Erdogan's campaign has derailed America's Middle East policy by placing its key allies Turkey and Israel on a course of military collision. Erdogan is putting Washington on notice that Turkey's friendship and support in the region is contingent on the US turning against Israel.
Israel is taken back 32 years to the seventies when it stood out as the only pro-Western outpost of democracy in the Middle East beset by Arab enemies. The burning of the Israeli embassy in Cairo means that Ambassador Levanon will not return to his post in a hurry, the temperature of relations with Egypt will drop from cold to frigid and Israel can forget about the resupply of natural gas.
Already, the military junta instead of battling the terrorists at large in Sinai, including al Qaeda, has forged deals with them and left them in control of the inflammable Israeli border area.
The Egyptian rulers' policy of appeasement for the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamic extremists has backfired against them too. The spreading extremist violence climaxing in the attack on the Israeli embassy augurs the further breakdown of their authority. As well as an outrage against Israel and setback for US influence, it confronts the generals with their moment of truth: Their failure to deal with the rioters, who quickly vented their fury on police vehicles and buildings, will pave the way for Muslim extremist control of Egypt. Israel stands in grave peril of the region's two top Muslim powers lining up at the head of its enemies.
In Jerusalem, Netanyahu, Barak and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman spent long hours Friday night mulling Israel's reaction to the invasion of its Cairo embassy. A proposal to relocate it at the Sinai resort of Sharm al-Sheikh was abandoned because of the potential of its becoming a new Muslim Brotherhood target vulnerable also to al Qaeda and Palestinian terrorist networks at large in the Egyptian peninsula.
Israeli official spokesmen tried explaining that the continued presence of the Egyptian ambassador in Tel Aviv meant that diplomatic relations with Egypt were unchanged.
DEBKAfile notes that this argument served to further illustrate the Netanyahu-Barak's ostrich-like attitude to adverse events. In the new circumstances, the Egyptian diplomat is certain to be recalled for "home leave" or some other pretext before long.
Only this week, the defense minister's senior political adviser Amos Gilead claimed that Israel's security situation "had never been better" and Arab regimes were "stable" – providing a vivid example of the wide gap between the government's situation evaluations and reality.
http://www.debka.com/article/21288/
When the shooting starts, what will the US do? Will Obama have the balls to support our ally and the only democracy in the mideast; or will he show his Muslim colors?
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