Earlier this year Mona Eltahawy told a gathering at the JStreet conference, an anti-Arab group dedicated to the destruction of Palestine, “not one anti-Israeli or anti-American sentiment was expressed” during the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.  She also told the “moderate Zionist” crowd that if they reached out to Arabs “I guarantee you will be met with Arabs from every single country…and I will be there.” (Video of full speech included in article).  Mona’s views earned her a standing ovation from the Zionist lobby, but they are anathema to Egyptians and Arabs. The following is a series of quotes for Mona Eltahawy on Palestine and Israel that date back to 2005. The New York-based revolutionary currently tending to four or five revolutions has a habit of claiming her words are taken out of context.  We have included links to the articles so the readers can view the selected quotes in full context.

In the middle of Israel’s barbaric onslaught, even by Zionist standards, on Gaza in December 2008 Mona described Israel as the “opium of the people” (the Arabs) and was upset why so many of them were concerned about Israel’s colonialism, occupation, and war crimes, and called on Arabs to simply ignore what Israel is doing. She wrote the following:

Israel is the opium of the people. What else explains the collective amnesia in the Middle East?
Focusing on internal issues in each Arab country and ignoring the opium that is Israel? Egyptians, Jordanians, Lebanese and Syrians should do it before their states fail for the sake of Palestine.

In another article just one week later titled On fence the toughest stance in Mideast Mona Eltahawy refuses to take a side and calls for neutrality:

I was born in Egypt during one war with Israel, have vivid memories of another war with Israel and I was the first Egyptian to live and work in Israel for a Western news agency when I moved there from Cairo at the end of 1997 as a Reuters correspondent.

And here’s the best piece of advice on the Middle East you will get today.

Sit on the fence.

In February 2008 when Egyptian soccer star Abou Trika lifted his jersey to reveal a message of sympathy with the besieged Palestinians in Gaza during a soccer match, Mona became very upset with Egyptian star’s expression of solidarity with Palestinians, and mockingly called him the “latest hero for Palestine.”

After he scored a goal in a recent match against Sudan in the African Nations Cup, Egyptian soccer star Abou Trika lifted his jersey to show an undershirt inscribed with the message “Sympathize with Gaza”. His message earned him a yellow card for violating a no-politics rule but promptly crowned him the latest hero for Palestine.

Mona’s claims that Arabs are not concerned with Israel, or alternatively, they should not be concerned with Israel or American support for Israel is not new. The following is from a NY Times article back in March 2005. Notice the strikingly similarity in language to that she’s been repeating since the 2011 Egyptian uprising.

Unlike most demonstrations that used to take place in Egypt, this latest, on Feb. 21, was not directed at Israel: It was about Egypt…. Too often, political discourse in the Arab world is either defensive or solely preoccupied with America and Israel

Ikhras
Dedicated to Throwing the Proverbial Shoe
Ikhras can be reached at: http://ikhras.com/