Monday, December 29, 2008

Quote of the Day

By the Egyptian Foreign Minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit
The Israelis have been warning you that this was coming if you continue your cross border rocket attacks. Egypt has been imploring you to stop firing rockets into Israel, but you ignored our words. We have been urging you to renew the cease-fire with Israel, but you refused. You have brought this upon yourselves. You are responsible for what is happening to the people of Gaza.
Honest, to the point, and the reality that many just refuse to admit?

12 comments:

kinglear said...

Yup they did. But of course when you win power by swearing to obliterate a state its quite difficult to then start talking co-existence. Mind you, the IRA have managed it in Ireland - but they were all but militarily defeated when they said " hey guys, I've got a really good idea - let's talk"
Like wordverification " BOOMi"

Anonymous said...

Perhaps, though having spoken to ordinary Palestinians you do get a very different picture. They basically see it as a war of justified revenge attacks, which begs the question - how far will this conflict escalate?

I'm just happy Bush isn't going to be around much longer.

Barnacle Bill said...

The Egyptians have always seemed to be the most saner and reasonable of the Arab states in the Middle East.
So it is good to see this statement coming from that quarter.
Meanwhile for the incoming Obama administration the elephant in the room is the Jewish lobby.
Appointing Hillary does not look as if he is going to be his own man on foreign policy.
This could be the event that defines the whole Obama project for the next five years.

CityUnslicker said...

Egypt is terrified of letting hundreds of thousands of radicalised militants across its borders.
It suits them to say things that are actually sane. No doubt they will change their tune by tomorrow. The Egyptian government is a nasty paramilitary dictaroship too, sadly....

Linda said...

Egyptians have always been pretty moderate in their views. Sounds like they could be risking a rocket attack themselves now.
"Peace and love" as the old Beatles dude, Ringo would say

Anonymous said...

Not coming up on my Google news search. Is this definitely an accurate quotation?

dizzy said...

Was said on radio apparently, has appeared in Times and Telegraph.

Unknown said...

The Egyptians, being QUITE and old people, know that as the PLO once said, “The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism.”

Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee member Zahir Muhsein.
March 31, 1977

Palestine has never existed as a nation. The region known as Palestine was ruled alternately by Rome, by Islamic and Christian crusaders, by the Ottoman Empire and, briefly, by the British after World War I. The British agreed to restore at least part of the land to the Jewish people as their ancestral homeland. It was never ruled by Arabs as a separate nation. The Biblical Philistines were not today’s “Palestinians”, who ceased to exist about the time of the Babylonian empire.

Not a sheep said...

Beachhutman: Shame on you for using facts to make a point. This is not what is needed now. Apparently what is needed is hysterical hatred of Israeli bullying and the swallowing of every piece of Pallywood propaganda that is provided to western "journalists".

Letters From A Tory said...

Oh yer, because Israel were SO desperate to renew the ceasefire with an election round the corner and military action in Gaza being seen as a vote winner.

Anonymous said...

Funny, haven;t seen the Egyptian quote on the impartial and respected (cough) BBC yet.

Wonder why?

Anonymous said...

Beachhutman - as well as making that argument about Palestine, surely the same could be said for Wales?