Mob Attacks Israeli Embassy In Egypt; Ambassador and Staff Evacuated
Three are dead and about 1,200 injured following the storming of the Israeli embassy in Cairo by thousands of Egyptian citizens on Friday. The crowd destroyed a security wall surrounding the embassy while police and soldiers stood by, apparently unclear how to react. Once the embassy walls had been breached, soldiers began firing shots into the air and using tear gas; the rioters responded with rocks and Molotov cocktails.
Rioters tore down, shredded, and set fire to the Israeli flag, then set about trashing the embassy offices, hurling papers out of the windows and rampaging through the hallways. Six members of the embassy's staff were trapped inside the building for thirteen hours until they were rescued by Egyptian commandos. “The mob penetrated the embassy and at the end there was only one wall separating it from six of our people," an Israeli official told The New York Times. The Israeli Air Force evacuated the ambassador, along with about 85 other Israeli diplomats and their families. A state of emergency has been declared in Egypt.
Rioters are reported to have also "menaced" the nearby Saudi Arabian embassy. Saudi Arabia is blamed by many for the slow pace of retribution against toppled President Hosni Mubarak.
Haaretz reports that the Americans prodded the Egyptians to rescue the Israeli staff members to prevent an even more serious crisis from developing. U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta called Supreme Military Council head Mohamed Hussein Tantawi and warned him of "very severe consequences" should any of the Israelis fall into the hands of the mob. The U.S. source quoted by Haaretz noted that it took Tantawi two hours to answer Panetta's call, and according to an Israeli source, he refused to come to the phone at all to speak to Israeli PM Bibi Netanyahu or DM Ehud Barak. Netanyahu was eventually able to reach the head of Egyptian intelligence, Gen. Murad Muwafi, while Barak called Panetta.
The motivation for the attack is said to be popular outrage at the alleged killing by Israel of five Egyptian border guards when Israeli forces pursued terrorists back into Egyptian territory following the coordinated infiltration and assault on Israeli civilians near Eilat last month. The character of the mob suggests another layer, however: it consisted substantially of Ultras, who are identified by the Times as "hard-core soccer fans." A few days ago, violence broke out at a soccer match that left the Ultras wanting revenge on the police. The Israel-bashing may have been, for at least a good chunk of the participants, an opportunity to throw rocks or worse into the faces of police officers.
Voices across the political spectrum in Egypt, from liberals to Islamists, have condemned the embassy attack, with young leaders of the revolution going so far as to call a press conference to criticize the military for failing to provide adequate security. (It is also to be noted that the rioter who scaled the flagpole and ripped down the Israeli flag that had hung there for thirty years is today a national hero, and has been given an award by the governor of Giza.)
Israel is watching with a kind of sober dismay as its relationship with Egypt disintegrates in parallel with the crisis in its relationship with Turkey, a pair of messes that form a grim backdrop to the ominous, and imminent, declaration of statehood by the Palestinians. Haaretz, true to form, blames Israel for all of this: Egypt and Turkey apparently hate us because of Operation Cast Lead in 2008, and the Palestinians hate us for being, well, us. For his part, Bibi is busy thanking the Americans for stepping in to help, vowing Israel's allegiance to the Egyptian peace treaty, and making sure we're prepped for whatever treats the Palestinians have in store for us following their torpedoing of the Oslo Accords on the floor of the Security Council later this month.
The Egyptian military council, which has been trying to maintain a revolution-friendly face while keeping some semblance of control over the country, is going to have to commit itself one way or the other, and soon. The embassy assault “has led to a complete loss of credibility in the [Egyptian] government internationally from all directions,” an unnamed Western diplomat told the Times. In a striking reversal of course, the military council said last night that it will reactivate the "emergency law" that permits extra-judicial detentions in the wake of the violence. An end to indefinite detention without trial was one of the signal demands of the protesters during the revolution that brought down Mubarak.
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Comments :
Nov '10
Re: Mob Attacks Israeli Embassy In Egypt; Ambassador and Staff Evacuated
Judith, although the contexts might appear as different as chalk and cheese, some of the details you provide recall the recent London riots.
First, the police stood idly by or combatted the rioters ineffectually. The goal of protecting property, life, and limb under threat was subordinated to the goal of responding "proportionately" to the rioters.
Second, one key motivation for the riots was to get back at the police (making their excessive restraint ironic). The "Ultras" in Egypt have a history of antagonizing the police. Broader social, economic, or political grievances furnished a convenient pretext.
(There is a curious cultural link too, in that England has had its fair share of football-related violence. Here's Dalrymple mediating lugubriously [as ever] on the raffishness of football aficionados internationally << http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/000966.php >>).
Of course, there were grievances stoking both riots. In London, not being rich was one of them. So, sports footwear and widescreen TVs, prototypes of underclass aspiration, were widely looted. The underlying entitlement meme came to the fore. In Egypt, it was the ubiquitous misosemitic meme that did, and presumably not for the last time.
May '10
Re: Mob Attacks Israeli Embassy In Egypt; Ambassador and Staff Evacuated
Aodhan, that was my first thought as well. My second thought was that I will never understand soccer. Perhaps their frustration at having to make do with such lamesauce as their only sporting fare boils over into violent rage. Much like what would happen if juggling were their only entertainment choice.
I wonder what Egyptians use for water cannons? The camel cavalry was pretty cool last time.
The military's going to have to assert control. But to do so, they'll need to ally with some credible political force. Near as I can tell, that's the Islamists, which is not good news for Israel, no matter what caused this particular riot.
Mar '11
Re: Mob Attacks Israeli Embassy In Egypt; Ambassador and Staff Evacuated
Judith, thanks for the in-depth post.That bit about the flagpole climber getting an award from the governor of Giza is priceless.
My only comment regards an inaccuracy in the title - Israeli jets did not sweep Cairo. The Israeli air force sent military transport planes to bring the diplomats home - which, by the way, were more likely than not propeller driven C-130s.
Re: Mob Attacks Israeli Embassy In Egypt; Ambassador and Staff Evacuated
Heshmon, thank you for this correction. I've changed the title.
Sep '10
Re: Mob Attacks Israeli Embassy In Egypt; Ambassador and Staff Evacuated
Thanks for your post I have been waiting for it. I gather you believe the attack was more or less spontaneous and was not acquiesced too beforehand by the Egyptian military. I hope it is true. Some sort of military rule is beginning to look like the best one can hope for.
May '10
Re: Mob Attacks Israeli Embassy In Egypt; Ambassador and Staff Evacuated
From Walter Russel Mead:
"Attacking an embassy is a revolutionary act; it is a declaration that revolutionaries reject the international status quo and the current authorities who tamely agree to live within its limits. Like the Iranian seizure of the US embassy in 1979 it is an act that forces people to take sides. Parties and figures who condemn the attack on the Israeli embassy risk losing public support; those who accept it find themselves committed to an increasingly radical course.
If, on the other hand, public opinion recoils from an act that threatens to cut Egypt off from needed foreign support and to devastate the tourist industry (forget Israeli tourists: few western sun worshippers like to visit countries where embassies are torched), the effort to radicalize the Egyptian revolution will lose steam.
Either way, the embassy attack is more than a dramatic event. This is history on the march; keep your eyes on Egypt for the next few weeks."
http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2011/09/11/israeli-embassy-the-egyptian-bastille/
Jan '11
Re: Mob Attacks Israeli Embassy In Egypt; Ambassador and Staff Evacuated
It looks like the Arab "Spring" has blossomed into Thermidor.