COMMENTARY: ISRAEL DID NOT ENGINEER EGYPT COUP, BUT IS GLAD IT HAPPENED

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06704842
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 28, 2022
• Document Release Date: January 8, 2018
• Case Number: F-2017-02456
• Publication Date: August 30, 2013

Approved for Release: 2017/12/20 C06704842
Print Message(s)
UNCLASSIFIED//FOUO
ENVELOPE
(b)(3)
HEADER
301054Z AUG 13
FM OSC RESTON VA
(b)(3)
(0)(3) 10
U.S.C. 424
CONTROLS
UNr LAS
UNCLASSIFIED/WA:TO-
c--
Approved for Release: 2017/12/20 C06704842
1/21/2016 10:18 AM
Print Messagqs)
Approved for Release: 2017/12/20 C06704842
UNCLASSIFIED//Fete
FOUO
4444
CITE OSC RESTON VA 833505
WARNING: TOPIC: INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL, LEADER, MILITARY
SERIAL: EUL2013083034056541
BODY
COUNTRY: EGYPT, ISRAEL, TURKEY
SUBJ: (UHIA&Ule.) COMMENTARY: ISRAEL DID NOT ENGINEER EGYPT COUP,
BUT
Is Glad It Happened
SOURCE: Washington Al-Monitor in English 27 Aug 13
TEXT:
[ (U//-e-) Commentary by Mustafa Akyol: "Erdogan, Egypt's Coup And
the Israeli Connection"]
[INTERNET]
[OSC Transcribed Text]
(U) This product may contain copyrighted material; authorized use
is
for national security purposes of the United States Government
only.
Any reproduction, dissemination, or use is subject to the OSC usage
policy and the original copyright.
When Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan argued, in an Aug.
20 speech, that Israel is "behind" the military coup in Egypt, he
certainly did not make a great impression in the West. Various
media
commentators, including a contributor to Al-Monitor, blamed him for
bigotry against the Jewish state, even likening him to Borat, the
notorious anti-Semitic character played by Sacha Baron Cohen in the
famous 2006 mockumentary. Meanwhile, White House spokesman Josh
Earnest criticized Erdogan's comment as "offensive and
unsubstantiated and wrong."
UNCLASSIFIED/
1/21/2016 10:18 AM
Approved for Release: 2017/12/20 C06704842
Print TvIessage(s)
Approved for Release: 2017/12/20 C06704842
UNCLASSIFIEDHFOU0
Yet I still wonder, despite all the urge for political correctness,
whether Erdogan was really delusional on this issue. Was he, in
other
words, really out of touch with reality when he pointed to a link
between Egypt's coup and Israel's agenda? Let's see. First, I
should
admit that Erdogan's "evidence" for his claim, a 2011 press
conference by Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and French
philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, is actually irrelevant. As it can
be
seen on YouTube, this "evidence" only proves that Levy, out of a
peculiar commitment to "democratic values," supports secular-
leaning
military coups against elected Islamist parties such as the Muslim
Brotherhood. This certainly does not prove an actual collaboration
between Egypt's bloody coup and Levy, let alone the Israeli
government. (In fact, one must at least give Levy credit for
condemning "the bloodbath" perpetrated by "Gen. Abdel Fattah
al-Sisi
and his acolytes" in an Aug. 20 piece of his.) However, a mere
sketch
of Middle East news of the past few weeks suggests that Erdogan
perhaps was onto something with his controversial remarks, although
he neither articulated nor substantiated it well. For example, on
Aug. 18 The New York Times published a story titled, "Israel
Escalating Efforts to Shape Allies' Strategy."
"Israel plans this week to intensify its diplomatic campaign urging
Europe and the United States to support the military-backed
government in Egypt despite its deadly crackdown on Islamist
protesters, according to a senior Israeli official involved in the
effort," the article read.
The same article noted that it was Michael B. Oren, Israel's
ambassador to the United States, "who has been forcefully arguing
for
sustaining Washington's $1.5 billion annual aid to Egypt since the
July 3 ouster of President Mohammed Morsi." A similar observation
came from American journalist John Hudson as well, in a Foreign
Policy piece titled, "Egypt's Rulers Have a New Friend in DC: The
Israel Lobby." Accordingly, it was AIPAC -- the voice of the
UNCLASSIFIEDHFOU0
1/21/2016 10:18 AM
Approved for Release: 2017/12/20 C06704842
Print Message.(s)
Approved for Release: 2017/12/20 C06704842
UNCLASSIFIED/X.1315e
Israeli
right in the US capital -- which was "operating behind the scenes
in
private meetings with lawmakers to keep alive Cairo's funding."
Meanwhile, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, although not
currently in power, probably aired the mainstream view in Israel by
urging "the free world" to "support the new Egyptian government" --
or, more precisely, the illegal military regime that has murdered
hundreds of peaceful protesters.
In fact, Western media has no shortage of observations about
Israel's
support for Egypt's coup. Patrick Smith, a veteran journalist and
writer for Salon, argued that "Israel's intolerance of an Islamic
party -- Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood -- in power next door" is quite
evident. He even suggested that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu may have "wanted Morsi's head before he agreed to any
talks
with the Palestinians."
Of course, none of this proves a conspiratorial link between Tel
Aviv
and Cairo -- that Israel planned and orchestrated the flow of
events
-- if that is what Erdogan meant when he said, "Israel is behind
the
coup." But Israel is behind the coup, in the sense of supporting it
enthusiastically. This of course puts the Jewish state in an odd
category of states that are also happily "behind" the coup, such as
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE. Those "Islamic" (in effect,
absolute) monarchies have their own reasons, to be sure, for
supporting the violent overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood: The
"democracy plus Islamism" formula that the Muslim Brotherhood
implies
is a lethal threat to their patrimonial rule. They are thus ready
to
do anything to contain this relatively more modern synthesis of
Islam
and politics in the Sunni world.
UNCLASSIFIED//Fette,
1/21/2016 10:18 AM
Approved for Release: 2017/12/20 C06704842
Print Megage.(s)
Approved for Release: 2017/12/20 C06704842
UNCLASSIFIEDHFOU0
Israel has its own reason, as well, for supporting the overthrow
and
the suppression of the Muslim Brotherhood: a "deep-seated suspicion
towards Islamism," as I probed before in Al-Monitor. But it is a
shortsighted view, I must say, which only creates a vicious cycle:
As
long as Israel acts as the supporter of the secular-leaning despots
who oppress the Islamists, those Islamists will hate and grow more
agitated by Israel. And more agitation against Israel will bring
more
suffering to Jews and their Arab neighbors.
There must be a way out, and perhaps it is rooted in nowhere other
than the ancient wisdom of Judaism itself: "Don't do unto others,"
as
Hillel the Elder said, "what you would not want done to you." In
other words, Israel should wish for the Arabs not bloody military
coups, but the same pluralist democracy it has built for itself --
in
which religious fundamentalists are accommodated and appeased, and
certainly not oppressed and massacred by tyrants in uniform.
[Description of Source: Washington Al-Monitor in English -- Website
hosting exclusive articles by prominent writers from Israel, the
Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Iraq, and Turkey; URL:
http://www.al-monitor.com]
(U) This product may contain copyrighted material; authorized use
is
for national security purposes of the United States Government
only.
Any reproduction, dissemination, or use is subject to the OSC usage
policy and the original copyright.
CABLETYPE: FBISEMS ACP 1.0
UNCLASSIFIEDHFOU0
Approved for Release: 2017/12/20 C06704842
1/21/2016 10:18 AM
Print ,IVIe,ssagc(s)
Approved for Release: 2017/12/20 C06704842
ADMIN
BT
#6749
NNNN
UNCLASSIFIED//fOUO
UNCLASSIFIED//frebrf)
Approved for Release: 2017/12/20 C06704842
_
1/21/2016 10:18 AM
_