Israel will deliver first gas to Egypt in March

Egypt will begin importing natural gas from Israel under a $15 billion deal as early as March if an undersea pipeline connecting the Mediterranean neighbors is found to be in good condition, moving the country closer to its goal of becoming an energy-exporting hub.
Mohammed Shoeib, chief executive officer of East Gas Co., a major Egyptian partner in the pipeline, said supplies would begin at 100 million standard cubic feet of gas per day in the first quarter of 2019 and gradually rise to a maximum of 700 million scf a day.

“We expect the pipeline is in good condition,” he told Bloomberg in an interview. “We aim to reach the pipeline’s full capacity or maximum flow rate within three years.”
East Gas and the companies developing Israel’s largest natural gas fields agreed last month to buy 39 percent of the East Mediterranean Gas Co., which owns the pipeline connecting southern Israel to Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, clearing the main legal obstacle to the 10-year export contract signed in February. East Gas separately made a deal to buy a further 9 percent from MGPC.The EMG pipeline was originally built to export Egyptian gas to Israel, but has been idle for about six years.

Egyptian army kills 15 Sudanese refugees near border with Israel

Egyptian forces on Sunday shot and killed 15 Sudanese migrants who were attempting to illegally cross the border into Israel, Egyptian security sources said.
The sources, who wished to remain anonymous, said that the 15 people were among 23 migrants attempting to illegally cross the border from Egypt's Rafah city in the northern Sinai into Israel when Egyptian soldiers opened fire. The other eight were shot and wounded, before being evacuated to Rafah hospital, the sources said.They told Ma'an that Egyptian border forces called on the 23 migrants to halt, saying that they had been caught, and when the group failed to do so, the soldiers opened fire on them.The incident reportedly took place around the number 117 border marker.
 Earlier on Sunday, the same sources reported that another eight African migrants were caught and detained while trying to cross the border fence in a different location. It was not clear which country those migrants were coming from.The UN says there are some 53,000 refugees and asylum-seekers living in Israel, most of whom entered via the desert border with Egypt.

Israel is going to supply Egypt with natural gas.

The pipeline that used to supply Egyptian gas to Israel and Jordan has been sabotaged at least 20 times. (Photo EPA)

An Israeli firm will supply Egypt with natural gas, more than two years after sabotage halted the flow of Egyptian gas to Israel. On Sunday the Israeli owners of the Tamar offshore gas field informed the Tel Aviv stock exchange they had struck a deal to export natural gas to the Egyptian firm Dolphinus Holdings.
A statement said Tamar was in "exclusive negotiations" with Dolphinus Holdings to provide it with up to 2.5 billion cubic meters (bcm) over a seven-year span.Experts estimate the deal to be worth over $4 billion (3.13 billion euros).
Dolphinus Holdings "represents a consortium of large non-governmental industrial and commercial Egyptian gas customers," according to Tamar. Tamar holds 250 bcm of natural gas, and lies 80 kilometers west of the port city of Haifa.

Gunman kill six military police in Egypt, militant leader killed in car accident

Unidentified gunmen opened fire on an army police checkpoint on the outskirts of Cairo on Saturday, killing six officers, Egyptian state Egyptian state TV reported. A senior security source told state TV that two bombs found near the checkpoint had been deactivated. The army blamed the attack on the Muslim Brotherhood, according to a military statement. 
There have been several militant attacks on security forces since the army overthrew presidnet Morsi last July and about 300 security officers have been killed. One army officer was killed in an attack on an army bus on Thursday which Egypt also blamed on the Brotherhood, declared a terrorist group by the government in December. The Brotherhood condemned Thursday's attack and accused the military-backed government of trying to implicate it for political reasons.

Egyptian court temporarily bans all activities of Hamas in Egypt

Updated. An Egyptian court on Tuesday banned all activities of Hamas in Egypt, pending a court verdict in an espionage case involving ousted president Mohamed Morsi and members of the Islamist Palestinian group.
The court also banned all "organisations or groups branching from, financed or supported by Hamas," a judicial source told Ahram Online.
"The court has ordered the banning of Hamas work and activities in Egypt," a judge, who asked to remain anonymous, told Reuters.The court also ordered the closure of Hamas offices in Egypt. Hamas condemned the ruling, saying that it "strongly condemned" what it described as an "unjustifiable" and "highly political" decision that was based on "fabrications and false news." "Hamas has neither activities nor official offices in Egypt, whether before, during or after the [2011 revolution]," a Hamas official said in a statement e-mailed to Ahram Online.

Explosion kills five militants in Sinai, Egypt denies it was an Israeli drone

Egyptian tank in El Arish, North Sinai. (Getty)

An explosion destroyed a rocket launcher set up near the border to launch attacks against Israel on Friday  and at least five Islamic militants were killed, Egypt's official MENA news agency reported. Residents of south Rafah at Egypt's border said they heard the sound of a loud explosion on Friaday afternoon, coming from the Ajraa area some three kilometers south of Rafah. Egyptian helicopters were seen flying over the area during and after the blast.
Egypt's military spokesman Ahmed Ali denied reports of an Israeli drone attack on Egyptian soil. He also denied reports of  Egyptian-Israeli coordination, requesting media to verify their  information before publishing.In a statement on his official Facebook page he said thet was still in the process of examining the area around the explosions and collecting evidence. Earlier reports by AP quoted two senior Egyptian officials stating that Israel fired a missile into the northern Sinai Peninsula, killing five suspected Islamic militants and destroying a rocket launcher. An  Israeli army spokeswoman declined to comment,  according to Reuters.
On Thursday, the Israeli military ordered the cancellation of all flights in and out of the Red Sea resort of Eilat for a brief period following a security assessment. Last month, Israel deployed a battery of its Iron Dome missile defence system near Eilat, which abuts the border with Egypt's troubled Sinai Peninsula, AFP reported.

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood takes stand against Israeli agression in Gaza

The Muslim Brotherhood have called for a protest next Friday to denounce the recent Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip. Over weekend the Israeli army has attacked the Strip, killing seven Palestinians, including two children and two militants. Israel claimed the strikes were in response to an anti-tank missile fired at an Israeli jeep.
'Repeated Israeli raids on Gaza, killing people and destroying their homes and property are blatant violations of international law that vividly illustrate the lie of alleged Israeli peace,' a Muslim Brotherhood statement said. 'Israel is still flouting all resolutions, ignoring all international conventions and norms, and killing innocent people – following the only bloody policy it knows.'
'The killing of dozens of innocent Palestinians is only a link in the chain of oppression and Judaization which Israel seeks to impose on the ground, which will never come to be, God willing. We call on the whole nation to join the Muslim Brotherhood in announcing their wrath and condemnation of the Israeli attacks, and declaring full support for the Palestinian resistance, in popular protest marches and demonstrations, after Friday prayers, on 16 November 2012.'
The statement further called on Arab and Muslim leaders "to play their role in supporting the Palestinian cause and to help stop the bloodshed' Also it said that 'all national political forces must consider all ways and procedures to support our Palestinian brothers, such as economic boycott, popular rejection, increasing public awareness of the truth about the Palestinian issue, and supporting the resistance alternative and the right of return of all Palestinian refugees. All international institutions must play the roles they are tasked with, to protect innocent Palestinians.' added the statement.
On Monday, dozens of protesters gathered at Talaat Harb Square in Cairo to protest the attacks. The protest was orgaized by various political groups, including the Egyptian Popular Current of Nasserist Hamdeen Sabbahi.

Morsi declares support for Palestinians

 
 Morsi during his speech for Eid al-Adha (Nile tv)

President Mohamed Morsi on Wednesday said Egypt would do its best to support Palestinians in their struggle against Israeli occupation "without declaring war against anyone."
Morsi spoke on national television to mark Muslim's four-day Al-Adha feast "We will never accept any assault or siege on the Palestinian people. Egypt provides Palestine with all its needs such as food and clothing," he said.
"The blood of Palestinians is our blood, their life is our life and their pains are our pains. However, supporting Palestine does not mean that we will declare war against anybody," he added in reference to Israel, which he stopped short of calling it by name, maintaining the same pattern he has followed in his speeches since his inauguration as Egypt president. His speech came on the same day that Egypt brokered a cease fire, after Israel killed four Palestinian militants in two days and the Palestinians fired about 80 projectiles into Israel.

Morsi also spoke up for the Palestinians in his speech to the General Assembly of the United Nations on 26 September. He described himself as Egypt's first democratically elected leader the country  underwent what he called a ‘great, peaceful revolution’. Morsi said in the UN General Assembly that the first issue for the world body should be certifying the rights of the Palestinian people.
‘‘The fruits of dignity and freedom must not remain far from the Palestinian people,’’ he said, adding that it was ‘‘shameful’’ that UN resolutions are not enforced. He decried Israel’s continued building of settlements on territory that the Palestinians claim for a future state in the West Bank.

Israeli and two attackers killed after incursion into Israel from Sinai

Just a few days after rockets were fired from the Sinai into Israel, there was an attack on Israeli workers who are building a concrete wall along the border between Israel en Egypt. This is what Haaretz reported:

An Israeli citizen and two attackers were killed Monday morning during clashes between Israel Defense Forces soldiers and gunmen who infiltrated the southern border with Egypt.

An initial investigation reveals that three terrorists penetrated the fence along the Gaza-Sinai border on Monday morning, placed an explosive device on Philadelphi strip near Be'er Milka, and waited for Israeli vehicles to pass by.

After several minutes, the device exploded on one of the vehicles, and the gunmen opened fire. They also fired an RPG rocket, which missed its target.As a result of the shooting, one of vehicles rolled down a hill and wounded an Israeli citizen who was working on the construction of the border fence. The man died of his wounds shortly afterward. The IDF's Golani Brigade arrived at the scene and began exchanging fire with the armed men. At least two terrorists were killed as a result of the firefight.

Israel accuses Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood of launching rockets from Sinai

 Haaretz  reports:

Israeli security officials say that the rockets that landed on Friday in the area near Ovda and Mitzpeh Ramon, were launched after a request by senior leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. According to these officials, the rockets were launched from the Sinai Peninsula by a Bedouin unit, according to Hamas orders, even though Hamas itself wasn't the initiator of the launching, but responded to the request of the Brotherhood, who wanted such an event on the eve of the second round of presidential elections in Egypt. It is yet unclear why the Brotherhood requested such an unusual action, a first military strike against Israel, or whether the strike was aimed at specific sites in the area.

The Brotherhood wanted such an event on the eve of the second round of presidential elections in Egypt?? And why then is this heroic event totally unknown in Egypt itself? 

Egypt terminates contract for the delivery of natural gas to Israel

 Damage from one of the 14 attacks on the pipeline carrying gas from Egypt to Israel.

The head of the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company said Sunday it has terminated its contract to ship gas to Israel because of violations of contractual obligations, Mohamed Shoeib, chairman of the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS), told Al-Masry Al-Youm.
He said  that EGAS is using its right to terminate the contract due to a breach of the gas supply agreement by the East Mediterranean Gas Company (EMG), which operates the pipeline.A source within the petroleum ministry told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the dispute is purely commercial and has no other connotations.

Israeli prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu downplayed the political significance of the Egyptian measure to cancel the gas deal. He said Monday that it did not stem from any sort of diplomatic developments or decisions, but was rather due to a business dispute between companies.

"The termination of the natural gas supply from Egypt is not motivated by political decisions, but is a business dispute between the Israeli and the Egyptian companies," Netanyahu said in a meeting with the heads of Israel Bonds. In earlier reactions, from minister of Finance Yuval Steinitz among others, Israel hinted at a breach of the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.

The gas deal has since long been a source of controversy. Egyptian militants have blown up the gas pipeline to Israel 14 times since the uprising.On the Israeli side, the East Mediterranean Gas Company (EMG), which operates the pipeline, sought international arbitration in October because of the Egyptian side's failure to supply the quantity of gas stipulated in the contract — because of the frequent bombings.  EMG, Ampal-American Israel Corporation, and two other companies have sought $8 billion in damages from Egypt for not safeguarding their investment.
Under the 2005 deal, the Cairo-based East Mediterranean Gas Co. sold 1.7 billion cubic meters of natural gas to the Israeli company under a 15-year fixed price deal15-year fixed price deal between a private Egyptian company, partly owned by the government, and the state-run Israel Electric Corporation.  Critics in Egypt charged that Israel got the gas much too cheap and that Mubarak cronies skimmed millions of dollars off the proceeds. A court of appeal last year overturned a lower court ruling that would have halted gas exports to Israel. The suit had been filed by opposition groups.
For the long term, Israel is developing its own natural gas fields off its Mediterranean coast and is expected to be self-sufficient in natural gas in a few years.

Erdoğan in Cairo, coinciding with detoriation in Egyptian-Israeli relations

The Turkisch prime-minister Erdoğan said on Sunday that the Israeli attack on the Mavi Marmara was in fact a 'cause for war. But befitting Turkey's grandness, we decided to act with patience,' Erdoğan said, according to excerpts taken from an interview he gave to Al Jazeera and published by the Anatolia news agency.


Turkey’s Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan arrived in Cairo on Monday, accompanied by a delegation of 200 Turkish businessmen who seek closer trade ties with their counterparts in Egypt. The volume of trade between the two nations has reached $3 billion annually, which is a 40 per cent jump from the last three years.  
Much of Erdoğan’s visit will focus on the establishment of a Strategic Cooperation Council between the two countries which will work to coordinate regional politicics.
Erdoğan’s visit to Egypt comes at a time when Turkey’s relationship with Israel and Iran is deteriorating. However, Turkey is expected to expand its role in the region by improving Turkish-African relations and also playing a bigger part in the Palestinian crisis, which will be solidified by Erdoğan’s meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas later in the week.

  

The wall in front of the Israeli embassy in Cairo is being brought down. (AFP)

Erdogan's visit also coincides with a detoriation in the relations between Egypt and Israel after Egyptian demonstrators on Friday broke down the wall around the Israeli embassy in Giza,  and broke in into the embassy itself, from where they removed the Israeli flag for the seond time in two weeks and threw papers out of the windows. Israel evacuated its embassy staff and their families, who said to fear for their lives. Israeli sources said that Israeli leaders were upset that Egyptian police only came into action after intruders were already in the embassy. Also Israel was angered by the fact that prime minister Netanyahu was unable to reach the leader of the Military Council SCAF, marshall Tantawi, after the news reached Jerusalem, and had to ask for help from US-president Obama, who himself also had to wait quite some time before he got Tantawi on the line. The storming of the embassy lateron led to fierce fighting between demonstrators and military police and utter chaos, that left three people dead and 1049 wounded.   
Both Egypt and Israel are saying that they are committed to the peace treaty and to continue the diplomatic relations on the same level as before, but it is obvious that the atmosphere has become cooler. Al Ahram Online reports that according to identical accounts offered by Egyptian officials and foreign diplomats in Cairo, Egypt had asked Israel before the developments of last Friday to keep the Israeli ambassador in Tel Aviv and to reduce the volume of its staff to the minimum, but Netanyahu insisted on sending the ambassador back only a few days before the latest protest.
"We are not expelling him, but we thought a long holiday for the Israeli ambassador in Egypt would be useful for all of us now; unfortunately, Israel thought otherwise and when anger erupted on Friday evening they had to solicit the intervention of the Americans who sent a plane to carry him and the rest of the staff out of Egypt," said one official.
Today, there is a tacit agreement between Egypt and Israel that the long holiday for the ambassador is in place and there are guarantees offered by Cairo to both Washington and Tel Aviv that stepped up security measures will be in place to prevent another attack on the embassy.
Meanwhile, Egypt is insisting that Israel should proceed faster with its investigation in the killing of Egyptian border guards – despite Israeli hesitation and complaints about the attack on its embassy.
"We are telling the Israelis that the authorities have to tell the public that it did not turn a blind eye to the killing of Egyptian soldiers," the same official added.

Egypt to open Gaza crossing and sending team to help implement reconciliation Fatah-Hamas

Nabil al-Arabi

Egypt's foreign minister said in an interview with Al-Jazeera on Thursday that preparations were underway to open the Rafah border crossing with Gaza on a permanent basis. Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil al-Arabi told Al-Jazeera that within seven to 10 days, steps will be taken in order to alleviate the "blockade and suffering of the Palestinian nation."
The opening of Rafah will allow the flow of people and goods in and out of Gaza without Israeli permission or supervision, which has not been the case up until now.

Before Egypt's uprising and ousting of longtime leader Hosni Mubarak, the border between Egypt and Gaza had been sealed. It has occasionally opened the passage for limited periods.

An Egyptian security source in Cairo said that Egypt will also send a security team to the Gaza Strip to help implement the reconciliation agreement reached by rival Palestinian groups Fatah and Hamas.Restructuring and unifying security forces in Hamas-run Gaza is a key condition for the success of the accord, brokered by Egypt on Wednesday to overcome a rift that had stifled a Palestinian drive for independence.
"An Egyptian security delegation will head to Gaza to help settle and organize the internal security situation there, now that the reconciliation agreement is finally in place," the security source, who declined to be identified, told Reuters press Agency. He said the security team would seek to meld the disparate security forces belonging to Palestinian factions in Gaza, but declined to explain how.
The deal provides for the creation of a non-factional professional security which would be subject to scrutiny by the Palestinian legislature. Another security source said the team would consist of specialists from various branches of the Egyptian army. Like in a previous mission that ended in 2007, Egypt's intelligence service will oversee the team's work in Gaza.
Abbas met with the head of Egypt's ruling military council, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, earlier this month to discuss reconciliation efforts. "This was a very important meeting and it laid out Egypt's role in the coming period as the agreement is carried out," the first security source said.

Egyptians withdraw from film festival because of Israeli film

The sixth annual short-film festival at the French Cultural Center in Cairo (CFCC), "Recontres de l'Image," started out with 49 screenings. That number has dropped to 17 after the jury, composed of three Egyptian directors and actors, withdraw their participation and a number of Egyptian short films followed.
The reason was the inclusion of the film Almost Normal, directed by Keren Ben Raphael, an Israeli director who studies at the prestigious French cinema school La Fémis. The seven-day program for the festival had already been distributed when Ahmed Atef, a film critic, director and jury member resigned two weeks ago after discovering that one of the participants was Israeli. Atef issued a statement outlining his position. He received the complete support of the Cinema Syndicate. "The participation of a film by an Israeli filmmaker is completely unacceptable,” said Shoukry Abu Emiera, the secretary general of the Cinema Syndicate. “Any Egyptian artist who travels to Israel or participates in an Israeli production--given the atrocities that Israel commits on a daily basis--is boycotted by the syndicate."
 Jean-Pierre Debaere, dircto of the CFCC, trie to save the estibval by announcing that the “offending” film would be withdrawn, but was overruled by the  French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which said it was  “inconceivable not to screen this film because of the director’s nationality.”
Almost Normal tells the story of Shai, an Israeli boy in Tel Aviv who is about to turn 12 and wishes for a normal birthday, which is tainted every year by the anniversary of his grandfather's death.

Other Israeli movies had been screened at the center before and were never stigmatized like this short film.
The Wall, by French-Israeli director Simone Bitton about the erection of the wall that separates Israelis and Palestinians was screened at the CFCC in 2006 and 2007. Abraham Segal’s documentary La Politique de Dieu (God’s Politics), was shown in 2008. These two full-length films produced by Israelis did not cause a stir when they were screened at the CFCC. But since Ahmed Atef resigned from the jury, the decision to boycott the CFCC's festival has snowballed. Asser Yassin, a young Egyptian actor, assured that his decision to leave the arbitration committee was not influenced by the Cinema Syndicate. “It has nothing to do with Keren Ben Raphael’s nationality. I left the jury because I discovered on her CV that she served in the Israeli army, which I consider a terrorist organization,” he said.

Massive protests of students and unions in Egypt against perceived encroachment of Al-Aqsa

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Students at Mansoura University burn an Israeli flag. (picture Alsayed Albaz, Al-Masri al-Youm)

Clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police broke out in and around Jerusalem on Tuesday after the re-opening and dedication of the Hurva synagogue 300 meters from the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount and the announcement on Sunday that Israel is to build another 1600 appartments in Arab East-Jerusalem. Jerusalem wasn' t the only place where protests took place, however. The Egyptian newspaper Al-Masri al-Youm reported that thousands of students from the Muslim Brotherhood gathered at 18 universities across Egypt yesterday to protest Israeli encroachment on Al-Aqsa mosque and the inclusion of the Ibrahimi and Bilal mosques in a list of Israeli heritage sites. Students burned the Israeli flag and chanted angry slogans against Israel, accusing the country of attempting to Judaize Al-Aqsa.
Cairo University students began their protests two days ago with a sit-in, and then took to the campus where they were surrounded by security forces. Clashes broke out when security forces attempted to stop protesters from the Faculty of Engineering from joining other students in front of Cairo University's main gate.
At Ain Shams University, security forces prevented protesting students from entering the campus, triggering friction with security forces and forcing the students to continue their protest off campus.
At Al-Azhar University, around 3000 students staged protests against Israeli raids.
In total, more than 30,000 students protested at universities across Egypt. The universities of Tanta, Al-Azhar (Tanta Branch), Zagazig, Mansoura, Fayoum, Beni Suef, Alexandria and Minya were all shaken by protests against Israel.
Members from the inter-syndicate coordination committee in Alexandria also organized protests in front of the Supreme Court of Justice. Members from the pharmacists, teachers and lawyers syndicates, the Teachers Without a Syndicate Movement, Kefaya, the Ghad Party, and the Karama party joined in the protests.
Dozens of lawyers protested in front of the Lawyers Syndicate headquarters in Cairo to express their rejection of Israeli violations of Al-Aqsa. The protesters called for relations with Israel to be severed and its ambassador ejected. The protesters also urged Arab governments to stand up to Israeli assaults on Al-Aqsa.