GAMAL ABDEL NASSER
(Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein)
The strategy was to have Arab refugees, who had been trained to not only hate the Israelis but also in military and terrorist techniques, to return to israel and foment an insurgency. Ironically, this quotation was cited at the time as one of the few statements upon which the Israeli and Egyptian governments could agree.
Copeland had retired but took on “assignments” for the CIA one of which was as a “go-between” with Nasser.
The Arabs have a long history of arrogant and disdainful treatment by others given the British Colonial history in the Middle East, the French (who invaded Egypt under Napoleon), the Islamic Ottoman Empire which controlled the Middle East before that, and others. Along with the arrogance that usually comes with empire, Western support of the only democracy and modern state in the Middle East—Israel—was even more resented by the Arabs. Historically, there was a general feeling by much of the world that if the Arabs had no oil, no one would pay much attention to them. The Arabs naturally resented these attitudes. It was not until Nasser’s successor, Anwar Sedat, came to government in Egypt and King Hussein reformed Jordan, that Western attitudes began to change towards the Arab nations. The Western change was not because of any Arab “lesson” but the result of new, exceptionally capable leaders who have been reforming the Arab nations.
Darwish’s father, a Colonel in the Egyptian Army, was assigned by Nasser to Direct the Intelligence Operations for the Palestinian Terrorists in Gaza. After many Israelis were killed, the Israeli Defense forces targeted the Colonel and killed him. Nasser’s concept of revenge was to kill any Jews, anywhere, not the Jewish soldiers who had retaliated against his soldiers.
Allen had expressed the concern of the United States that Egypt had purchased Russian arms and was falling into the Russian camp in the Cold War. The United States could not sell arms to Egypt because they wanted to use them to attack Israel.
This quotation illustrates the statement of a reform principle to appease international interests in basic human rights. This type of statement provides the “fig leaf” for the UN and other organizations to pretend that international standards of human rights are being maintained. Nasser did not implement this principle. By the beginning of the 21st century, Egypt was finally making some progress on women’s equality issues. The prohibition on female members of Parliament—{586723}—had been reversed but women were still not allowed to be judges in a criminal trial, laws against infant female circumcision, and other elements of female equality were still not in existence.
Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein was an Egyptian politician who served as the second President of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the 1952 overthrow of the monarchy and introduced far-reaching land reforms the following year. Following a 1954 attempt on his life by a Muslim Brotherhood member, he cracked down on the organization, put President Mohamed Naguib under house arrest and assumed executive office. He was formally elected president in June 1956.
