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Nakba Day, Naksa Day: A Way of Playing Victim Ashraf Ramelah

Posted By Ruth King on June 2nd, 2011

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.9653/pub_detail.asp

Family Security Matters.org Contributing Editor Ashraf Ramelah is founder and president of Voice of the Copts.org, an international human rights organization, and has appeared on the Israel National Radio Tamar Yonah Show and the Jay Sekulow Live! Radio Show.

Recently Egyptian freedom-fighters revisited Tahrir (Liberty) Square in Cairo to reinforce demands for democratic elections. While the Muslim Brotherhood and other anti-democratic groups are asking for elections in September, pro-democratic forces are calling for a new constitution before elections are held which would no doubt postpone the September timeframe. Meanwhile about two weeks earlier on May 15, pro-Islamic forces were officially mourning the birth of the nation of Israel in a day of recognition called Nakba. Nakba is an Arabic word meaning catastrophe, and it centers on self-pity. The concept was originated and circulated by Egypt, Syria and Jordan after the Arab-Israeli war of 1948 when Arab air and ground forces against Israel were wiped out within days.

In short, as all Jews and freedom-loving people celebrated the sixty-third anniversary of the state of Israel this year on May 15, those who hate democracy and deny human rights were remembering their Nakba. This “celebration” dates back to 1998 when Yasser Arafat, the former head of Arab terrorists, for political reasons reached back fifty years to appropriate this long-forgotten Arabic term to create an Arab-Muslim counter to the celebration of the anniversary of the Israeli state. The small bit of geography known as Israel to the entire world is still called Palestine today in many Arab-Muslim countries.

From the time of Moses when the Jews left Egypt more than 3300 years ago, Jews settled in the land officially recognized as Israel today. The original Palestinians, who occupied the land upon the arrival of the Jews, were not Arabs. The Jews fought and won this new land promised to them by God, and biblical history does not record much more about the Palestinian people upon defeat by the Jews.

World history indicates that Israel was then occupied by the Romans as was Egypt and many others parts of the Middle East before facing invasion by barbarians from the Arabic peninsula. It was the first time invaders brought religion – the purpose of the “gund Allah” (soldiers of Allah) was to force their captives to submit to a way of life called Islam. By the seventh century Arab-Muslims occupied Palestine and many other lands of the Middle East.

Unlike under Roman occupation, the Jews now were known as “Kafirs” (infidels) to their captors and suffered persecution and oppression for their faith similar to the Copts of Egypt then and now under Muslim occupation. We also know from history that Arab-Muslims set about eradicating important places of Jewish worship including the destruction of the Temple Mount and the building of the Al Aqsa Mosque in its place. The Prophet Mohammed never visited the Al Aqsa Mosque as Arab-Muslim claims because it was erected some time after his death.

As a testimony to the democratic state of Israel today, many thousands of Arab-Muslims live in freedom and peace as Israeli citizens and are elected members of the Knesset in contrast to the Islamic majority of Egypt which has controlled and oppressed the Christian minority under “democratic” regimes. When the reorganization of the State of Israel occurred in 1948 King Farouk of Egypt accepted it favorably but was strong-armed into joining other Islamic states in the Jihad against Israel led by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Gamal Abdel Nasser, who ruled Egypt from 1956 until his death in 1970.

The subsequent Palestinian refugee problem was fabricated by Arab-Muslims who refused to accept the United Nations solution and Israel as a state, inciting and losing the war against the Israeli nation. This Israeli victory indirectly led to the overthrow of the Egypt’s King Farouk in the 1952 Coup by Nasser, the Egyptian military man who was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood — the excuse being faulty weaponry attained by Farouk which led to their catastrophic defeat (later known as Nakba, catastrophe, to the Arabs). Before long, a second coup was led by Nasser against General Mohanmed Naquib, the leader of the Coup, because of their differences regarding the future rule of Egypt. The overthrow of Naquib was the first of Nasser’s efforts to secure his total control.

Nasser, in short order, rid his regime of the Muslim Brotherhood by arresting and jailing those who helped him come to power. After eight bullets were shot at him in Alexandria on October 26, 1954 in an assassination attempt by fellow Muslim Brotherhood member Mahmoud Abd Al-Latif from which he escaped unscathed, he cracked down on the radical fundamentalists. To this day Egyptians wonder if Nasser staged the event to give him the excuse to do so and to have sole power.

As a charismatic figure, Nasser had a positive affect on average Egyptians who were largely uneducated and, by nature, good humored and simplistic. His long-term plan for Islamizing the country began with implementing socialism and forcing the Jews to leave Egypt, abandoning their businesses, homes and personal possessions – much of which was sold to the loyal, pampered Egyptian military families at a very cut rate. The Christian Copts also suffered the nationalization of their businesses and lands and were prohibited from all high ranking positions in government and military. Copts, for the first time, began to leave Egypt in favor of the West where one could find equality and human rights.

Nasser waged war against Israel and was defeated again in 1956, however it wasn’t until 1967 that Egyptian, Syrian, and Jordan aggression toward Israel and their subsequent defeat did Nasser address the matter to his people using the new term “Naksa,” meaning a setback in the Arab-Muslim goal to destroy the Israeli state and create the Arab Omma.

Naksa protester in Lebanon.

On Monday, June 5^th, 1967, Israeli forces destroyed Arab military aviation in its entirety in less than five hours constituting an embarrassment to the Egyptian military. Nasser’s use of the word Naksa in his first speech to the Egyptians on June 9^th after days of silence toyed with the emotions of his people and indicated Egypt’s defeat was not the fault of the Egyptian army but due to him alone. Knowing full well that Egyptians could be manipulated to want him more by his admission of guilt, he pronounced himself solely responsible and, along with all of Egypt, a victim of the Jews. In this way he curtailed the anger of family members who lost loved ones in the war and reinstated himself in the eyes of all his people as an even stronger leader.

The Arab-Muslim pity party this May called Nakba will soon be followed by the Naksa (June 5^th), Arab-Muslim commemoration of the 1967 crushing defeat of Arab forces forty-four years ago when Arab aggressors were made “victims” by the brilliant maneuvers of Israel’s self-defense. At the time, Egyptians fully expected to receive their lost lands back from Israel and still do today – their entitlement is both laughable and pathetic.

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