Haaretz reports:
A group of about 30 protesters broke into the Israeli Embassy in Cairo Friday and dumped hundreds of documents out of the windows after a day of demonstrations outside the building in which crowds swinging sledge hammers and using their bare hands tore apart the embassy’s security wall.
Israel’s ambassador, Yitzhak Levanon, his family and other embassy staff rushed to Cairo airport and left on a military plane for Israel, said airport officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Israeli officials refused to comment on the ambassador’s departure.
Hundreds of protesters converged on the embassy throughout the afternoon and into the night, tearing down large sections of the graffiti-covered security wall outside the 21-story building housing the embassy. Egyptian security forces made no attempt for hours to intervene.
Just before midnight, a group of protesters reached a room on one of the embassy’s lower floors at the top of the building and began dumping Hebrew-language documents from the windows, said an Egyptian security official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
In Jerusalem, an Israeli official confirmed the embassy had been broken into, saying it appeared the group reached a waiting room on the lower floor. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to release the information.
No one answered the phone at the embassy late Friday.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Barak Obama spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the situation at the Israeli Embassy in Cairo.
The President’s office said in a statement that Obama expressed great concern about the situation at the Embassy, and the security of the Israelis serving there.
The statement said Obama “reviewed the steps that the United States is taking at all levels to help resolve the situation without further violence, and to call on the Government of Egypt to honor its international obligations to safeguard the security of the Israeli Embassy.”
Obama and Netanyahu agreed to stay in close touch until the situation is resolved.
And so it starts. Time the U.S. reevaluates its Israeli obligations. The Israeli leadership is bringing this upon themselves, which just my be what they want to happen. One thing is clear by all this, the U.S. can only give lip service, nothing else, for it’s time the the Israeli leadership changes its ways or else pays the consequences for their pig headed folly. The World cannot tolerate this type of behavior, regardless of who it involves, and I don’t mean the protesters either.
This may be a pre-emptive strike by the Egyptians before the Israelis slaughter them in the next Gaza bound flotilla like the Turks.
Ah, Obama is trying for an award in hypocrisy. The US, that bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, is ‘concerned’ about an Israeli ambassador chased out of his hole in Cairo?
FROM THE WASHINGTON POST: “Protesters knocked down a 12-foot concrete wall that had been built last week to protect the [Israeli] embassy, which is near the top floor of a 21-story residential building in the upscale Dokki area [of Cairo].”
MY COMMENT: In other words, Israel uses the innocent civilians living in that 21-story residential building as human shields!
Re: not sure about your conclusion there Dickerson – perhaps the documented use of human shields is a better example of that…
As for the embassy: the delayed response from SCAF was clearly a dangerous (and illegal) misstep. This is just an example of people calling out Israel’s abrasive and arrogant foreign policy. The fact that the world reacted by printing many op-eds (in Israel and US, importantly) calling Israel out – rather than condemning Egyptians is proof that the world has had enough of Israeli behavior.
From NFAM: “The Israeli government has stumbled from one diplomatic row to the next. Netanyahu’s actions has resulted in the termination of all relations with Israel’s best ally in the Middle East (Turkey), threatened the peace treaty with the linchpin of Israel’s regional security (Egypt), forced an unwinnable situation at the UN (re: Palestine), caused rebuke from Israel’s best western allies (the UK, Canada, Germany, France, Ireland, Australia – concerned the use of forged passports), and repeatedly humiliated the leader of the one country that has repeatedly stood behind Israel despite the divisive and often illegal behavior of Israel.”
Re: “not sure about your conclusion there Dickerson – perhaps the documented use of human shields is a better example of that…” ~ Chris Keeler
MY REPLY: In my opinion, Israel putting its embassy on the top floor of a 21-story residential building in Cairo is tantamount to using the residents of that building as human shields. I find it shocking.
You are certainly free to differ.