Here’s what the mainstream media has failed to report in its coverage of Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin’s mad-tweets about being detained overnight in a Cairo holding cell.
According to Israel National News, the organization Stop the ISM has taken responsibility for getting Benjamin deported from Egypt:
The news wires were all abuzz today with the report that Medea Benjamin of Code Pink was deported from Egypt on trying to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing. Stop the ISM, a division of DAFKA.org was responsible for this.
Upon learning that Benjamin was planning a trip to Gaza under the ruse of bringing lanterns to the Palestinian Arabs, our agency contacted the Egyptian embassy in Washington D.C. and alerted them to her plans. The result was Egyptian officials met her airplane when she arrived and immediately arrested her.
…Benjamin’s arrest and deportation show a serious shift in Egypt’s relationship with Hamas since the ouster of the Muslim Brotherhood and Morsi from that country. Only days ago, Egypt closed the Hamas office in the country and put out a clear signal that Egypt recognizes that the threat from Hamas extremists poses just as much of a threat to stability in Egypt as elsewhere in the Middle East.
Benjamin is part of the ISM network in the United States and was involved in several excursions to Gaza where her NGO’s would bring support to the Hamas terrorist leadership in Gaza.
Egypt is to be commended for finally putting a stop to this woman’s penchant for encouraging aid to a terrorist organization and disguising that aid as “humanitarian work.” In any case, her arrest and removal by the Egyptian authorities is the first concrete step taken toward reining in Hamas in Gaza.
Hamas has been aligning itself more and more with Iran, also increasingly supported by Benjamin, so that she is seen as posing a security concern for Egypt.
That’s right, you read correctly: In an anti-Muslim Brotherhood move, the new Egyptian government has banned Hamas activity and seized the terror organization’s office and assets within Egypt.
The relationship between Egypt and Hamas reached a new nadir yesterday with a court decision to ban the movement’s activity in Egypt and seize its offices and assets. This is one step before declaring Hamas a terrorist organization, which is how the Muslim Brotherhood is designated.
…the ruling is a significant statement that undermines the movement’s legitimacy in Egypt, and reflects the Egyptian public’s mindset since the overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood’s regime, whose leadership is accused of conspiring with Hamas against the state. Blocking Hamas’ access to Egypt is considered a legitimate response, and part of the military’s struggle against terrorism in Sinai, despite the perception that Hamas is now the primary resistance force against Israel.
It’s no wonder that Hamas spokesmen yesterday accused the court and the Egyptian government of defending Israel’s interests and cooperating with Israel against “the interests of the Palestinian people.”
No less important is the closure Egypt has imposed on the Gaza Strip, which includes a very partial opening of the Rafah crossing (only three days every two weeks) and the refusal to allow Egyptian solidarity missions into the Strip. Egypt is thus complementing the Israeli blockade on Gaza, which, together with the destruction of the smuggling tunnels that served to transfer goods and cash into the Strip, is putting the Hamas regime on the brink of bankruptcy.
Benjamin was detained and deported because the Egyptian government viewed her as a supporter of a terrorist movement, or, as Benjamin put it: “It was like I was a terrorist.” A terrorist who claimed to be roughed up, despite being permitted to keep her backpack and cell phone on her in the holding cell so she could live-tweet about the rotten dinner.
Too bad she didn’t tweet the terrorist remark. Then the American media might have been forced to mentioned it and possibly address why she was detained in the first place: not because she is a woman, or an anti-war activist, or a so-called champion of human rights, or even an American, but because she’s an outspoken supporter of a terrorist organization.
Finally, someone is telling it like it is. No wonder the MSM doesn’t want to report it.
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