I was planning to write something completely different this weekend, but the events in Egypt have dictated my choice.
An Egyptian policeman gestures from an observation in the Sinai peninsula, February 10, 2016, and an undated photograph of Brig. Gen. Adel Rajaei.Amir Cohen, Reuters
via -Haaretz
Cairo—Brig. Gen. Adel Ragai, commander of the Egyptian Army’s Ninth Armored Division, was assassinated in broad daylight in Cairo. Brig. Gen. Adel Rajaei, 52, had commanded Egypt’s counterterrorism operations in Sinai, his brigade was also working to destroy smuggling tunnels that have been built under the Egyptian border with the Gaza Strip. This assassination came after last week’s murder of 12 Egyptian conscripts in an ISIS attack on security checkpoint in central Sinai, and three Egyptian soldiers were killed this week.
A little known terrorist group Liwaa al-Thawra has claimed responsibility, highlighting an evolution of new terror groups, well trained and capable of targeting senior figures in Egypt’s powerful army. Although there have been several attacks in the last decades against Egypt’s police, attacks on army leaders are rare in Egypt. In fact, I have no recollection (although I stand to be corrected) of any attacks on army figures since the assassination of President Sadat in 1981.
Several new violent groups have emerged in Egypt since the ousting of Morsi in July 2013 and the rise of army leader and the current president Abdul Fattah el-Sisi—groups such as Molotov, Hazmoun, lone wolves, Helwan Brigade, and others.
Two groups, however, have captured the attention of media and antiterrorism observers by their upscale attacks: Hasm and Liwaa al-Thawra.
Hasm
Hasm, whose name means “decisiveness” in Arabic, emerged in October 2014. The group’s first statement claimed that it is committed to “creative peacefulness,” a term invented by some Muslim Brotherhood’s youth, and was backed, according to the Arabic version of Ahram, by many anti-coup Islamists figures, such as New York- based Egyptian American activist Ayat Oraby, Bassem Khafagi, a previous American Islamic CAIR group’s “community affairs director” and the previous owner of Sharq TV, and Moataz Matar, a TV presenter on the same channel, who was sentenced in Egypt for 10 years in jail in absentia.
The group also was believed to be behind the failed assassination attempt of Egypt’s former Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa last August. Later, in September, the group claimed responsibility for the attempted assassination of the assistant prosecutor general Zakaria Abdel Aziz who, along with his entourage, escaped unscathed. On October 19, 12 members of Hasm were arrested in Qalyubia Governorate, accused of belonging to an illegal group, according to Shorouk News.
Hasm also released a statement praises Adel Ragai’s assassination operation by Liwaa al-Thuwra. Moreover, according to Mokhtar Awad, a research fellow in the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, Hasm uses in its propaganda some of Hamas’s propaganda songs (Nasheed); further the group hinted in one of its videos that it has training camps, which, if true, would mean a huge upscale in the group’s skills and capabilities.
Liwaa al-Thawra
Last August saw the launch of Liwaa al-Thawra, “the Revolution Brigade,” which was, interestingly, by the Hasm group. The group claimed responsibility for an armed attack in the Nile Delta governorate of Al-Menoufiya, which killed two security personnel and injured five others, including two civilians.
On October 4, Egyptian security forces raided an apartment in Cairo’s southern Bassateen district and killed a senior Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Kamal, 61, a member of the group’s top leadership council, and another Islamist Yasser Shehata. What is significant in Liwaa al-Thawra’s statement, claiming responsibility for the murder of Brig. Gen. Adel Ragai, is reference to late Brotherhood leader Mohamed Kamal. For the first time a new group made an open direct link between the Brotherhood as a group and the violence, i.e., target assassinations on the street of Egypt. The statement also makes a clear reference to Egypt’s destruction of the tunnels in Sinai near the border of Gaza. The significance of all those links were highlighted, again, by Researcher Mokhtar Awad in a string of insightful tweets.
https://twitter.com/Mokhtar_Awad/status/790018597808517120
https://twitter.com/Mokhtar_Awad/status/790019085408964608
https://twitter.com/Mokhtar_Awad/status/790019501085515776
https://twitter.com/Mokhtar_Awad/status/790052812784709632
Furthermore, other regime opponents such as international lawyer Mahmod Refaat (with 341 thousand followers on Twitter) claimed that the Sisi regime, in cooperation with Palestinian politician Mahmoud Dahlan, is behind the assassination of the army general. Such a ludicrous claim is not new from the anti-regime opponents camp, which always rush to a knee-jerk denial every time there is a major attack on any regime figure. Nonetheless, a closer look at many Islamist social media, the gloating and celebratory mood cannot be ignored.
The murder of army general Adel Ragai is a new turning point in the history of Egypt’s insurgency. Its slick professional finish suggests a high level of training. No wonder some Egyptians suggest that it could be an intelligence job from a foreign country and not just a small angry group of youth. The challenge now for the Egyptian authority is to bring the killers to justice and to prevent any future attacks, without looking desperate or paranoid. Fighting insurgencies can take decades and be tricky in a country with an ailing economy, weapons smuggling, limited freedom of expression, and many desperate angry youth.
Nervana 
Illegal immigration and the myth of easy life in the West
One hundred sixty-two people lost their lives off the Egyptian coast near the town of Rosetta on Friday. About 150 people are still unaccounted for after a boat carrying hundreds of illegal migrants capsized in the Mediterranean while attempting to head to Europe.
This tragedy, like many others in recent years, has obvious reasons, from apocalyptic wars to dire economics and suffocating political oppression. Tragedies in the midst of a search for a better life outside the Middle East, is not new. In fact, although little known, many victims of the 1912 sinking of the Titanic were Arabs. The difference between the Titanic tragedy and that in Rosetta, however, is not only in the numbers or circumstances, but also in the rationalization and mindsets. While early Arab immigrants calculated risks and tried as best as they could to prepare themselves for a life in the new world, current immigrants are fleeing based on a new level of desperation, such that they are willing to allow traffickers to exploit them.
“A boat that can take 200 had 450 or even 500 on board,” said Sarah Sirgany, in her report for CNN. Egyptians, Syrians, Sudanese and Eritreans joined together for the doomed trip. The Egyptian news portal, Al-Youm al-Sabei, published interviews with several survivors who said that before their journey the migrants had been “stored” for several days in chicken farms by the traffickers to evade police. Some of the interviewees said the traffickers asked for $6,250 per family to be given upon arrival in Italy.
Apart from the hapless political bickering between pro and anti-Egyptian president Sisi on the reasons behind illegal immigration in Egypt, we have to admit that there are also some farcical assumptions and delusions prevalent among many Egyptian youth and people that encourage them to embark on doomed trips toward the unknown.
First, the exotic dream.
Away from the cities, in rural Egypt, where radio and television is the main source of entertainment, fascinated youth watch Egyptian movies that glamorize life in the West. Take for example the film “Hamam in Amsterdam,” which describes a young, unemployed Egyptian who succeeded in building a life in the Netherlands, coming back with money and a blond wife. The film portrayed some struggles, but attributed most of the negative encounters to the “evil Zionists” who hated this Egyptian guy. These types of movies, with unchallenged narratives are enough to embed exotic dreams in youth and make the fantasy plausible in the minds of many.
Second, fatalism.
Calculating risk is generally absent from the Egyptian psyche. Even crossing the road can be an exercise in recklessness. The Arabic proverb, “Sit on a beehive and say this is fate” sums-up the mindset perfectly. Many pundits call this a backgammon mindset. Indeed Egyptians, particularly the many unemployed, do not just love to play backgammon, they have also adopted this game as a way of thinking, assuming that life is just up to one-stroke of luck. Moreover, there is a general unfounded perception among many Egyptians that success in the West can happen at a faster pace than in their native country. It makes many adopt a short-cut escalator-style mentality, wrongly assuming that all what they need is one opportunity to push them up the ladder.
Third, playing down the negative aspects of immigration.
There is a common theme prevalent among the handful of successful immigrants and the wannabe immigrants in Egypt. Both tend to paint rosy pictures about their success in the West. It is convenient and flattering to downplay the negative aspects of living in a new country. This down playing was almost non-existent in the writing of early immigrants such as by the poets Gibran Khalil Gibran and Elia Abu-Madi. Instead, they both wrote eloquently about the demoralizing impacts of immigration, and avoided giving false perceptions of an alleged paradise abroad. This trend has gradually vanished. Now, both legal and illegal immigrants, educated and uneducated tend, consciously or unconsciously, glamorize life in the West to please their own selfish ego.
The tragic deaths near the city of Rosetta should be a wake up call to everyone. The Egyptian leadership has the duty to provide youth with an incentive to stay and flourish in their homeland. Moreover, Egyptian society has to shake-up myths and assumptions about life in the Western world. Our youth must understand that handing over the live savings of their families to traffickers is a tragic waste of money and a huge risk to their life. The hope of easy sanctuary in the West is simply a mirage.
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