Yesterday Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher was attacked by a Palestinian mob as he was praying at Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa Mosque. After being shaken up, Maher was whisked away to a Jerusalem hospital, and is apparently OK now.
Why the attack? Maher was in Israel to meet Israeli leaders regarding resuming peace talks, and did not plan to visit Yassir Arafat. The assailants screamed “Traitor!” and threw shoes at Maher – a particularly harsh insult in the Arab world.
Now here’s the spin from The Guardian:
Palestinians vented their frustration for the perceived lack of support by Arab countries in their quest for nationhood by attacking the Egyptian foreign minister when he arrived to pray at Islam’s third holiest site in Jerusalem yesterday.
“Vented their frustration”? Well who could blame the assailants for a little “venting”? And when was there ever a lack of Arab support for Palestinian nationhood? This is the opening sentence of The Guardian’s report – a smoothing over of extremist violence if ever we’ve seen one.
