U.S Secretary of State John Kerry and First Lady Michelle Obama were due to present Egyptian Samira Ibrahim with a 2013 International Woman of Courage Award in Washington today.
Ibrahim was going to be given the award for rallying worldwide attention to the Egyptian military conducting “virginity tests” on female protesters in Egypt. It was decided to postpone granting her the award because anti-American, anti-Semitic, anti-Israeli, terror and terrorist supporting views she expressed on her twitter account became public and granting her the award would have been embarrassing now that Americans knew what she really thought.
Her views are very clear and very blunt and cannot be mistaken for anything else than what they are...anti-American, anti-Semitic, anti-Israeli and terror and terrorist supporting. Three examples of many will suffice to make the point.
Last July 18 after five Israeli tourists and a bus driver were murdered by a suicide bomber in Bulgaria she tweeted “An explosion on a bus carrying Israelis in Burqas airport in Bulgaria on the Black Sea. Today is a very sweet day with a lot of very sweet news.”
Last August 4 she described the ruling Al Saud family as “dirtier than the Jews” while commenting on demonstrations in Saudi Arabia at that time.
Last September she tweeted while a mob was attacking the United States embassy in Cairo and raising al-Qaeda’s flag after pulling down the American flag “Today is the anniversary of 9/11. May every year come with America burning.”
Why not cancel the award altogether and apologize for granting it to her to begin with?
Ibrahim has claimed that her twitter account was hacked and that she disavows and bears no responsibility for the views on the account. This is exceeding dubious because the tweets go back several months and were not removed until they became public and an issue after the award announcement was made. Ibrahim also has a blog which makes her views about the U.S. and Israel crystal clear.
The State Department has postponed granting her the award until an official investigation is conducted and a determination is made about whether or not her account was hacked. If the conclusion is that she was hacked she’ll get the award. If the conclusion is that she wasn’t hacked she won’t.
All things considered, it is virtually impossible to believe that she was hacked...that the views are not her own and that she didn’t express them.
In any event, the matter should have been cleared up before a decision was made to grant her the award in the first place.
Why wasn’t it?
There are only two possible scenarios and both are damning.
The first is that the vetting process is inadequate and that whoever investigated her did a lousy job. That is certainly possible.
The second is that she was vetted and her anti-American, anti-Semitic, anti-Israeli, terror and terrorist supporting views were acceptable and not enough to disqualify her.
Given the views and the track record of Obama and his administration I’d bet on the second.
Actions speak louder than words after all and the actions of Obama and his administration can rightfully be seen as anti-American, anti-Semitic, anti-Israeli and terror and terrorist supporting.
Methinks the lady doth protest too much as the saying goes.
Methinks Obama and his administration doth protest too much as well.
Jerry Philipson
Comox, British Columbia, Canada
Jerry Philipson is a retired grandfather who has spent many years working in non-profit social service agencies in Canada and the United States. He holds dual Canadian and American citizenship and has been passionate about politics, civil liberties, freedom and democracy for virtually his whole life. He is particularly interested in the Middle East and America and believes that it is vital for people of good heart and good conscience to speak out against tyranny and dishonesty and to stand up and defend and protect Western values, principles and institutions.
