Video - Egyptian Political Scientist: The Jews Must Return the Gold They Stole from Egypt during the Exodus

Hmmm....One of the few occasions i'm lost for words.

Egypt - Former Muslim Brotherhood member: "it is not permissible for Mursi to make himself like a God."

Egypt - Former Muslim Brotherhood member: "it is not permissible for Mursi to make himself like a God."(AA).Words and expressions such as pharaoh, god, despot and assassin of democracy filled Egyptian media coverage on Friday to brand President Mohammed Mursi following his sudden snatch of sweeping powers. While Nobel laureate Mohammed ElBaradei described Mursi as Egypt’s new pharaoh, a prominent lawyer who defended Muslim Brothers in Hosni Mubarak’s jails for 15 years has branded the new Mursi as a God.
“Mursi today usurped all state powers and appointed himself Egypt’s new pharaoh. A major blow to the revolution that could have dire consequences,” ElBaradei wrote on his Twitter account.” Tharwat el-Kherbawy, lawyer and former Muslim Brotherhood member who split from the group in 1999 wrote on his twitter account that those who accept Mursi's decisions were "slaves" and those who cheer for him were "mutants." He said it was “not permissible for Mursi to make himself like a God” with all those powers amassed in his hands. 
Kherbawy added that even The Prophet Mohammed did not have as much powers as President Mursi currently holds. 
While many supporters of Mursi insist that the president’s move to render all his decisions irrevocable by any authority, including the judiciary, was a necessary step to moving the country forward, opponents from liberal and revolutionary forces warned his move was a dangerous backward leap into another dictatorship, potentially worse than its predecessor. Leading Muslim Brotherhood member Essam al-Arian said that Mursi's decisions were aimed at supporting democracy and protecting the goals of the revolution. Amr Hamzawy, a liberal member of the dissolved parliament, in a Twitter post commented on Mursi’s latest decisions, saying that Egypt was heading toward "an absolute presidential tyranny.” After yesterday’s presidential decrees, Egypt seems to be left with two solutions. One, trust that Mr. Mursi will not misuse his powers and live with him as a “reformist dictator” until a strong alternative to the Brotherhood is established. Or, watch and count on outside powers to do the job for Egyptian liberals.Hmmmm......“One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.” ~ George Orwell, 1984. Read the full story here, more here.

[Warning to Israel]Egypt Independent details new powers seized by President Morsy.

[Warning to Israel]Egypt Independent details new powers seized by President Morsy.(IMRA).

[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA: A warning to Israel: President Morsy is a political speed chess master who enjoys an intimate understanding of America thanks to the many years he spent there. He has already done perhaps more in Egypt in the short time he has been in office than his Turkish brothers achieved over many long years.

A concern for Israelis: did our leadership act as fellow chess players in the series of moves that ended with Egypt - according to the understanding - acting as judge for the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, or were they instead tic tac toe players?]
The president's new powers Heba Afify Amira Ahmed Lina Attalah Egypt Independent Fri, 23/11/2012 - 01:23 http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/president-s-new-powers .
President Mohamed Morsy has often celebrated the fact that he has seldom used his legislative powers, using that fact as an index of his care not to abuse his expansive authorities.
Those powers were acquired by the president in August after he canceled a constitutional addendum drafted in June by his predecessors, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, to claim legislative authority following the dissolution of Parliament that same month.
But a new constitutional declaration issued on Thursday night actually harnesses more power for Morsy, which he says he is trying to avoid.
“The constitutional declaration announced by Morsy is a way of raping the country, and wholly abrogates the role of all judicial authorities,” says Wahid Abdel Meguid, a former Constituent Assembly speaker who withdrew last week.
“No leader confident in his popular support would go as far as to abolish the very idea of the state in order to protect himself.”
The seven-article declaration renders the president's decrees and laws immune from appeal or cancellation. It also protects both the Shura Council and the Islamist-dominated Constituent Assembly from dissolution by any judicial authority, and further protects the assembly by extending its mandate to draft the constitution to eight months instead of six, as stipulated in an earlier constitutional declaration.
Two cases against the Shura Council and the Constituent Assembly are currently awaiting a court ruling, but those cases will now be voided by the declaration.
The new constitutional declaration also gives immunity to all decisions and decrees issued by Morsy since he was took office on 30 June and until the ratification of a new constitution, thus protecting those decisions from judicial or any other type of revision.
Further, Morsy granted himself the exclusive right to take any measures he sees fit to protect the country's national unity, national security and the revolution.
Morsy also added a new chapter to the ongoing feud over terminating the prosecutor general by sacking the Abdel Meguid Mahmoud and appointing Talaat Ibrahim Abdallah in his stead for a four-year term.
Morsy’s previous attempt to sack the Mubarak-era prosecutor general was immediately reversed after it stirred a wave of wrath from the judiciary, which considered the move an infringement on its independence. The prosecutor was conventionally immune from executive intervention.
Readings differ on what is at stake in tonight’s declaration, but for several politicians, especially those from the non-Islamist camp, the constitution is the target.
The current Constituent Assembly, born out of the dissolved Parliament, has experienced continuous hiccups with a series of resignations by members who say there is little accord over the process.
“The decisions of Morsy deliver a clear deterring message with regards to the constitution. The message is whoeverwants to stay can stay, and whoever wants to go can go. This is a confrontational attitude," says Mohamed Naeim, member of the political bureau of the Socialist Democratic Party, whose representatives have withdrawn from the assembly.
"My assessment is that the Brothers want to make no concessions in the constitution writing process, and this is showcased in the lack of seriousness in their attitude in the ongoing conflicts in the assembly," he adds.
Asked whether the Brothers can afford to put a constitution to referendum without guaranteeing a certain level of agreement, Naeim says he doesn't trust any electoral process to be handled under the expansive powers of a president whose political affiliations are aligned with the Islamist majority of the Constituent Assembly.
Aside from concerns about the constitution, some see Morsy’s latest move as as targeted at the unresolved feud between the president and the judiciary, with Morsy sending a debilitating blow to the public prosecutor, the Supreme Constitutional Court and other judicial authorities.
“This is the start of the rule of an individual who has all the powers and has the right to cancel the supervision of the judiciary and devalue the decisions of the court,” says lawyer Amir Salem, adding that immunity from judicial oversight is a third layer of power Morsy has claimed for himself, in addition to executive and legislative authorities.
“I don’t think these are spur of the moment decisions — Morsy doesn’t compromise on his views and he has made it clear since the start of his term that he will not accept any restraint to his power,” says Mostafa Kamel al-Sayed, political science professor at Cairo University.
Before today’s decree, Morsy had lost two rounds in an ongoing battle with the judiciary.
In June, the Supreme Constitutional Court overruled Morsy’s decision to reinstate the Parliament that the court had dissolved.
Morsy had to give in to the will of the judges again in October when they rejected his attempts to pressure the prosecutor general to resign.
“After failing to dismiss the prosecutor general, Morsy couldn’t accept defeat and was waiting for the right moment to get rid of him,” says Kamel.
Salem said dismissing the prosecutor general — a figure who is by law immune to executive intervention — and appointing a new one without the approval of the Supreme Judicial Council is a grave breach of judicial independence.
Backed by solid public support, judges are already challenging Morsy’s decisions, signaling the start of another fierce round between the two sides instead of what the president hoped would be an end to the battle.
“I expect a grueling crisis between the judiciary and the prosecution on one side and the president on the other after this constitutional declaration ,because it represents a dead end for everyone,” Salem adds.
Morsy’s new declaration was described by many as an attempt to pay lip service to revolutionary demands while strengthening his grip on power. The timing is right, with street battles raging in downtown Cairo since Monday and protesters expressing anger over the impunity of the perpetrators of attacks against protesters.
Alongside his declaration, on Thursday night Morsy also ordered the reinvestigation of all cases in the killing of protesters in which figures of the old regime are implicated.
Shortly following the constitutional declaration, Morsy also issued a new law for the “protection of the revolution” to regulate the retrials. The law states that if investigations reveal new evidence against the accused, new trials would be held, overseen by a so-called “revolution protection” prosecuting body formed of judges with one-year terms.
Hossam Bahgat, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, commented on his Twitter account that the article only focuses on the toppled Mubarak regime’s violations and ignores those of the military regime, which presided over several incidents of violence against protesters throughout the transitional period.
Finally, in what was described as Morsy’s carrot, the president also ordered dispensing exceptional pensions to those injured during the revolution.
“Offering cash to the revolution’s victims and retrials for their attackers seems designed to placate street activists,” writes professor of political science, and expert on Egypt’s constitutional issues, Nathan Brown for the Arabist blog.
Meanwhile,it is feared that Article 6 of the declaration, which empowers the president to take any necessary measures if he feels the revolution, national unity or national security are in jeopardy, could give the president a free hand to violate rights and freedoms.
“This is a declaration of martial law under the disguise of an article in the decree,” says Salem. “Anyone deemed to be against the revolution, whatever this means, will be prosecuted and punished.”
Several pundits expressed particular concerns over the implications of such a loose stipulation, particularly in regards to the freedom of the media, an issue that has caused tempers to flare recently with several cases incidents of journalists summoned to court on defamation charges and the confiscation of media licenses.
Gehad al-Haddad, advisor to Morsy’s Freedom and Justice Party, described the clause as a “pre-emptive clause that may or may not be used. Time will tell.”
Different interpretations were given as to why Morsy was emboldened to make such moves. For some, his successful brokerage of a truce between the government of Hamas and Israel, which raged a war on the Gaza Strip last week, is said to have empowered him to make strong domestic moves.
“Internationally, he has just won plaudits for his role in ending the fighting between Israel and Hamas; that likely offers him a bit of insulation from international criticism and some vague domestic capital for showing Egypt’s centrality,” writes Brown.
Since claiming them, Morsy has used his legislative powers to approve amendments to several laws, including one which granted amnesty for some crimes committed during the 25 January revolution. He also approved a 15 percent raise to public employees and a similar increase in pensions, amendments to the education law and health insurance for children under school age, passed controversial university bylaws and increased the penalties for smuggling petroleum products.Hmmmm.......Hmmm……Obama: Mr. Obama told aides that he considered Mr. Morsi a straight shooter who delivered on what he promised and did not promise what he could not deliver.Read the full story here.

EGYPT'S NEW PHARAOH! - 'Morsi is Mubarak,' protesters chant as violence flares in Egypt.

EGYPT'S NEW PHARAOH! - 'Morsi is Mubarak,' protesters chant as violence flares in Egypt.(EI). At least 18 protesters were injured in clashes on Friday across the nation, including two in Tahrir Square, Health Ministry spokesperson Ahmed Amr told Al-Masry Al-Youm. The two protesters were transferred to Qasr al-Aini Hospital, Amr added. No deaths have been reported. One protester was also injured outside the presidential palace in Heliopolis and was then transferred to Mansheyet al-Bakry Hospital, Amr reported. Twelve protesters were injured in Alexandria during clashes between pro and anti-Morsy protesters, and were transferred to Ras al-Tien Hospital, according to the ministry. In Mahalla al-Kubra in Gharbiya, three were injured and transferred by private car to Mahalla Public Hospital. Typical injuries included cuts, bruises and fractures, Amr said. The Ministry of Health announced that 35 protesters were injured from Thursday evening into Friday afternoon in the course of ongoing clashes on Mohamed Mahmoud Street, bringing the total injured to 187 cases since the clashes began on Monday evening. Twenty-four protesters injured in those clashes are still receiving treatment in the hospital. Hmmmm......."I, Morsi, am all powerful. And in my first act as being all powerful, I declare myself more powerful still. But don’t worry — it’s just for a little while." ~ Nathan J. Brown.Read the full story here.


17:05 The Salafist Nour Party announces in a press statement that it accepts President Morsi's Constitutional Declaration.
However, the party added, it has reservations about Article 2 which says presidential decisions cannot be overturned by the judiciary. This is against the party’s principles, the statement says.


Follow live updates for Friday rallies here