Luckily, US President Obama intervened on Friday night when Egypt's head of of their "Supreme Military Council" refused to answer urgent telephone calls from Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to defend the Israeli embassy in Cairo.
"I'm glad we managed to prevent a disaster and would like to thank US President Obama for his help. I would also like to congratulate all the intelligence officials who helped in the rescue for their excellent work.For Jews to call Palestinian or Egyptian mobs, "animals", is simply not politically correct.
"The fact that the Egyptian authorities acted with determination and rescued our people should be noted and we extend them our thanks," the prime minister added. "However, Egypt must not ignore the severe injury to the fabric of peace with Israel and such a blatant violation of international norms. We will hold consultations later on." YNET
In the era of Israel's attempts to reach a semblance of peace with the Palestinians, we do not call the perpetrators of such barbaric acts, "animals." (Unfortunately, some Israelis are so politically correct, they even try to justify terrorist attacks against Israelis and then they get confused about what they were trying to say in the first place).
Yet Friday night's mob attack in Egypt had other targets besides the Israelis....CNN and other foreign reporters.
Cairo (CNN) -- An angry crowd lingering near the Israeli embassy in Cairo after an attack on the building a day earlier turned on journalists reporting the incident Saturday, accusing at least one of being an Israeli spy.How totally un-PC of CNN to refer to the democratic Arab Spring Egyptian mob as animals. I expected much more from them and I hope they will be quickly admonished by the Huffington Post.
As a CNN crew filmed the embassy from across the street, another crew from American public television -- led by Egyptian television producer Dina Amer -- approached the building.
The crew's Russian cameraman was preparing to film the embassy when a woman in the crowd began hurling insults at the TV team, Amer said.
"There was this older lady who decided to follow me and rally people against me," Amer recalled.
"She said 'you're a spy working with the Americans.' Then they swarmed me and I was a target."
A growing crowd surrounded Amer and her colleagues, as they tried to leave the scene.
Mohamed Fadel Fahmy, a producer working for CNN, rushed to help escort Amer through the angry crowd. But suddenly the two reporters were pinned against the railing of an overpass by young men who were accusing Amer of being an Israeli spy.
Yelling "I'm Egyptian," Fahmy managed to pull Amer another 10 meters down the road, until the pressure from the mob overwhelmed the pair.
Amer screamed as she and Fahmy were knocked to the ground and the crowd started to trample them.
Other CNN journalists tried to reach in to help, but were pushed back by a wall of angry men.
Fahmy lay on top of Amer, shielding her with his body.
"I was thinking, how powerless I was because there was no police to save us," Fahmy said. "I was worried that they were going to rape her."
At that moment, a student bystander named Mohammed el Banna called out to the journalists and pointed out a nearby car.
Somehow, Fahmy managed to carry Amer to the open door of the public television crew's car, where two of her female colleagues were waiting just a few feet away.
The mob pounded on the windows and tried to reach into the vehicle as the panicked reporters fumbled and struggled to get behind the steering wheel.
When Margaret Warner, a correspondent with the PBS program "Newshour" managed to get the vehicle moving away from the crowd, men threw stones at the departing vehicle.
Amer had few words to describe the terrifying ordeal.
"They were animals," she said.
Other Egyptian journalists told CNN they were also attacked Saturday while trying to report near the Israeli embassy.
Ahmed Aleiba, a correspondent with Egyptian state television, said he was pursued by civilians and soldiers.
"I had to run because obviously they were targeting journalists," Aleiba said in a phone call with CNN. "They attacked two other TV crews."
"I was in the car getting ready to film. A soldier knocked on the window with his stick and said 'if you don't leave by midnight your car will be destroyed,"" said Farah Saafan, a video journalist with the English-language newspaper Daily News Egypt. (CNN)
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