Judge Ezz and Salem in the same way

I do not defend in a way or another Naguib Sawiris , he is just a rich man who thinks just because his family name was in Forbes and Arabian business ,he can say what ever he wants in his mind with no respect to anything. But I think it is fair if we are going to speak about his relations with the Israelis ,we must speak about the other close regime business prominent icons relations with the Israelis.

The media is speaking about Sawiris’s relations with the Israelis after daily Maariv revealed that Ehud Barak, the current Israeli Defense minister tried to convince both Olmert and the Shin Bet to let Sawiris and OT to own shares in the Israeli telecommunications company “Partner Communications”. The story goes like this if you are following OT news ,you will know that the Egyptian Telecommunications giants got share in Hong Kong Hutchison telecommunication international limited, HT itself owns a telecommunication company in Israel called Partner Communication aka Orange Israel , yes Orange just like Mobinil. Partner Communication is the second Mobile operator in Israel.

Now OT owns about 19.3% which means it already owns 9% of the shares in the Israeli company ,no one complained or knew about this in Egypt despite Mobinil did not announce still you can know. OT as usual wants to increase its shares in the Asian giant in to 23%  which is more than 10% of shares in the Israeli company and here lies the problem because the Israeli telecommunication law implies that The foreign companies can’t own more than 10% of the Shares in the telecommunication companies except after taking the approval the security agencies including the Shin Bet that refused the Egyptian offer which was originally targeting the Asian telecom giant and thus the whole deal in Asia is facing trouble. The Shin Bet unlike us thinks in the future , this is an Egyptian company in the end , we can be listening to their phone calls, they do not give damn to Sawiris and his multinational companies , they do not give damn to his opinions or his background , it is an Egyptian company and despite we have a Peace agreement we are still considered a potential future enemy , the south front is always in their mind.

Now Sawiris used his connections to try to convince the Israelis through the wife of Barak , Nili Priel. Priel was accused by the Israeli media of using her husband position to create connections with Israel business elite.She owned a PR Company specialized in bringing together the foreign business me and the Israeli officials using her husband influence.There was an inquiry regarding that company of hers in Israel currently . She closed this company by the way. I think the Sawiris affair was revealed among the investigation.

Sawiris got to Priel through an American friend and partner.

This is the whole story from A to Z

It is not a surprise to me because after all this man always loves to invest his money in countries the relations with the political ruling class are playing an important rule in the economic decision making process.

But fair is fair if you are going to judge for this ,despite he did not and won’t confess it , you must judge other especially in the ruling class who got business with the Israelis.

Go and judge Ahmed Ezz whose steel that can’t be found in Egypt is used in building the apartheid wall in Palestine and refusal.

Go and judge Hussein Salem who is exporting natural gas to Israel in the lowest price ever despite the public refusal.

If you are going to open this file ,please open as it should be.

On the other hand I am impressed by the Israeli telecommunications laws that protect their privacy from Foreign control, of course this is due their national security policy unlike us at all ,also the transparency , Maariv is not exposing Naguib rather than Barak and his wife and how they are using the official position for their gain.

Links:

• Orascom Telecom Holding Online. official website.
• Hutchison telecommunication.official website.
• Orange Israel.official website
• The original story at Al Mesryoon.
  Technorati Tags: Egypt,Israel,economy,Business,Telecommunications,Telecom,Mobinil,Naguib Sawiris,Ehud Barak,Nili Priel,Maariv,Orascom Telecom,OT,Orange Israel,Hutchison,Asia,China,Hong Kong