So the Egyptian Foreign Minister was roughed up by angry Palestinians today in Jerusalem. Make no mistake about it. This was an American idea: I mean the visit by the Egyptian foreign minister to Israel, was an American idea. The Egyptian government has been resisting American pressures to send the foreign minister for fear of angering Egyptian and Palestinian public opinion. But the Egyptian dictator (friend of the US) has lately been particularly subservient to the Americans because he wants US support for the succession of his son to the presidency of Egypt. I knew that foreign minister when he was Egyptian ambassador in DC: while I disagree totally and absolutely with the Egyptian government and the foreign minister, I must confess that I found him (I only met him a few times) to be a very nice and down-to-earth person. The angry Palestinian youths hit him with their shoes inside the mosque. This would not be the first assassination (attempt) by shoes. The Egyptian female Sultan, Shajarat Ad-Durr (d. 1259) led Egypt in the 13th century, and was so powerful that her enemies kept trying to kill her. Eventually, they sent concubines to the bath where she was relaxing, and hit her with their shoes (sandals made of wood) until she died.