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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: KLP who wrote (57244)	11/15/2002 2:45:43 AM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Good news, the WaPo editiorial board notices Egyptian anti-Semitism. That's something positive, at any rate: Galloping Anti-Semitism Friday, November 15, 2002; Page A32 EGYPT'S NEW satellite channel, Dream TV, recently got on the wrong side of President Hosni Mubarak by broadcasting a commentary on the president's scheming to install his son, Gamal, as his successor. That was indeed daring: After all, Egypt's leading democracy advocate, Saad Eddin Ibrahim, was imprisoned after he spoke up about it. When a Dream TV talk show subsequently dared to touch on the subject of masturbation, Mr. Mubarak's censors cracked down. They banned rebroadcast of the show and warned the station against further outrages. Now all Egypt, and much of the Arab world, is talking about Dream TV's latest sensation, a 41-part historical drama featuring the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," the infamous anti-Semitic forgery used by czarist Russia and Nazi Germany to justify pogroms and genocide. The drama implies that the creation of Israel was part of the supposed Jewish plot to dominate the world that is the theme of the Protocols libel. So how has Mr. Mubarak's censorious regime reacted this time? Quite differently, it turns out. It is broadcasting the serial on state television during the most popular viewing time of the year, Ramadan evenings, and insisting to all who protest that it couldn't possibly consider sanctioning what it calls "a work of art." Even the suggestion that it intervene, huffs Mr. Mubarak's spokesman, amounts to "intellectual and emotional terrorism." All this might be written off as merely the latest instance of Mr. Mubarak's long-standing political strategy, which aims to prop up his personal dictatorship -- and would-be dynasty -- by encouraging Egypt's poor and oppressed population to blame Israel and the West for their misery. Yet Mr. Mubarak's poisonous tactics are causing increasing harm to American interests in the Middle East. Thanks to satellite television and the Internet, the hate speech of Egypt's writers and broadcasters -- most of them government employees -- is spreading around the region; some 20 Arab channels and networks have picked up the "Horseman Without a Horse" series. A recent Gallup poll showed that most residents of the Middle East do not blame Osama bin Laden for the 9/11 attacks, and many believe Jews were responsible -- another libel Mr. Mubarak's media have helped to spread. Thanks in large part to Cairo's propagandists, fundamental hatred of Jews, as opposed to opposition to Israeli policies, is playing a growing role in mainstream Arab politics. All this is happening at a time when the Bush administration is saying that the promotion of free speech, religious tolerance and human rights will be at the center of its efforts to transform the Middle East and combat radical Islam. Yet Hosni Mubarak's Egypt still is receiving $2 billion annually in U.S. subsidies, more than democratic Turkey, Indonesia and Afghanistan combined. Alongside the hate speech, "Horseman Without a Horse" broadcasts the message that the administration has yet to reconcile its policy with its budget. Perhaps Congress can help washingtonpost.com