2006 Poll: 92% Of Egyptians: Israel Is Enemy

The media of both Egypt, which is nominally at peace with Israel since 1979, and Syria, which remains in an open state of war with Israel, continue to maintain vile anti-Semitic programming which poisons the minds of Egyptians and Syrians. In Egypt, on January 26, the day before International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Sunni Islamist Egyptian channel Al-Rahma [Mercy] TV aired a show featuring Egyptian cleric Amin Al-Ansari, who examined what he called “the civil strife the Jews have caused throughout the world” and concluded that after World War One, matters “got to the point that the [European] rulers themselves had no solution but to annihilate them.” Al-Ansari also said “the holocausts [sic] of the Jews in Germany were because of their own deeds – they  were killing Germans, kindling civil strife, inciting the people against their rulers, and corrupting the peoples … Let’s watch what Germany did to Israel – or rather, to the Jews … [after screening footage of torture and killing of Jews in Dachau, Mauthausen, and Belsen and providing a running commentary, Al-Ansari said, “This is what we hope will happen, but, Allah willing, at the hand of the Muslims.”] (‘To Mark ‘Holocaust Holiday,’Egyptian Cleric Amin Al-Ansari Revises History, And Comments On Footage of Prisoners Being Tortured in Dachau, Mauthausen, and Belsen, Saying: ‘This Is What We Hope Will Happen But, Allah Willing, at the Hand of the Muslims,’ Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Special Dispatch No. 2215, January 24, 2009).

Al-Ansari’s hate speech is not new to Egyptian TV: another cleric, Safwat Higazi, recently said on an Egyptian channel, Al-Nas TV, that, “Yes, I am an antisemite. Yes, I hate Zionism. Yes, Judgment Day will not come until we fight the Jews. These are the words of our Prophet, like it or not.” (‘Egyptian Cleric Safwat Higazi Responds to MEMRI: “Yes, I Am An Antisemite”; If Not for the Arab Rulers, “We Would Devour [The Jews] With Our Teeth”; “We Are Your Enemies… Until The Day Jesus… Descends, Fighting You And Calling To Join Islam,” Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Special Dispatch No. 2190, January 24, 2009).

Meanwhile in Syria, the Education Minister, Ali Saad, announced that President Bashar Al-Assad has proposed that the Syrian Ministry of Education “develop curriculums, and add those visions to the new books to be consolidated in the minds of generations … [with the aim of deepening] the common understanding for the Arab and Islamic coming generations on the terrorist nature of the Zionist entity in order to create a philosophy that unifies our efforts in the face of challenges.”] (‘Education Minister calls for deepening understanding on terrorist nature of Israel,’ Sana [Syrian official news agency], February 2, 2009).

In a recent editorial in the Syrian government daily Teshreen, the paper’s editor-in-chief, ‘Issam Dari, in the course of condemning foreign leaders who attended Israel’s 60^th anniversary celebrations, said that the “German chancellor [Angle Merkel was there] to shed crocodile tears over the [Jewish] Holocaust – whose authenticity and number of victims are in doubt – while ignoring the present holocaust faced by the Palestinian people … The representatives of these imperialist countries came to Israel in order to stress that they would continue to sponsor this poisonous mushroom that they planted in the Arab garden with the aim of sowing destruction, chaos, terrorism, and crime in the Arab world.” (‘Editor of Syrian Government Daily: Israel Is a “Poisonous Mushroom”; “[Its] Rightful Owners Are Capable Of Uprooting It – If Not Today Then Tomorrow“, Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Special Dispatch No. 1940, May 27, 2008).

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “We see that, despite the formal peace between Egypt and Israel, the Egyptian media is as vile, hateful and anti-Semitic as that of the Syrian regime. The truth of the matter is that incitement to hatred of Jews is as extreme in Egypt as in any other Arab regime, or in Iran, despite the peace treaty and the massive $2.1 billion in annual U.S. economic and military aid to Egypt on the basis of its supposedly peaceful and peace-loving policy.

“The Mubarak government is one that, in 1997, permitted publication of a popular commentary on the Quran that promotes hatred of Christians and Jews and exhorts Muslims, adult and child alike, to take up arms and fight them. An Egyptian journalist, Asma Nassar, correctly opined at the time that, ‘The expected consequence of this [book] is that, in future, thousands of young children will be willing to blow themselves up [in terrorist operations] against [non-Muslims].’ An even more chilling example of Egyptian promotion of anti-Semitism was the 2002-2003 40-part series, ‘Rider Without a Horse,’ dramatizing The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which depicted Jews murdering a gentile child to use his blood in making of Passover matzah. The Mubarak government refused to ban the series.

“Egyptian society’s hostility to Israel is reflected in the success of a popular song entitled ‘I Hate Israel,’ as well as numerous anti-Semitic political cartoons. A 2006 poll found that 92 percent of Egyptians regard Israel as an enemy nation, as opposed to a mere 2 percent who regarded it as a friend. Similarly, more than 50 per cent of Egyptians regard the United States as an enemy.

“President Mubarak has neither condemned this blatant fostering of Nazi-like anti-Semitism. He has not fired clerics who utter such obscenities and he has not fined or closed down media outlets that engage in such hate speech. He has done nothing.

“The U.S. has little leverage over the Ba’athist Syrian regime – although it should make an end to its promotion of anti-Semitism and incitement to hatred and murder a condition of any efforts the Obama administration may undertake to engage Syria – but it has leverage in Cairo. Unless and until Egypt takes action to stop fostering the hatred that inspires terrorism and keep the conflict against Israel alive, further foreign aid to Egypt should be held back or curtailed.”