November 8, 2002
1:16 PM   Subscribe

"I am the first to say that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a forgery, but what is strange is that they [the Israelis] perhaps read it and decided to implement it." Mohammed Sobhi, screenwriter of The Horse without Horseman, reacts to charges that his Egyptian mini-series is anti-semitic. The program tells the story of an Egyptian who leads the struggle against the British colonizers until he finds a book that provides proof that the true enemy is not the British, but the "Elders of Zion".
posted by tranquileye (8 comments total)
 
What is astounding to me is that the TV show, blatantly anti-semitic, is run and sponsored by the Egyptian govt, and that a highly placed spokesman for that govt said that Israel and the Jews ought not be offended since what they are doing in Palestine is bad too. And this from a govt that gets some 2 billion a year from the US and has a peace accord with Israel, and claims to have a peace plan for settling issues in the Middle East. In short: assholes.
posted by Postroad at 2:36 PM on November 8, 2002


wow - i never realised egypt got 2/3 the funding the usa gives to israel. that's a lot of money. you'd think they'd be able to control what the media does for that.
posted by andrew cooke at 2:57 PM on November 8, 2002


Either that or, you know, do a little of that "democracy" thing that Qatar, at least, now that their oil has dried up, is learning to do well.

You know, with a free (not state run) press.

Or not jailing democratic protestors.

Or... you know... not proposing as fact one of the books that launched the damn Holocaust.

What's even more shocking is how silent the majority of the world is in the face of that.

Brutal regimes (c.f. treatment of Coptic Christians within Egypt) love to criticise Israel, it's some weird displacement thing. And the world remains silent about it.

And the US is indeed still giving money to Egypt, which is odd, since Egypt is in violation of the treaties (I believe, although I have no handy link) that "earned" it that money.
posted by swerdloff at 3:44 PM on November 8, 2002


Can you imagine amount of shit hitting the fan if Ashcroft were to call PBS and say - "you can't run that Frontline about 9/11, I think it misrepresents the truth."

Why do we suppose that making the same call to Egypt is appropriate. I don't care what a massive amount of hooey the program may be, the US Government should have no part in censoring it. We should be vocal in pointing out its lies, and leave it at that.

Yes, Egypt is a big problem for the US and we should carefully consider our future support of that regime. But this points out one the most basic paradoxes of our Egyptian policy: Openly, we ask for Egypt to be more democratic, in reality we encourage Egypt to be more and more repressive and totalitarian.

We're paying for the machine (not operating it) the makes Mohammed Attas.
posted by pejamo at 5:00 PM on November 8, 2002


should read - that makes Mohammed...

carry on.
posted by pejamo at 5:26 PM on November 8, 2002


I agree. Too many commas. I was saying that Democracy in the region is good and now that Qatar ran out of oil, they're learning to use it, which is _also_ good.

C'est tout.

Actually, Pejamo, if we had, for example, a piece on Hitler proposing that he was really a Jew, it wouldn't be run. If there was a piece suggesting that Mohammed was a terrorist (not a Falwell quote, but a serialization of a novel that's called "based on scientific fact") it would not be run. There are limits. Incitement is off limits.
posted by swerdloff at 7:55 PM on November 8, 2002


It is one of the more sickening pieces of news of late, that is for sure.
posted by y2karl at 9:39 PM on November 8, 2002


Gross violations of Camp David? Well, Israel is still pretty burned about the recall of Egypt's ambassador, apparently, as well as ongoing stuff about anti-Semitism in the Egyptian press (bringing us full circle), but the most recent MFO report seems to take a rather copacetic view, though material violations are considered a matter of trust between the parties and not part of the report.

swerdloff, it's hard to be clear on your points when you use such obviously wrong jumping-off points as now that Qatar's oil has dried up. According to 2000 oil reserve figures they still have quite a bit -- and in any case they have one of the world's larger natural gas deposits, which they are only beginning to tap. It will make them very rich for some time to come. And XQ: So far, it's only been one conference. Just what trend are you trying to demonstrate with a single data point?
posted by dhartung at 12:12 AM on November 9, 2002


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