In a powerful Wall Street Journal piece last week, Egyptian writer Amr Bargisi suggests that the West should expose and condemn the growing ranks of anti-Semitic journalists from Egypt. Bargisi points out that Egypt’s state-controlled “liberal” newspapers routinely spout conspiracy theories such as “Jews control international banking,” “Jews withdrew 400 billion from Lehman Brothers before it collapsed,” and “thousands of Jews stayed home from work on 9/11.”
ZOA analyst Daniel Mandel in the Fall 2008 issue of inFOCUS notes that even after the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, anti-Semitism has grown in Egypt. In 2002, for example, Egypt’s state-run TV ran a modern-day version of the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” which portrayed Jews using the blood of non-Jews to make Passover matzo.
It is increasingly difficult to draw a distinction between Egypt’s anti-Jewish and anti-Israel propaganda. This is unacceptable for a country that Washington relies on to be a guardian of peace in the Middle East. Particularly as budget cuts are considered in this recession economy, Congress should reconsider its earmark of more than $1.5 billion in foreign aid to Egypt until Cairo ceases to promote hatred in the region.
