Don't Worry About Egyptian Bigotry: Democracy Will Temper Anti-Semitism Fostered by Dicatorship

[ellisonz]

By Lisa Goldman
Published March 02, 2012.
Lisa Goldman is a contributing editor at +972 Magazine. She spent two months in Egypt last spring, writing a series of articles about the revolution.

The Arab Spring presents a conundrum for many liberal Jews. As liberals they feel compelled to advocate self-determination over tyranny and democracy over dictatorship. But as Jews they worry that the Arab dictators, particularly Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, held down the lid on a seething Pandora’s Box of popular anti-Semitism. On the contrary, though, I would posit that anti-Semitism festered in Egypt as a result of Mubarak’s policies, and that it will naturally fade away if Egypt succeeds in making the transition to a more transparent, democratic society.

When anti-regime activists attacked and burned the Israeli embassy in Cairo in September, the violent images seemed to underline Jewish fears. It is also true that one hears quite a lot of old-fashioned anti-Semitic talk in Egypt — conspiracy theories about Jewish lobbies, Jewish bankers and Jews in the media. Amongst the secondhand books for sale by a sidewalk vendor at Tahrir Square last spring, I saw an Arabic translation of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. And an exhibition of political cartoons in downtown Cairo included some with caricatures of Israeli soldiers identified by their hooked noses, fang-like teeth and long, curly sidelocks.

But Mohamed Abla, the artist and political activist who curated the exhibition said, in answer to my question, “We show cartoons that we disagree with, too.” Those anti-Semitic caricatures, he explained, were published in pro-Mubarak newspapers that presented the Egyptian revolution as an anti-Egypt conspiracy cooked up between the unlikely allies of Israel, Hezbollah and the United States.

Read more: http://www.forward.com/articles/152417/#ixzz1o2IzLcOJ

[Mosby]

1. The article is complete nonsense

Hey, how about we pay attention to what Egyptians actually say?

I know this is a novel approach to journalism but let's give it a try shall we?

April 25 2011:

By a 54%-to-36% margin, Egyptians want the peace treaty with that country (Israel) annulled.

About six-in-ten (62%) think laws should strictly follow the teachings of the Quran

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1971/egypt-poll-democracy-elections-islam-military-muslim-brotherhood-april-6-movement-israel-obama


May 17 2011

As President Obama prepares to make a major address on the tumultuous changes spreading throughout the Middle East, a new survey finds that the rise of pro-democracy movements has not led to an improvement in America's image in the region. Instead, in key Arab nations and in other predominantly Muslim countries, views of the U.S. remain negative, as they have been for nearly a decade. Indeed, in Jordan, Turkey and Pakistan, views are even more negative than they were one year ago.

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1997/international-poll-arab-spring-us-obama-image-muslim-publics

July 2005:

In the Muslim world, attitudes toward Jews remain starkly negative, including virtually unanimous unfavorable ratings of 98% in Jordan and 97% in Egypt.

http://www.pewglobal.org/2005/07/14/i-how-muslims-and-westerners-see-each-other/

Yup, liberal pluralism is right around the corner for Egypt.

[aranthus]

3. Brought to you by the same fools who claimed that

"The Arab Spring will usher in liberal democracies all over the middle east."
"Oops. We meant that the Islamists aren't as bad as they are portrayed."
"Oops. We meant that the Islamists wouldn't be a very large majority of the people deciding the structure of the new government."
"Oops. We meant that they wouldn't defeat the democrats for control of the government."

"Oops. What we really meant . . ."

[AverageJoe90]

2. This is a decent article, but.......

Look at what's been happening over there. The fascist takeover of that country has already begun in full force, it seems: the fact that Muslim Brotherhood committed full-blown fraud to get those seats in the Parliament is just one example of such(and, those polls you mentioned, Mosby? It's not at all hard to skew, manipulate, or even fake entirely, a poll of any sort......there are a couple of Gallup polls right here in America I can think of that were likely very skewed,to prove some sort of point via confirmation bias.).

The Egyptian people have had the wool completely pulled over their eyes and I'd hope they'd wake up before they find themselves in an ultra-conservative Orwellian hellhole where thought-crime can 'earn' you a death sentence.