From the Editor

N.Y.Times on Protocols

As we note in the article on Egypt in this issue, the notorious Protocols of the Elders of Zion are the subject of a 30-part Egyptian TV series to be broadcast during Ramadan (when TV viewing is at its height). The New York Times found this worthy of a front page article (October 26), but used it -- a new low even for the morally debased New York Times -- to draw a phony moral equivalence with Israel. Israel's real sin, as the article on Egypt in these pages shows, is not to "demonize" Egypt but to promote the dangerous pretense that Egypt is a "peace partner."

Here is what Roger Gerber (co-compiler, with your editor, of Shimon Says, the mindless meanderings of Shimon Peres) has to say about the Times article:

"In his article, Daniel Wakin states: 'Scholars of the Islamic world, which historically has had a closeness with Judaism, say demonization on both sides is inevitable after such long conflict in the Middle East.' Note: (a) the 'scholars' are anonymous (b) the unattributed editorializing that the Islamic world allegedly 'has had a closeness with Judaism' (whatever that means) is at best murky and at worst misleading, and (c) the 'demonization' is on both sides or, in other words, morally equivalent.

"For Wakin to find a moral symmetry between the 'demonization' of Jews evidenced by Egyptian television promoting the most notorious anti-Jewish canard in modern history, one that has had incalculable consequences, and any putative 'demonization' of Arabs, is both ludicrous and pernicious. Wakin does not even bother to give examples of the 'demonization' on the Jewish side, just as he does not bother to identify the 'scholars' to whom he ostensibly refers; certainly, any such examples would pale into insignificance when compared to the monstrous Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Mr. Wakin imposes a specious moral symmetry on an asymmetrical situation."  

Democracy, Arab Style

Tremendous hopes are being put into potential democratization of the Arab world by people ranging from President Bush to Natan Sharansky. But are those hopes well-placed?

We have quoted Fouad Ajami as saying that "we have come to see the institutions of 'civil society' as instruments of redemption, the building blocks of a new democratic order of nations at peace....However, we cannot extend this kind of confidence in 'civil society' to the Arab political and intellectual class and its encounter with Israel." In an earlier Outpost, we mentioned the elections in Algeria, where the recognition that Islamists would win led the army to cancel them, leading to a multi-year reign of terror that is still going on. The current elections in Bahrain are producing a majority for the Islamists.

The evidence keeps piling up that Ajami's warning will prove prescient. Take the interview published in The Weekly Standard (November 4) of Rawya Rashad Shawa, a member from Gaza of the Palestinian National Council. In a sense Mrs. Shawa is courageous, blasting Yasir Arafat for running one of the most corrupt governments in the world and demanding genuine democratic reform within the PA. But she also endorses suicide bombers, sees no problem with Hamas replacing Arafat, treats Barak's offer to return virtually to the old Green Line as "window dressing designed to confuse the Palestinians," and like Arafat insists on the Arab "right to return" to Israel within the old Green Line, i.e. demands that Israel self-destruct. This is what a Palestinian Arab "democrat" looks like.

In Jordan, the Amman Times (Oct. 30) reports that over 500 members attended the first meeting of the Jordanian Engineers Association's 'anti-normalization' (with Israel) committee. It is the largest and richest of the country's 14 professional associations (all of which are opposed to normalization), and pledged to continue the anti-Israel drive to protect Jordan from "Zionist threats." Again, in a sense the members display "courage," for the government has threatened the professional associations with dissolution if they do not stop their anti-normalization campaigns, on the grounds that they are detrimental to Jordan's economy.

The sentiments of the "Arab street" in regard to Israel are well-known. That the elites are also more vociferously anti-Israel than the rulers bodes poorly for those who see rosy prospects as a result of empowering Arab electorates.  

We Are All Israelis

That's what Wall Street Journal editor Daniel Henninger wrote, in one of his typically fine articles,

(Continued on p.12)

Outpost               - 2 -               November 2002