The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) has provided a window into the discussion in the Arab press regarding the airing of an Egyptian television series, produced especially for Ramadan, which includes an international Jewish conspiracy at its heart, based on the infamous Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The series, called ?Knight [or ?Horseman?] Without a Horse?, started airing on November 6, 2002, and recent episodes portray a Jewish cabal conspiring to manipulate the world scene in the 1800's based on principles in the Protocols. The Arab press touches on the series itself, but also on the fierce opposition it engendered in the West, including calls from the US government to prevent the series from airing.
While the Egyptian government declared, in various ways, that the series does not contain anti-Semitic material, a columnist in the al-Hayat newspaper of London lashed out at ?the level of idiocy of some of our own intellectuals and artists...? Using the device of an imaginary Israeli produced movie about an international Arab conspiracy, he wrote that the program ?is based on the historic forged book The Protocols of the Elders of Zion... The historic truth does not interest some in the Arab and Egyptian ?elite.?? The columnist?s frustration with the Arab elite, however, is mainly because of its hypocrisy and empty posturing. He writes, ?instead of demanding that their government cancel the peace agreement with Israel - the agreement that has been carried out successfully for a quarter of a century - some Cairo artists turn to drums, microphones, and media idiocy that exacerbate the Palestinians' situation.? The author also mocks a song made popular in Egypt recently (?I Hate Israel, I Love Amr Mousa?), concluding, ?Enough, Egypt... enough.?
The same London newspaper, al-Hayat, contains another criticism of the series? airing in the movie column. The columnist writes, ?the book, which today is known with certainty to be a 'fabrication' by the Russian Czar's secret police aimed at justifying attacks on the Russian Jews... always served fascist, racist, and antisemitic regimes, for stepping up persecution of the Jews....? However, his problem with the Protocols is also self-interest, for, according to the al-Hayat writer, the book has had ?a more disastrous result for the Arabs than for the Jews, as it turned into a political and historic argument supporting the idea of a 'national homeland for the Jews' and the establishment of Israel....? The movie column also reveals that ?[s]ome say that the main support for Muhammad Subhi's project came from Iraqi President Saddam Hussein personally - as if the damage he has caused the Arabs was not sufficient....?
In contrast to the expatriate Arab press, Egyptian newspapers could not have been more supportive of both the series and the government decision to allow its broadcast. Little surprise there. The Egyptian press is government controlled. The editor of the daily al-Akbar newspaper puts the matter in a clear light: ?Under cover of deceit and deception, the new Zionists deny, as did their fathers and grandfathers [before them], the principles calling for freedom of expression when they conflict with their own goals and conspiracies. This is nothing unusual when speaking of them [the Jews], because they even denied what is said in the [Islamic] holy scriptures!!...? An al-Akhbar columnist praised producer Muhammad Subhi and considered the series to be Jihad by other means. She expressed her hopes that the Jihad would continue in every possible way, saying, ?We need an artist like Subhi... Blessings on the 'eye-opening' series.?
In his own defense, Subhi is quoted in the Egyptian opposition weekly al-Usbou' as saying, ?The series tells part of our history in the Arab region, and what the Jews did...? On the other hand, Subhi insisted to an interviewer with the Egyptian government daily al-Gumhouriya, ?The series has no connection to semitism, and it does not concern any religion. The censorship committees viewed it more than once, and approved it; they even praised it, which is happening for the first time in 20 years. I do not know why they fear a series from which the censor did not delete a single scene... If they claim that the series is antisemitic and supports terror... what is their response to the clerics among them who curse Islam?? Then again, on the other hand, ?I am exposing the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and see them as the basis of Zionism. I found that the memoirs of Hafez Najib [on which the series is based] are fertile ground for a work that will expose these protocols... They [the Jews] cannot accept any criticism, especially if it is from an Arab. They realize that discussion of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion will expose their true racist face, their expansionist intentions, and their objection to any peace,? Subhi said, according to the Saudi Arabian London-based a-Sharq al-Awsat.
The editor of the Palestinian Authority daily al-Hayat Al-Jadida expressed his frustration with the series, because he sees it as ?an attempt to anesthetize, or to sigh in relief, because the repressed Arab citizen, prohibited from expressing solidarity with the slaughtered Palestinians, will feel that he is fulfilling his pan-Arab duty by sacrificing an hour a day to watching the small screen, and can relax because his turn has not yet come to be slaughtered, according to Washington's time - and that of its Arab suburbs, the Arab capitals are [also] in line for slaughter....? In other words, it is meant to be anti-Jewish, so as to help passive Arabs soothe their consciences.
While the Egyptian government declared, in various ways, that the series does not contain anti-Semitic material, a columnist in the al-Hayat newspaper of London lashed out at ?the level of idiocy of some of our own intellectuals and artists...? Using the device of an imaginary Israeli produced movie about an international Arab conspiracy, he wrote that the program ?is based on the historic forged book The Protocols of the Elders of Zion... The historic truth does not interest some in the Arab and Egyptian ?elite.?? The columnist?s frustration with the Arab elite, however, is mainly because of its hypocrisy and empty posturing. He writes, ?instead of demanding that their government cancel the peace agreement with Israel - the agreement that has been carried out successfully for a quarter of a century - some Cairo artists turn to drums, microphones, and media idiocy that exacerbate the Palestinians' situation.? The author also mocks a song made popular in Egypt recently (?I Hate Israel, I Love Amr Mousa?), concluding, ?Enough, Egypt... enough.?
The same London newspaper, al-Hayat, contains another criticism of the series? airing in the movie column. The columnist writes, ?the book, which today is known with certainty to be a 'fabrication' by the Russian Czar's secret police aimed at justifying attacks on the Russian Jews... always served fascist, racist, and antisemitic regimes, for stepping up persecution of the Jews....? However, his problem with the Protocols is also self-interest, for, according to the al-Hayat writer, the book has had ?a more disastrous result for the Arabs than for the Jews, as it turned into a political and historic argument supporting the idea of a 'national homeland for the Jews' and the establishment of Israel....? The movie column also reveals that ?[s]ome say that the main support for Muhammad Subhi's project came from Iraqi President Saddam Hussein personally - as if the damage he has caused the Arabs was not sufficient....?
In contrast to the expatriate Arab press, Egyptian newspapers could not have been more supportive of both the series and the government decision to allow its broadcast. Little surprise there. The Egyptian press is government controlled. The editor of the daily al-Akbar newspaper puts the matter in a clear light: ?Under cover of deceit and deception, the new Zionists deny, as did their fathers and grandfathers [before them], the principles calling for freedom of expression when they conflict with their own goals and conspiracies. This is nothing unusual when speaking of them [the Jews], because they even denied what is said in the [Islamic] holy scriptures!!...? An al-Akhbar columnist praised producer Muhammad Subhi and considered the series to be Jihad by other means. She expressed her hopes that the Jihad would continue in every possible way, saying, ?We need an artist like Subhi... Blessings on the 'eye-opening' series.?
In his own defense, Subhi is quoted in the Egyptian opposition weekly al-Usbou' as saying, ?The series tells part of our history in the Arab region, and what the Jews did...? On the other hand, Subhi insisted to an interviewer with the Egyptian government daily al-Gumhouriya, ?The series has no connection to semitism, and it does not concern any religion. The censorship committees viewed it more than once, and approved it; they even praised it, which is happening for the first time in 20 years. I do not know why they fear a series from which the censor did not delete a single scene... If they claim that the series is antisemitic and supports terror... what is their response to the clerics among them who curse Islam?? Then again, on the other hand, ?I am exposing the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and see them as the basis of Zionism. I found that the memoirs of Hafez Najib [on which the series is based] are fertile ground for a work that will expose these protocols... They [the Jews] cannot accept any criticism, especially if it is from an Arab. They realize that discussion of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion will expose their true racist face, their expansionist intentions, and their objection to any peace,? Subhi said, according to the Saudi Arabian London-based a-Sharq al-Awsat.
The editor of the Palestinian Authority daily al-Hayat Al-Jadida expressed his frustration with the series, because he sees it as ?an attempt to anesthetize, or to sigh in relief, because the repressed Arab citizen, prohibited from expressing solidarity with the slaughtered Palestinians, will feel that he is fulfilling his pan-Arab duty by sacrificing an hour a day to watching the small screen, and can relax because his turn has not yet come to be slaughtered, according to Washington's time - and that of its Arab suburbs, the Arab capitals are [also] in line for slaughter....? In other words, it is meant to be anti-Jewish, so as to help passive Arabs soothe their consciences.