Conspiracy theories are a handy thing in that they don’t have to make sense, and they allow one to abdicate responsibility for a situation, because it is ultimately in the hands of the supposedly hidden puppeteers. Bad economy? Blame Israel. “Sectarian strife?” Blame Israel. Bad hair day? There’s probably a way to pin that on Israel, too, even if you live in across the border in Gaza and Hamas put your hairdresser out of business.
“Great darkness in Egypt,” by Eldad Beck for YNet News, July 9:
[…] The Islamists are careful not to voice overly zealous sentiments in respect to Israel. They know that after the elections they will have to swallow some bitter pills. Some of the people interviewed for this article estimated that the Islamists will expel Israel’s ambassador from Cairo should they win the elections but that they still realize they must show some flexibility.
However, the Islamists don’t need to make much effort on the Israel front. The supreme military committee, the transition government and the secular democratic parties are doing the job for them by spreading hateful anti-Israel propaganda and erasing any sign of peace, with the exception of the business normalization. In the days of the previous regime, anti-Israel propaganda was the only area where almost absolute freedom of speech was allowed, but now we are seeing reckless abandon.
Israel is accused of everything — causing the “civil war” between Muslims and Christians, causing the terrible Egyptian economy’s terrible state, and of course, engaging in reckless espionage. The best way to eliminate someone politically is to accuse him of having ties with Israel. Egyptians are eagerly reading reports about Israel’s “secret takeover” during Mubarak’s era; most of the stories are pure inventions meant to implicate former top officials in the gravest crime of all: Normalization with Israel.
Meanwhile, businessmen associated with the previous regime are accused of planning to sell Cairo’s main streets to the Jewish Agency, “which is planning to take over Cairo as it took over Palestine.” If this hysterical witch-hunt, which is replete with anti-Semitic tones, wasn’t enough, Egyptian daily al-Wafd reported this week that Israel also stole the opera Aida from Egypt.
Do Sharia’s punishments apply for stealing an opera?
“Israel, as usual, is exploiting events in Arab states in its favor”¦as it considers itself a Middle Eastern state, it organized several Aida shows at the Dead Sea on June 5th and 6th. It appears Israel chose those dates in order to celebrate our defeat in the 1967 war. Aida was written especially for Egypt, yet Israel is always trying to take over the property of others.”….
There is much more at YNet News. What is posted above is the last section of a more extensive report.