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Egypt's U.S.-Subsidized Politics of Hate

(Commentary) Jonathan S. Tobin - Better late than never is the only way one can describe the New York Times' decision to run an article about Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi's history of anti-Semitic slanders. The problem is that Morsi's use of a phrase that is commonly employed throughout the Muslim world to describe Jews as well as other comments that are straight out of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion is so common in Egypt as to make it almost unexceptionable. That is in no small measure the result of Brotherhood propaganda and mainstream Islamist thought in which demonization of Israelis, Jews, and Americans is commonplace. While some might paint the Brotherhood as a responsible political movement, Jew-hatred is one of its core beliefs. The question is not so much whether Morsi will publicly disavow these slurs but whether the Obama administration will continue to buy into the myth that Morsi is some kind of a moderate whose government deserves to continue to be treated as an ally. Morsi's talk about "apes and pigs" is not a side issue to be ignored in the name of stability. It goes straight to the heart of whether Egypt should be treated as a nation ruled by a radical and hostile government that is confident that nothing it does will cause it to lose its American subsidy.
2013-01-16 00:00:00
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