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The Arab Spring and Anti-Semitism

(Bloomberg) Jeffrey Goldberg - The desire of Arabs to be free of their dictators is sometimes expressed in grotesquely anti-Jewish terms. Now in Cairo, and across the Arab Middle East, Israel and the Jews are serving once again as universal boogeymen. This truth doesn't conform to the generally accepted narrative of the Arab Spring, but ignoring it won't make it disappear. Cairo is rife with anti-Semitism. On my last visit, I met with leaders of ostensibly liberal parties who were convinced Jews were conspiring to bring about the collapse of the Egyptian economy (something that Egypt's military rulers are accomplishing all by themselves). Expressions of anti-Semitism are common even at the higher reaches of Egyptian politics. Presidential candidate Tawfiq Okasha, speaking on the television station he owns, recently said, "Not all the Jews in the world are evil. You may ask: Tawfiq, what is the ratio? The ratio is 60-40. 60% are evil to varying degrees, all the way to a level that words cannot describe, while 40% are not evil." He added that even among the 40% of non-evil Jews there is only one in a million who is blameless. In Cairo today, this might count as a progressive idea.
2011-11-30 00:00:00
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