Speaking on Mayadeen TV on June 21, Egyptian author Muhammad Al-Mansi Qandil said that "Israel is a germ that was planted in the Arab body in 1948" and that "ever since, the Arab body has been plagued with the Israel disease." That is why, he said, "all the [Arab] regimes that were established came out deformed, we produced deformed development projects, and we entered wars that were beyond our capabilities."