Egypt's Jew Haters Deserve Ostracism in the West-proof the prejudice has nothing to do with Israel

But we are Semites ourselves!" That is what an urbane Egyptian journalist will likely reply to the charge that the Egyptian media is rife with anti-Semitism. But there are few places where Jews are blamed for so many of the world's ills, from carcinogenic pesticides to the war in Iraq.

More distressing is that much of the pointing is being done by Egypt's self-described liberals -- the pro-democratic and anti-Islamist crowd on which the country's hopes for a more tolerant future supposedly rest.

The most recent episode began on Oct. 2, when the Anti-Defamation League issued a press release reporting "Surge in Anti-Semitic Messages on Online Finance Sites." An Egyptian journalist read about it in the Israeli daily "Maariv," and here is how the new, "liberal" Egyptian weekly Al-Youm As-Sabi headlined its report the next day: "Jews are the principal suspect in the financial crisis." The article ran alongside a photo of stock market readouts, captioned "why are cries against Jews growing louder in the U.S.?"

This was not the only instance in which Egypt's "liberal" intelligentsia found ways to blame Jews for the financial crisis. On Oct. 11, Abbas at-Tarabili, the editor in chief of the Al-Wafd daily -- the house organ of Egypt's leading "liberal" political party of the same name -- wrote a column purporting to show that Jews were merely manipulating the stock market as they had the price of gold in the late 1970s.

"The Jews played a filthy game," he wrote. "It is true that the Western countries -- the United States on top -- have a lot to lose, but all pours into the pockets of Jewish businessmen who control the stock markets of the world."

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There's another question: Over the past eight years, the United States has invested huge resources in attempting to bring democracy to the Middle East. But it's not clear whether that project will succeed as long as America's natural allies in the region remain themselves so profoundly irrational and illiberal.
What can be done? Here's a modest suggestion. The Egyptian state and the country's newspapers go out of their way to make a leper of any author who expresses even remote sympathy with Israel. Perhaps Western institutions could adopt a similar practice, refusing to invite to their various functions any editors who allow their pages to become Jew-hatred platforms. The cold shoulder alone might get these lunch-eaters to change their tune.

Actually it's pretty clear it won't succeed. Other than Iraq, a military commitment, theres no indication of any movement toward democracy in the region, including in our pet, the palestinian authority.

I have an idea, let them run their own countries, if that means a King or President for life, so be it. And insist they cease incitement if they want favorable relations. Which includes the aid we send to countries like Egypt, Jordan, the palestinians and Pakistan, which finances the incitement, an in the case of countries like Saudi Arabia, the availability of modern American arms. If they want to attack Israel, let them do it with Russian platforms. And when they come to visit, no hand holding and no having Jews enter conferences by the service entrance. Not in America.

an in the case of countries like Saudi Arabia, the availability of modern American arms. If they want to attack Israel, let them do it with Russian platforms.

I heartily applaud this idea.

I prefer the old days when we could be honest about who our enemies were, instead of this macabre dance where we have Saudi Princes holding hands with our president at the Crawford Ranch.

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