<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[Israeli Media &#8216;Fears&#8217; the New&nbsp;Egypt]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<table border="0" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" width="100%" align="center">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="normal_text" style="padding-left:15px;" align="right">18:08 02/21/2011</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%" align="center">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width="5%"></td>
<td class="title_text" height="20px"></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="15px" valign="top"><img src="https://i2.wp.com/palestinechronicle.com/images/separator.jpg" alt="" width="510px" height="1px" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<table border="0" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" width="400px" align="center">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="center"><img class="border" src="https://i1.wp.com/palestinechronicle.com/uploads/1298329713egypt_gaza_rally_images.jpg" alt="" vspace="2" width="400px" height="300px" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="caption_text" align="center">Palestinians in Gaza celebrate Egypt’s revolution. (Aljazeera)</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="normal_text" style="padding-top:10px;"><strong>By Neve Gordon </strong></p>
<p>Over the past three weeks the Israeli media has been extremely interested in Egypt.</p>
<p>During  the climatic days of the unprecedented demonstrations, television news  programmes spent most of their airtime covering the protests, while the  daily papers dedicated half the news and opinion pages to the unfolding  events.</p>
<p>Rather than excitement at watching history in the making,  however, the dominant attitude here, particularly on television, was of  anxiety&#8211; a sense that the developments in Egypt were inimical to  Israel&#8217;s interests. Egypt&#8217;s revolution, in other words, was bad news.</p>
<p>It  took a while for Israel&#8217;s experts on &#8220;Arab Affairs&#8221; to get a grip on  what was happening. During the early days of unrest, the recurrent  refrain was that &#8220;Egypt is not Tunis&#8221;.</p>
<p>Commentators assured the  public that the security apparatuses in Egypt are loyal to the regime  and that consequently there was little if any chance that President  Hosni Mubarak&#8217;s government would fall.</p>
<p><strong>Media Switch</strong></p>
<p>Once  it became clear that this line of analysis was erroneous, most  commentators followed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu&#8217;s lead and  criticised President Barack Obama&#8217;s Administration for not supporting  Mubarak. The Foreign News editor of one channel noted that: &#8220;The fact  that the White House is permitting the protests is reason for worry;&#8221;  while the prominent political analyst Ben Kaspit expressed his longing  for President George W. Bush.</p>
<p>&#8220;We remember 2003 when George Bush  invaded and took over Iraq with a sense of yearning&#8221;, Ben Kaspit wrote.  &#8220;Libya immediately changed course and allied itself with the West. Iran  suspended its military nuclear program. Arafat was harnessed. Syria  shook with fear. Not that the invasion of Iraq was a wise move (not at  all, Iran is the real problem, not Iraq), but in the Middle East whoever  does not walk around with a big bat in his hand receives the bat on his  head.&#8221;</p>
<p>Israeli commentators are equivocal on the issue of  Egyptian democracy. One columnist explained that it takes years for  democratic institutions to be established and for people to internalise  the practices appropriate for democracy, while Amir Hazroni from NRG  went so far as to write an ode to colonialism:</p>
<p>&#8220;When we try to  think how and why the United States and the West lost Egypt, Tunis,  Yemen and perhaps other countries in the Middle East, people forget  that. The original sin began right after WWII, when a wonderful form of  government that protected security and peace in the Middle East (and in  other parts of the Third Word) departed from this world following  pressure from the United States and Soviet Union&#8230; More than sixty  years have passed since the Arab states and the countries of Africa were  liberated from the &#8216;colonial yoke,&#8217; but there still isn&#8217;t an Arab  university, an African scientist or a Middle Eastern consumer product  that has made a mark on our world.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>Fear and the Brotherhood</strong></p>
<p>While  only a few commentators are as reactionary as Hazroni, an Orientalist  perspective permeated most of the discussion about Egypt, thus helping  to bolster the already existing Jewish citizenry&#8217;s fear of Islam.  Political Islam is constantly presented and conceived as an ominous  force that is antithetical to democracy.</p>
<p>Thus, in the eyes of  Israeli analysts, the protestors- that Facebook and Twitter generation-  are deserving of empathy but also extremely naïve. There is a shared  sense that their fate will end up being identical to that of the Iranian  intellectuals who led the protests against the Shah.</p>
<p>Channel  Two&#8217;s expert on &#8220;Arab Affairs&#8221; explained that: &#8220;The fact that you do not  see the Muslim Brotherhood does not mean they are not there,&#8221; and  another expert warned his viewers not to &#8220;be misled by ElBaradei&#8217;s  Viennese spirit, behind him is the Muslim Brotherhood.&#8221;</p>
<p>According  to these pundits, the Muslim Brotherhood made a tactical decision not to  distribute Islamists banners or to take an active part in leading the  protests. One commentator declared that if the Muslim Brotherhood wins,  then &#8220;elections are the end of the [democratic] process, not its  beginning,&#8221; while an anchorman for Channel Ten asked former Minister  Binyamin Ben Eliezer whether &#8220;the person who says to himself: &#8216;How  wonderful, at last the state of Egypt is a democracy,&#8217; is naïve?&#8221;</p>
<p>The  Minister responded: &#8220;Allow me even to laugh. We wanted a democracy in  Iran and in Gaza. The person who talks like this is ignoring the fact  that for over a decade there has been a struggle of giants between the  Sunni and Shia with tons of blood spilled. The person who talks about  democracy does not live in the reality we live in.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>Democratic Threat</strong></p>
<p>Ben-Eliezer&#8217;s  response is telling, not least because it is well known that Israel  supported the Shah regime in Iran and has not proven itself to be a  particularly staunch supporter of Palestinian democracy. Democracy in  the Middle East is, after all, conceived by this and prior Israeli  governments as a threat to Israel&#8217;s interests.</p>
<p>Dan Margalit, a  well-known commentator, made this point clear when he explained that  Israel does not disapprove of a democracy in the largest Arab country  but simply privileges Israel&#8217;s peace agreement with Egypt over internal  Arab affairs.</p>
<p>Israel, one should note, is not alone in this  self-serving approach; most western countries constantly lament the  absence of democracy in the Arab world, while supporting the dictators  and helping them remain in office. In English this kind of approach has a  very clear name &#8211; it is called hypocrisy.</p>
<p><em>&#8211; Neve Gordon is the author of Israel&#8217;s Occupation. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com. Visit: </em><a href="http://www.israelsoccupation.info/"><em>http://www.israelsoccupation.info</em></a><em>. (This article first appeared in Al Jazeera.)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="35"><a class="contribution" style="cursor:pointer;" href="http://palestinechronicle.com/contribution.php"><strong><em>If you like this article, please consider making a contribution to the Palestine Chronicle.</em></strong></a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><a href="http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16670">Israeli Media &#8216;Fears&#8217; the New Egypt</a>.</p>
]]></html><thumbnail_url><![CDATA[https://i2.wp.com/palestinechronicle.com/images/separator.jpg?fit=440%2C330]]></thumbnail_url><thumbnail_width><![CDATA[]]></thumbnail_width><thumbnail_height><![CDATA[]]></thumbnail_height></oembed>