Tearing off the Mask

Journalists like Ibrahim Eissa are working to expose the problems with the regime that currently governs Egypt.

Now that The New York Times has highlighted anti-Semitic statements made by Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, it is becoming increasingly evident that something is seriously wrong with the people who currently call the shots in the largest Arab country in the world.

More evidence of how bad things are getting is available a piece published at the Gatestone Institute on Jan. 9 by writer Michael Armanious. Armanious draws attention to a recent invitation for Jews to return to the Land of the Pharoahs. The invitation was issued by one of Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi’s closest advisors, Essam El-Erian. El-Erian invited Jews back to Egypt in an effort to promote his country’s economic development. Armanious reminds his readers that it was the Muslim Brotherhood – which currently controls the Egyptian government – that drove Jews from Egypt in the 1950s. He writes:

Nonetheless, Mr. El-Erian failed to mention that in the late 1940s and the early 50s, the Muslim Brotherhood, active since 1928, was responsible for killing and wounding hundreds of Egyptian Jews; for bombing the Jewish quarter in Cairo; and in an effort to drive Jews out of Egypt, for firebombing many Jewish business, such as the Cicurel and Gatenio department stores in downtown Cairo. Further, they sent thousands of “Fedayeen” to fight Jews in the 1948 Arab-Israel war.

It important to note that El-Erian’s invitation was directed solely at the Egyptian Jews living in Israel – not at Jews living in Europe or in United States.

Under questioning from his interviewers, El-Erian admitted that his invitation was just a tactic to achieve the Muslim Brotherhood’s long-term objective of emptying Israel of Jews to make room for the Palestinians to return to their homes. He also predicted the demise of Israel in the very near future.

Why would Egyptian Jews come back to Egypt – the most populous country in the Middle East where more than 65% of the population is illiterate, where nearly half of the people live under or just above the poverty line, and other minorities are now facing elimination?

In another piece posted on his blog, The New Egypt, on Jan. 15, Armanious reports that a growing number of Egyptian intellectuals are expressing their contempt for Morsi’s regime. One of them is Ibrahim Eissa, who is asking just how serious Morsi is at promoting peace between Israel and Hamas given the ugly anti-Semitic statements he made in 2010.