The Mummified President: Or the Follower of the Follower.The crisis between Hezbollah and the regime in Egypt has been branching out leading the Al-Arabiya channel to give the matter its own segment during its daily news slash propaganda a few days ago. The channel hosted the editor-in-chief of Rose-Ul-Yusuf along with the retired Lebanese colonel Hesham Jaber. To add a bit of “objectivity”, Saleh Al-Qellab was also invited, or perhaps to conciliate the opposing points of view.
Rose-Ul-Yusuf magazine, like all government aligned and (beloved) official Egyptian magazines and newspapers lost the attractiveness which it hasn’t known for decades now. For instance, it’s enough to compare Al-Ahram before the revolution and during the era of Nasser and the same Al-Ahram during the eras of Sadat and Mubarak. Who reads Al-Ahram these days at all, except those who want to find out who died from the obituaries section? The current Rose-Ul-Yusuf represents a familiar pattern found today in official Arab media outlets (or electronic media sites such as Elaph): A media that is in liberal disguise while it has in fact allied itself to autocratic and tyrannical regimes in return for many benefits. A media that uses sleaze and women as objects as well as rousing those repressed urges to attract readership. This magazine is an official outlet for the ruling party no matter what the latter does and no matter how many or who it murders. What’s also ironic is that both Sadat’s media and Saudi media are incessantly attacking Nasser for his role in oppressing the press, as if the current media either in Egypt or Saudi Arabia or Jordan is free and uncensored. Those in these medias mentioned above forget that Egyptian newspapers and publications in the days of Nasser were actually read and circulated: Al-Ahram had writers of such caliber as Mahfouz, Al-Hakim, Edris, Louis ‘Awaad, Ghali Shukri and many other talented writers. But who can point to even one talent in Mubarak’s media today? It is enough to show the mediocrity of such media by noting that Oussama Saraya is the current editor in chief of Al-Ahram. Any comparison in this regard between Mohammad Hasanein Haykal, for instance, and no matter what could be said about the man, and Oussama Saraya does not have a favorable outcome to Mubarak or Sadat….or Saraya himself. Al-Ahram used to employ a multitude of intellectuals and writers, while it’s crammed today with Jamal’s gang as he relentlessly inflame sectarian and religious feelings. What this means is that the Egyptian media condemns in practice any sectarian agitation unless it is endorsed by its own institutions, be they governmental or media institutions. In the same manner, this media promotes a narrow form of country-wide nationalism and doesn’t invoke pan-Arab nationalism except in the context of countering the Safavid-Qajarid grand scheme.
In any case, the episode referred to, started with violent bashing coming from the editor in chief of Rose-Ul-Yusuf – the magazine that praises America and criticizes it in the same issue according to the needs of Hosni Mubarak and whether a report on human rights status in Egypt has been issued by an American official. But the Egyptian’s regime interest has been concurrent with that of the U.S and Israel for the past years; ever since the regime in Egypt discovered that it had made a mistake in thinking that the American administration – any administration – gives any weight to the status of human rights under any Arab regime. The Egyptian regime then settled down and dismissed its unfounded fears! Al-Qellab, who was supposed to be representing the neutral point of view in the discussion, was rather angered, indignant, threatening, furious and abusive! The little darling – as they would call him in the Levant – was previously the minister of information under the Jordanian regime. Usually, working for the Arab regimes of oppression is a lousy profession, but it becomes even lousier and more despicable if it’s a profession in the domains of either media or intelligence (with permission from Samir ‘Atalla the professional writer of praises to prince Muqrin and Jihad El-Khazen the professional writer of praises to prince Nayef). The sole function of the media under the Hashemite regime is to defend the financial and political collaboration with Israel, and to defend the massacres committed by the Jordanian army against the Palestinian people. ‘Adnan Abou ‘Odeh was for example, trained in Britain on the fundamentals of psychological warfare (as mentioned by Avi Shalim in his hagiographic biography of King Hussein) before taking up the task of defending the September massacres in the Jordanian media.
The Egyptian campaign against Hezbollah is becoming fiercer as we speak, and is widening to encompass the media of Prince Salman bin Abdul-Aziz. The latter is anxious to be crowned king of Saudi Arabia, as I was told years ago by the former American ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Chas Freeman. This prince Salman is hasting to get more intimate with Zionists so maybe America would help him become King, as any reader can notice from reading his London-based newspaper.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian campaign in the media is not countered by Hezbollah’s media, which thinks that its silence is an intelligent outmaneuvering on its part. Nasrallah’s most recent speech was clear in explaining the party’s position towards the various Arab regimes. The party explained by saying that it is not against any of the Arab regimes, and declared that it will not wage any campaigns against any Arab regime. The guests of Al-Manar TV know that in the past few months all guests were asked to refrain from criticizing Saudi Arabia. But it seems that the party is unaware that it is the Arab regimes themselves that seek adversity and war with Hezbollah, even if the latter chooses the path of peace and reconciliation. The plot is already in place whether Hezbollah wants to acknowledge it or not, in the same manner in which the Jordanian regime discovered in a suitable moment (suitable to Israel of course) plots by Hamas to carry out bombings in Jordan.
Who said that it is only Ba’athist regimes that foil infernal plots in their countries? But Hezbollah did not attain the truth that George Habash and Wadi’ Haddad previously attained following the events of 1967: That the goal of liberating Palestine contradicts in both words and actions with remaining at peace with the Arab regimes (but the PFLP later abandoned this deduction). But Hezbollah can be excused in preferring not to go to arms with these regimes, because the card of sectarian embattlement being officially used by the Saudi camp, weakens Hezbollah. This is because the latter is easy to criticize as a result of its divisive ideological nature and sectarian constitution. For instance, the party can be blamed for not being interested in building a pro-resistance front similar to the pro-Palestinian revolution front established by Kamal Jumblat. The party can also be blamed for not being comfortable in allying itself with the secular-leftist branch of the resistance in Lebanon and outside of Lebanon. However it cannot be blamed for not wanting or not being capable of adopting a different ideology.
quick English translation at the author's websiteoriginal article in Arabic @ Lebanese leftist/independent newspaper al-Akbar
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