Thursday, 21 November

HEY, DUDE, WHERE'S THE CANAL?

More information about the Suez Canal from The Encyclopedia of World History, courtesy of bartleby's:

1869, Nov. 17 - OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE SUEZ CANAL. Construction of the waterway began in 1859, following concessions granted by the Egyptian government in Nov. 1854 and Jan. 1856 to the Suez Canal Company established by the Frenchman Ferdinand de Lesseps. Egypt supplied the labor for the project and also bought shares in the company (which it sold to the British government in 1875). The canal soon handled a substantial portion of world shipping and proved a successful private venture: by 1920 its profits had paid eight times the original investment. Britain became its main user and was prompted to occupy Egypt in 1882 partly by perceived threats to free passage in the waterway.



Map of Egypt showing Suez Canal found here.

A LETTER FROM CAIRO which was published in The Jerusalem Post is currently being circulated around, thanks to the internet, even in Arab-oriented media:

Mohsen abu Mussa Cairo Egypt

(18 Nov 2002) Mohsen@hotmail.com



http://www.jpost.com/Letters/34441.html



'In order for the Middle East to recover its peace, Israel must disappear as a state and a zionist entity. The Jews who want to stay and live with Arabs are welcome provided they do not engage in politics. Israel was a mistake in 1948 and still is a mistake today!


Islamic culture cannot mix with the Western world without producing a clash of incalculable proportions.'

The Jerusalem Post Letters.

Wednesday, November 20

Catching up with 'THE KNIGHT' . . .

In Episode 11, Hafez (the Egyptian protagonist) is kidnapped by an Egyptian Zionist group who hire him to steal the Magic Book from Princess Margaret...'They told him that it was written in Russian about a new kind of soap. The British stole it from the Russian company in order to make the soap in England. But Egyptian Zionists were interested in making the soap in Egypt, which is good for his country.' Soap, of course, is a symbol of purification.

It is now a bit nebulous as to whether 'Zionists' are foreign invaders or indigenous to the region, but when people are doing pretzel contortion gymnastics in their imaginations in order to rationize their irrational fantasies, anything goes.

Episode 12 is more mix-ups, disguises and running around. The British call in their best police detective to apprehend 'The Fox,' which is the protagonist's nom de guerre.

In Episode 13, Hafez tries to connect with social contacts who can read Russian and persuade someone's Russian girfriend Natasha to read the Magic Book for him.

And that should just about bring us up to date.

Wednesday, November 20


THE MAGICIAN'S THRALL - Episode 10

In Episode 10 of KNIGHT WITHOUT A HORSE we begin to follow an 'alternate universe' scenario. In the factual history of the region, Egypt had been occupying neighboring countries acting like the Mafia until England put a stop to this behavior in 1840. In reality, even with the Suez Canal as a new asset in the region, Egypt mismanaged its financial matters, went into debt and financial collapse, impelling England which used the canal to secure its interests in the canal by taking over management of Egypt's administration.

I cannot determine if the word 'invade' is Dr. El-Najjar's or the author's. Dr. El-Najjar says he was born in 'Gaza.' The first thing the Jews did was launch a major conspiracy to re-leaf the region as discussed here previously. This was the sinister Tree Conspiracy. The aggressors showed no mercy, buying up land and planting lots and lots of trees. Obviously, the Egyptians were jealous and resentful.

If the British had wanted an entity that separated the Maghreb from the Levant, it would seem that the Suez Canal would do the trick sufficiently. But because this soap opera occupies an alternate universe dimension, this consideration is conveniently omitted. And history is tailored with Procustian distortion to fit this crackpot theory.

In this episode we also spot a device being used from a famous opera of the same time period. The notion that the Jews (or the Zionists) are the flunkies of the English seems strangely reminiscent of the magician's thrall device used in Richard Wagner's pseudo-Christian opera PARSIFAL. The theme of this Wagner opera (1882) is 'tainted blood' which has nothing to do with Christianity but is meretriciously cloaked in the trappings of Christianity to disguise its heretical thesis. In this opera Wagner seems to advocate that Salvation will be achieved via a blood purification process like ethnic cleansing, beginning with the Jews. Hitler became so entranced by the opera that he said it was the basis for his new religion. He also gave a speech in which he echoed the idea that the Jews were laughing at him and mocking him which was closely derivative of the opera.

Dragging the Jews (or the Zionists, if you prefer) into Egypt's financial mismanagement and resultant administration by the British is like dragging on stage a Volkswagon Beetle filled with midgets in big, floppy shoes and Little Lord Fauntleroy suits. It may be entertaining but it's completely irrelevant to Egypt's history. And isn't this soap opera about Egypt's history? Or maybe it's more about what Egypt wishes its history had been by glorifying their days as the Mafia of the Levant and surgically removing their real financial failure.

What did Egypt accomplish while thugging around the Levant? Their current acrimony toward Israel should not be surprising then; their envy at Israel's re-leafing the area and developing it is understandable. But the Zionists did not make Egypt fail financially.

For those who want to continue to cross-check the real historical facts with the apparently fanciful soap opera version of history, you can cross-check here.

Wednesday, 20 November

'KNIGHT' Press Coverage. . . continued

From Albawaba's Entertainment Section of November 19th:

The drama 'Faris Bila Jawad' has caused uproar internationally. The series depicts the Israeli conspiracy to take over Palestine and is based on the book 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion', which Israelis view as one of the most Anti-Semitism in the world.

... the truth of the Jews will be uncovered. All the facts and lies of the Jews will be out...

Among the issues tackled in the series is the Zionist conspiracy to establish a Jewish state that extends from the Nile River in Egypt till the Euphrates in Iraq.

More importantly, in a story from the Associated Press, Nadia Abou El-Magd reports that the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, Egypt's best-known rights organization, released a statement urging that the show begin with an acknowledgment that the Protocols are forged.

How about a simple disclaimer that the show is a historical drama and a fictional work of art?

Tuesday, 19 November


THE 'KNIGHT' SAGA continues. . .

We continue to follow the TV series THE KNIGHT WITHOUT A HORSE, relying mainly on the synopses provided by Dr. Hassan El-Najjar found here. He writes a tight, concise synopsis being careful to be as accurate as possible in the areas he knows will be sensitive. His background is primarily in Sociology with a minor in Cultural Anthropology.

Another gentleman is doing a commentary on the series as well named Itamar Marcus which can be found here or sometimes here. He does not disclose his background.

Mr. Marcus gives a link to a minute-long 'coming attraction' for the series which took forever to load on my machine. It had all the sweep of a majestic, panoramic historical saga along with the cheesiness of a Saturday afternoon Grade B Zorro flick. And the music was vaunting. In short, it is pure kitsch.

In Episode 9 Egypt, in confederation with the Ottoman, is enabled to occupy neighboring countries and wrest booty or tribute from them like a bully who takes the lunch money of the smaller kids or somewhat like the Mafia. But in 1840, England puts a stop to this practice. Without this source of revenue, Egypt doesn't do well financially and eventually goes into debt and financial failure. The big historic event that occurs in the area is the Suez Canal. England uses this facility and needs to secure it. And this is how England comes to manage Egypt and its affairs. None of this has anything to do with the Jews. A factual historical review of this period can be found here which can be coordinated with the saga.

Episode 9 introduces two potentially important themes: the mythos of a 'Lost Golden Age' and 'The Book.'

The way Egypt 'remembers' their story, the period when they occupied surrounding countries before their financial ruin, was a 'Golden Age.'

And 'The Book' seems to be introduced into the series as more of an artifact or even a totem. It is important to remember that many of the viewers of this series are illiterate.

Sunday, 17 November

CODICIL: THE 'TAIL' OF THE 'HORSE'

In his column Straight from the "Horse's" Mouth in The Egyptian Gazette this weekend, Ramadan A. Kadar comments on the TV series [Knight Without a Horse]:

The only relevance of Sobhi's series to the current real-life events is so far a phrase appearing at the end of each episode, reading: "He who resists ccupation is not a terrorist". The overtones are too clear to miss. What Israelis are doing to the Palestinians is worse than any "protocol," outraged viewers say, commenting on the anti-Fares campaign.

DOOM AND GLOOM; DEATH DEATH DEATH

In other news from the same publication, the Saturday edition which is called The Egyptian Mail, some Religious News compiled by Mohssen Arishie covers a travel ban, Al-aqsa, and morbid sermons.

The Minister of Wakfs has issued a ban on Al-Ahzar's sheikhs and scholars flying to the US during Ramadan this year due to the strict new American visa and entry procedures which he expects would be "humiliating" for them.

Dr. Zakzouk has also retracted his call for Muslims to merely visit the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Instead he is now suggesting they travel to Jerusalem en masse to "rescue" Al-Aqsa from the Israelis. "There are about 1.2 billion Muslims in the world and they should work together to save Al-Aqsa Mosque from the Israelis," he insists.

And, finally, the minister has been accused of trying to force preachers to "modernize" their sermons, a charge he vehemently denies.

The minister explains that the preachers themselves have decided to 'modernise' their sermons, in order to rescue Islam from outdated or die-hard theories and other absurdities. "Some mosques have become institutions for striking terror into good, pious members of the public," he says. "The misguided preachers in these mosques are obsessed with doom, gloom and the subject of death."