We all wronged Israel when we accused it of attacking Egypt’s candidate for the top post at the UNESCO. Here we have one of the most intransigent Israeli Prime Ministers and certainly the most deceptive, committing before President Hosni Mubarak, to stop the Israeli campaign against our candidate for UNESCO, an organization founded in 1946 by a mere 20 countries including Egypt. The end of the Israeli campaign against Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosni has later been officially declared by the spokesperson of the Israeli government. Ha’aretz reported that Netanyahu asked President Mubarak for a reasonable reward for his move. All this proves that we are all mistaken and that Israel does not object to the Egyptian culture minister, who for the past 20 years, has said time and again that cultural normalization with Israel should be preceded by a just settlement for the Palestinians.
No doubt that this official Israeli stance postured by the prime minister during his last visit to Egypt is the responsible stance of a state that respects its agreements. We have no doubt that Israel will abide by it, especially after the prime minister asked President Mubarak to offer a reasonable reward, nothing exaggerated, just a reasonable reward, as Ha’aretz reported.
It is true that the Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman declares frequently that Israel is not committed to any previous agreement, including the one brokered by the US in Annapolis. But still we are all fully confident that his ministry will this time abide by what has been agreed by the prime minister.
I believe Lieberman himself must have been signing explicit directives to the Israeli embassies around the world to stop attacking the Egyptian candidate and stop accusing him of anti-Semitism, as well as overlooking the burning of thousands of books during his term. Since the prime minister’s pledge was already taken two weeks ago, I am about to assert that this new directive has already been delivered to all embassies.
As for what is happening with the Jewish lobby groups all over the world, Israel certainly is not involved in it. The French Le Monde published a statement signed by three extreme loyalists to Israel, calling the world to expedite the rescue of UNESCO, which is just about to fall into the grasp of Egypt’s candidate, notorious for burning books. The three signatories called on President Mubarak to withdraw Hosni’s nomination, claiming that Egyptian Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz (who has on more than one occasion during in his lifetime declared his support to Hosni) would roll in his grave in the face of this threat to the future of the UNESCO.
Israel is also not responsible for the petition by a number of pro-Israeli members in the Brazilian parliament to withdraw Brazil’s support for the Egyptian candidate, instead of fielding a Brazilian nominee.
Israel is also not responsible for the distribution of the same list of charges released in the French paper Le Monde by the three signatories to Israeli loyalists in the US Congress, and a number of newspapers in Italy; the first country to declare its support for the Egyptian candidate.
We have, moreover wronged Israel because we believed it coordinated the Jewish lobby in other countries, when it has now been proven that this is not the case at all. Here we’ve got groups launching a frenzied campaign against Egypt and its candidate in more than one country, when at the same time the Israeli Prime Minister himself promised an end to Israel s campaign against the Egyptian candidate and in return for a “reasonable reward.
Mohamed Salmawy is President of the Arab Writers’ Union and Editor-in-Chief of Al-Ahram Hebdo.
