International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, Nov. 27, 2002

The 25th anniversary of President Anwar Sadat's historic peace-making visit to Israel came and went with relations between Israel and her Egyptian neighbors at possibly their lowest ebb since 1977. The severing of agricultural ties on the eve of the anniversary appears relatively minor compared to Egypt's decision to air a controversial drama series over Ramadan, based upon a forged anti-Semitic document purporting to uncover a long-standing Jewish conspiracy to take over the world.

The decision of the Egyptian government to approve the broadcast has been met with anger by Israel's leaders, facing a new wave of Islamic incitement throughout the region. Israeli President Moshe Katsav went beyond usual diplomatic constraints in expressing his concern to his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak in a letter of greeting on the occasion of Ramadan.

"Only fascist, racist and anti-Semitic movements support the forged 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion,'" he wrote, "and we know that the great Egyptian people are not such." Mubarak's cool response denied that the television series in question was based on the Protocols - despite the fact that they have so far featured heavily in the plot. Mubarak also denied that the Egyptians - a Semitic people themselves, could be anti-Semitic.

Despite the semantics, the past week has seen at least three government-linked newspapers justifying last week's terrorist bus attack in Jerusalem that left 12, almost all of them women and children, dead and up to 50 injured. The Al-Akhbar daily defended the "martyrdom operation" as the only response to "Israeli terrorism", in the light of Israel's "uncontrollable appetite to kill, destroy and terrorize."

Al-Gumhuriyya described the bombing as "the most noble, precious, and honorable mission," while even the "official", more conservative government Al-Ahram indicated that such "operations" will continue until the "leaders of Israel learn their lesson."

Mubarak is a President apparently uninterested in the Sadat legacy of peace abruptly ended by his assassination. Egypt now boasts a virulently anti-peace, anti-American and anti-Semitic state-sponsored press, has recalled its ambassador in Tel Aviv, and just recently cancelled a multi-million dollar oil refinery in Alexandria involving Israeli investors. Admittedly, the Sinai is still demilitarized, oil is supplied to Israel and the Suez remains open according to the Camp David accords, but these benefits of the 25 year-old peace deal are becoming increasingly isolated amidst a sea of anti-Israeli propaganda and sentiment.

Only this month, terror group Hamas and Yasser Arafat's Fatah party met in Cairo under the watchful auspices of the Egyptian government to discuss tactics for the ongoing intifada. Reports that Fatah wanted Hamas to limit suicide attacks to the Jewish settlements of Judea, Samaria and Gaza were roundly dismissed by the terrorists themselves. Documents uncovered by the IDF in last Sunday's raid of the PA's Preventative Security Council, indicated that behind it all Egypt is looking to strengthen ties and support to Hamas.

The short term prospects for Israel's diplomatic ties with her Southern neighbor look bleak. Mubarak was an Air Force commander in the 1973 Yom Kippur war. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, meanwhile, was the General, that turned Egypt's overwhelming military advantage into humiliating defeat.