Boycott Watch
                 
February 4, 2011
 
Riots in Egypt, the Media and the Arab Boycott of Israel
 
By Fred Taub
President, Boycott Watch
Author, Boycotting Peace
 
    With the world's eyes on Egypt and protests spreading throughout the Arab world, the safety of Israel has become a point of concern in the media at levels not seen since the second Gulf War. For the first time since that war, the media has shown maps of the entire Middle East on television, only this time to unprecedented levels.

   The shape of Israel alone in the media map looks to some as if Israel is engulfing the "West Bank" as it encroaches on the top, bottom and middle. That image fuels the impression the Arab world wants to project, in that Israel is aggressively positioning itself to surround and conquer Arab lands. The Arab world, therefore, is surely not pleased with the greater map being shown on television repeatedly, with Israel practically invisible.

   This begs the question as to why the Arab world is so focused on a piece of land you need a magnifying glass to find. More so, I ask why the Arab world is putting so much attention to this relatively miniscule piece of land instead of working toward its own prosperity. The answer may surprise you.

   In 1921, the Arab Congress was formed to coordinate the boycotts which began as early as 1910, to starve out the Jews before Israel could be created. This was before the Arab states were created too. Once the states, including Israel in 1948, were created, the Arab Congress was renamed the League of Arab States, more commonly referred to as the Arab League. Today, the Arabs don't want you to know that the Arab League has declared war on Israel, or that the Arab League exports their boycott of Israel globally to have non-Arabs assist in destroying Israel economically. To the Arabs, an economic weakening of Israel also means a weaker Israeli army on a future battlefield, not to mention economic implosion to destroy the Jewish state.

   In today's media, Arab commentators keep repeating the false claim that Egypt is the 5,000 years old land of the Pharos, a lie that respectable reporters have parroted. The fact is Egypt gained its independence from the United Kingdom on February 28, 1922, and the Arab culture is far from the world of the Pharos. Egypt's largest city, Alexandria, is not named for the Pharos, but rather a people who conquered and dispersed the Biblical Egyptians into oblivion. Today's Egyptians hardly resemble the people depicted in the Pyramids. These are not the same Egyptians.

   The question still remains: Why is the Arab world so preoccupied with a boycott of a sliver of land while a large percentage of the Egyptian people are starving? The average Egyptian makes ten percent of the average American's wages, and fifteen percent of the average Israeli's. The answer is the Arab world prefers to fight Israel than create a better life for its own people. Despite the fact that the majority of Egyptians have been starving for decades, today's protests are not about economic prosperity or government handouts. The protests were triggered in support of and to copy the success that the radical Hezbollah terrorists had when they recently took total control of Lebanon.

   While the Arab boycott precedes the creation of the Arab states and even Israel, it speaks volumes about Arab attitudes toward Jews, not just Israel. It is one thing to not like a person or nation, but another to harm yourself just to inflict pain on another. Yet, that is exactly what we are seeing in the Arab world.

   Israel has the highest GDP per capita of any nation in the Middle East, double that of the super wealthy Kingdom of Saudi Arabia where tourists are forbidden to see the starving masses. The Arabs know this via the Internet, which helped coordinate the riots in Egypt, but they don't care. Hatred of Israel rules supreme in the Arab world.

   Soon after the riots in Egypt began, the media silenced comments by protesters against peace with Israel. In 2006, Hamas, a subsidiary of the Muslim Brotherhood, kidnapped Steve Centanni, a Fox News reporter and his cameraman in Gaza. Why? Because they did not like Fox News' general reporting. This makes me wonder if the reporters whom the Egyptian government officials had assaulted were attacked for their parent network's content, for showing the map of the Middle East where Israel is nearly invisible because it is so tiny compared to the Arab world. I do not believe it is a coincidence that I have not seen those maps much, if at all, after the recent reports of reporters being beaten.

   The current violence in Egypt is unmasking the Arab League's agenda to destroy Israel: They don't want you to see the greater Middle East map; they don't want you to see public calls to destroy Israel; and they certainly don't like it when I expose the truth behind the Arab boycott of Israel.

   Make no mistake about it. Radical groups like Al-Awda which are dedicated to the destruction of Israel are both pushing the Arab boycott of Israel in the United States and are marching in New York City to overthrow Mubarek with signs reading "Long Live the Egyptian Intifada!" The Arab boycott is about destroying Israel, not bringing peace as the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) proponents like to claim. After all, you can't have peace with someone who will not sit down with you for a cup of coffee. The Arab boycott of Israel is fundamentally anti-peace. After all, boycotts separate people, not bring them together.

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   Fred Taub is the President of Boycott Watch, an expert in boycotts, the author of the book Boycotting Peace (Balfour Books, 2011), has appeared on the Fox News Channel, Al-Jazeera Television, and several other media outlets. His work has also been cited in two cases before the United States Supreme Court.
 
 
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