An Egyptian TV Show Depicts Jews in a Surprisingly Positive—but Sanitized—Light

Egyptian television is currently airing a mini-series, set in 1948, about a Jewish family in Cairo. The show depicts Jews (but not Israel) in a surprisingly positive light, even if it papers over Egyptian anti-Semitism and, in general, exhibits little concern for historical accuracy. Steven A. Cook comments on the series’ significance:

Jews played important roles in Egyptian commerce, culture, and politics in the first half of the 20th century. [The show’s writers and producers] want to leverage a sanitized version of this history to make claims about Egyptian society—especially its once, and future, religious tolerance and inclusivity. . . . [U]nlike some . . . mini-series from the recent past that were notable for their anti-Semitic themes, Jews are portrayed sympathetically as authentic Egyptians, and as victims of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The profound national trauma of post-uprising Egypt has some Egyptians looking back to a time when the country was not locked in an all-consuming struggle with its violence, Jacobin-like discourse, pervasive repression, and widespread distrust. Under these difficult circumstances, Jews are a perfect device through which Egyptians can create a tolerant past if only to give the audience some faint hope of a more just, open, and less prejudiced future. . . .

For this then, everyone should welcome the new interest among some Egyptians in Egypt’s Jews. Yet that is not enough. In order to build that socially just, tolerant, and more representative society that Egyptians want, they will actually have to grapple with and revise a history that only has a vague resemblance to what they have been telling themselves about their Jewish brothers and sisters.

Read more at From the Potomac to the Euphrates

More about: Arab anti-Semitism, Egypt, History & Ideas, Mizrahi Jewry, Muslim-Jewish relations

What a Strategic Victory in Gaza Can and Can’t Achieve

On Tuesday, the Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant met in Washington with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Gallant says that he told the former that only “a decisive victory will bring this war to an end.” Shay Shabtai tries to outline what exactly this would entail, arguing that the IDF can and must attain a “strategic” victory, as opposed to merely a tactical or operational one. Yet even after a such a victory Israelis can’t expect to start beating their rifles into plowshares:

Strategic victory is the removal of the enemy’s ability to pose a military threat in the operational arena for many years to come. . . . This means the Israeli military will continue to fight guerrilla and terrorist operatives in the Strip alongside extensive activity by a local civilian government with an effective police force and international and regional economic and civil backing. This should lead in the coming years to the stabilization of the Gaza Strip without Hamas control over it.

In such a scenario, it will be possible to ensure relative quiet for a decade or more. However, it will not be possible to ensure quiet beyond that, since the absence of a fundamental change in the situation on the ground is likely to lead to a long-term erosion of security quiet and the re-creation of challenges to Israel. This is what happened in the West Bank after a decade of relative quiet, and in relatively stable Iraq after the withdrawal of the United States at the end of 2011.

Read more at BESA Center

More about: Gaza War 2023, Hamas, IDF