While Egypt was the first Arab state to make peace with Israel, much of its population remains hostile to its northern neighbor, an attitude frequently enforced by the state-sponsored media. Haisam Hassanein shows how the regime’s mixed messaging was manifest during commemorations of the Yom Kippur War, known to Egyptians as the “October War.”
On [one television program], the government-backed host offered pants with the blood of a deceased Israeli soldier to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a souvenir.
[T]he October War—and Israel’s role in that narrative as the enemy—is still a major feature of state messaging to the Egyptian public. [It seems] a segment of his regime is convinced that the Jewish state should be the prime target of domestic propaganda. [Officials with this view] believe that the Sisi regime cannot stay in power without a real enemy against which to mobilize the public.
After all, Israel is an easy target after its many wars with Egypt and the public consensus in Egypt that nobody can doubt Israel’s bad intentions. . . . So, even if not all Egyptian officials are convinced by the strategy of continuing to emphasize enmity against Israel, it makes for an easy story to sell to the public. This is especially the case when enemies of the regime are accusing the regime of being an agent of Israel. The officials’ strategy of encouraging public anti-Israel sentiment allows for a counter-narrative that Sisi’s opponents are actually Israeli agents, and this counternarrative helps insulate the regime against accusations of pro-Israel [sympathies].
Read more on Washington Institute for Near East Policy: https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/fikraforum/view/legacy-october-war-egypt