Seems that Farouk Hosni, Egypt's minister of Culture, said in the Parliament that “he would burn Israeli books himself if he found any in libraries in
Pfff. Idiot.
Now the Israelis are all worked out and have been complaining to everyone: the Egyptian embassy in Tel-Aviv, the Government in Cairo, and even - which is pretty damn childish - whining to the Director General of UNESCO, telling him that Hosni doesn't play nice is not worthy of succeeding him.
I find that very, very childish. What he did was totally stupid - classic Farouk.. - but seriously, now a minister has to watch out for his words inside his national parliament as to not upset the Israelis? That’s seriously pathetic.
But in any event I can’t stand Farouk Hosni, so I actually don’t want to see him preside the UNESCO. ;)
4 comments:
I don't see why the Israeli response is childish or pathetic.
Egypt has a peace agreement with Israel for over 30 years but is still playing the double game of reaping the benefits of the peace agreement (US aid, economic ties, etc') while still acting as if the war is on most other levels. The fact it’s 'just for internal politics' is no excuse.
How would Egypt respond if an Israeli minister (e.g., of tourism) would go mouthing off and suggesting Israel nuke Egypt to 'curve the Islamic threat'? I am sure you would make a fuss, even though 'its just the minister of tourism mouthing off'.
BTW, the Palestinians have always acted the same way, especially Yasser Arafat, who would speak peace in English but war in Arabic.
A government minister speaking to Egypt’s parliament members is not un-official ‘salon talk’. The fact he may or may not be a jerk is no excuse - come on, most politicians are jerks! Appeasing Islamic parliament members is no excuse either - I don’t see you excusing the Israeli government because it might be trying and appease the extreme-right wing?
How can you complain of Israel being Hypocritical in its declarations on peace with the Palestinians when you justify essentially the same behavior from the other side?
Hmmm...
One point first - I agree that Egypt is playing the ''half-peace' game, being friendly under the table while quite the opposite out in the open.
This said, the purpose of the peace agreement was to essentially guarantee Egypt's military neutrality vis-a-vis the rest of the Israeli-Arab conflict; in this respect, I don't think we can argue that the peace agreement has achieved its purpose.
Surely worth a much longer discussion, though.
For the rest -- you have a point. I concede. Since I do bitch a lot when one of your ministers says something stupid (remember when Vilnai threatened the Palestinians with a Shoah? Oh, that was fun..) so, yes. What Hosni did was inexcusable and it's only fair game that he get heavily criticised for it.
Happy? :-)
But honestly,the wording used was rather petty, no? And, issuing a loud condemnation statement is one thing, trying to torpedo the man's career is, hmm, not the most honourable way of playing politics, I think..
(then again --- feel free to torpedo his career as much as you want. :)
Mohamed;
As for our ministers - I concur completely. Quite a few have them have said stupid stuff which I am sure (or hope) they regretted as the words came out of their mouth (the Shoah remark, the remark about gays being responsible for earth-quakes, etc'). I don’t have to tell you they do not necessarily reflect Israel or Israeli public opinion.
As for playing honorable politics...aren’t those contradicting terms?
At least in this case, I think that Israel has every right to demand Farouk’s head - at least where the UNESCO job is concerned. I mean, UN officials are supposed to be un-biased and so on. One of the main reasons Israeli people sneer at the UN is wanabee-officials like Farouk - who don’t even bother to hide their bias and racism.
I mean, what good is a UN official who probably will not even get allowed into Israel for those remarks, let alone have some influence?
M, why don't you like F.H.? L.
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