Those Evil Zionists
We've all heard of the evils of the worldwide Zionist conspiracy. Whether it's illegal organ trafficking, poisoning wells, instigating unrest in
Iran, the credit crunch, climate change or stirring up trouble in Africa, you can bet your bottom dollar that somewhere, someone will believe that the
hidden hand of Zionism is at work behind the scenes.
Iraq and Afghanistan? Nothing to do with oil, WMD, or 9/11. It's all about the Zionists and their crazy NWO agenda.
Iran / Iraq war? 8 years of senseless violence between a crazed murderous dictator and a religious nut job? Wrong - it was the Zionists!
Gang violence? Urban poverty? Religious intolerance? Government corruption? Waste? War? Famine? Disease? Swine Flu? There's a very simple cure to all
these human failings -
Blame the Joos! Then it ceases to be
your problem and becomes
their problem. Genius!
So now we have the latest act of deplorable evil which bears all the hallmarks of the Zionists - football violence! Now I always thought that this
phenomenon was the result of an incendiary cocktail of angry young men, tribalism, testosterone and (sometimes) alcohol - but no! It turns out I was
wrong all along. In fact football violence is also the Joos' fault. Who'd of thunk it?
World Cup
In the build up to the world cup qualifier between Algeria and Egypt everyone could smell trouble. Everyone knew it was going to kick off. The local
media made sure of it with seditious and agitating headlines.
Sure enough, when the match took place it turned nasty. The Algerian team bus came under attack from 200 angry stone-throwing Egyptian youths in
Cairo. After the match 32 people were hurt in violent attacks, and Egyptian business in Algiers were pillaged.
Press alarm at Egypt-Algeria football violence
Verbal war over Egypt-Algeria tie
Algeria footballers hurt in Cairo
Reading through these pages it seems like a clear cut case of nationalism and intolerance gone mad. But now the dust has settled and people have had a
chance to think about, it's clear who was behind this violence. It couldn't possibly be the fault of the Algerians. Or the Egyptians. Or the media.
There was only one possible explanation - the Zionists were behind it! In fact, in the mind of the Egyptian ambassador Ahmad Al-Ghamrawi it goes
further even that than - football itself is a Zionist conspiracy to keep Arabs fighting each other!
Ahmad Al-Ghamrawi blames Zionism for all the problems in the Arab world
Now sarcasm and irony aside, I do find this a disturbing mindset. He mentions that Europe is becoming more united, and even Africa appears to be on
the road to political unity (really? Under Ghadaffi?), and yet the "Arab world" remains divided and locked in internal struggle. This is a valid
observation, and one can understand the sense of frustration - although he should also remember that European "unity" has only come about after
centuries of warfare and slaughter on an industrial scale. But instead of looking at the root causes of this problem he lays the blame firmly at the
feet of Zionism, the US and the West.
One hopes that the average person on the street watching this would think he's a crack pot. But I suspect that this is a fairly mainstream view in
those parts of the world, and will become a rallying cry in years to come.