Candid Camera In Egypt

Hot Air posted a video yesterday of a candid-camera-type show in Egypt. The video has been taken down supposedly due to copyright infringements. The ‘joke’ of the program was that the people who were being interviewed were told halfway through the interview that they were being interviewed by an Israeli television station. In the three instances shown, the interviewees then  physically attacked either the person interviewing them or a member of the stage crew. The interviewees only calmed down after being assured that no one of the set was Jewish. What does this tell you about the chances for peace in the Middle East?

The article at Hot Air quotes an article by Jonathan Tobin via MEMRI TV:

Viewing the invective about Jews and Israel being spewed on the show by three apparently prominent members of the Egyptian arts community is damning by itself. It says a lot that the show’s producers thought one of the most outrageous things they could do to Egyptians was to trick them into sitting down with Jews. Nor is it surprising that the response generated hate speech about the character of the Jewish people and the authenticity of the Holocaust.

But the punch lines of each segment in which the subjects are informed they are on a candid camera show, which was required in two cases to avert more violence if not bloodshed, is also illustrative. There were no reproaches from the hosts for the violent behavior that followed when the guests were told they were on Israeli TV. It was only when they were pretending to be Israelis that they tried to push back against the slanders. Once they were back in their own identities, all was forgiven. The host only had praise for her dupes — even the one who slugged her — for demonstrating what she described as “patriotism” by their anger about being set up to talk with Jews.

Racism and bigotry are not the path to peace.