The United States has quietly threatened to turn an
Egyptian television series into a new dispute between the two allies.
Bush administration officials and congressional leaders said a
television series based on the anti-Semitic "Protocols of Zion" has become a
leading issue between Cairo and Washington. At least 26 members of Congress
have appealed to Egypt to halt the series.
"We have expressed our concerns to the Egyptian government directly
about what we've heard about this program," State Department spokesman
Richard Boucher said. "At this point I'm sure we'll be watching very, very
closely and raising these issues, as appropriate, depending on what actually
airs.
Boucher said the Egyptian government must be responsible for the
contents of its state-owned television. The series is meant to have 41
episodes.
"Anything that appears to give legitimacy to something that's so odious,
that's so insulting, and so thoroughly discredited, we don't think is good
and useful, particularly in the part of the world where some of these things
can be inflammatory and some of these things, you know, can contribute to an
environment that we think is dangerous for all of us," Boucher said.
So far, Egypt has rejected the U.S. appeals. Egyptian Information
Minister Safwat Sherif reached his decision after viewing all the
objectionable episodes.
"The dramatic views expressed by the series contain nothing that can be
considered anti-Semitic," Sherif said.
Officials said the series is fiction and represents the nation's
provisions for artistic freedom. They said a range of countries, including
Morocco, will also air the series.
The series begins with the Israeli war of independence in 1948 and the
flight of hundreds of thousands of Arabs from the British mandate of
Palestine. The narrator traces the Arab defeat in the war to 1855 and a plot
by Jews to take over the world and expel the Arabs from their land.