Revolution In Mideast Culture As Some Consider Suggesting Jews Only Root Of Some Evil

Ramadan TV series, often fertile ground for antisemitic programs, have cut back on Jews as satanic monsters, depicting them more often now as satanic humans.

Riyadh, April 13 – Shifting geopolitical circumstances have prompted unmistakable changes in the Levant and the Persian Gulf region: the rising threat from Iran’s malign hegemonic ambitions has forced former enemies of Israel to reconcile to varying degrees with the Jewish State, a transition that has brought with it a softening in official antipathy to Jews in general, also to varying degrees in different countries – to the point that formerly-vehement antisemites now espouse an altered worldview that sees Israel’s majority demographic not as the source of every negative phenomenon in the human experience, but merely as the source of several such phenomena.

The need for collective safety in the face of Tehran’s sponsorship of terrorism against others’ interests in the Middle East has made once-strange bedfellows of Arab Muslim countries and Israel, the majority of which until recently had denied the legitimacy of a Jewish state on what many consider “Islamic” land. Cultural transformation of this sort has taken place most quickly in the United Arab Emirates, where the government now welcomes trade, cultural exchange, and full diplomatic relations with Israel despite continued concerns over treatment of Palestinians. Erosion of public, popular support for the Palestinian cause occurs as Palestinian leaders maintain vocal allegiance to Iran, but also because various governments in the region recognize the economic and security benefits of ties with Israel, a regional power with technological and commercial prowess that its neighbors deem more valuable than lip service to a lost irredentist cause. Thus, Ramadan TV series, often fertile ground for antisemitic programs, have cut back on Jews as satanic monsters, depicting them more often now as satanic humans.

“It’s certainly true here in Egypt,” acknowledged Aziz Suleiman, a commentator on cultural issues. “It was the government that signed the Camp David Accords more than forty years ago, not the people; Jew-hate still has a secure place in our Weltanschauung. But we’ve gradually come to see on which side on which side our pita is hummused, so we’ve toned down the Jews-are-the-devil assumptions. Now it’s a kinder set of prejudices, such as Jews only like money, Jews control world finance, and Jews think they’re superior to everyone else. You can feel the shift in the airwaves, if not in the air per se.”

Courageous independent thinkers in the region have long advocated for better relations with Israel and an abandonment of antisemitic mores, but only now have governments gotten behind the cultural shift, not just the senior diplomatic one. Experts predict that within a decade, some in the region will see Jews as almost human.

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