Jihad Al-Khazen: Cutting military aid from Egypt is an iniquity

CAIRO – 7 September 2017: Lebanese columnist Jihad Al-Khazen wrote an article on Thursday for Al Hayah newspaper criticizing The Washington Post‘s media coverage of the American decision to cut aid to Egypt.

He noted the headlines published by the newspaper, the first titled, “Trump has sent the right signal to Egypt, but there’s more he needs to do,” was published on August 23. The second is, “The decision to cut aid to Egypt was historic—Now the hard work begins”, an opinion piece penned by Jared Genser on August 24.

Although the newspaper presents truthful stories and professional commentary, says Al-Khazen, it is problematic given its blind support for Israel. “Israel killed tens of thousands of Palestinians—terrorist Benjamin Netanyahu still does. His war on Gaza strip during summer 2014 killed 2,200 Palestinians, including 518 children. Till now, we listen from time to time to news about young Palestinians who are killed, and their fault is fighting those who occupied their lands,” Al-Ghazen said.

In his view, members of the U.S. Congress receive grants from the Jewish lobby and other Likud groups to back Israel’s interests.



On the other hand, he says the American decision to cut military aid to Egypt on claims of the latter’s disrespect for human rights and democracy, is unjust. This is particularly in light of Egypt’s war on terror from the Delta to the Sinai Peninsula, where soldiers and civilians are killed.

How does The Washington Post justify the American decision against Egypt, he asks, when Sisi has used military helicopters to track down radical Islamists in Sinai and issued a law to organize the work of non-profit organizations?

“I stand with Sisi... He is heading a country with limited natural sources, a population of about one hundred million, and insufficient agriculture areas. But, this will change after gas production from the new Zohr field in Mediterranean Sea starts,” writes Al-Ghazen. He ends by stating that some members of intellectual circles backing the aid cuts would go as far as support Muslim Brotherhood rule of Egypt.

Jihad Al-Khazen received his BA in Political Science and MA in Arabic Literature from the American University of Beirut (AUB), after which he embarked on his Ph.D. at Georgetown University in the United States, but instead decided to move to London where he has lived since 1975. He has worked with Reuters news agency, and later became Editor-in-Chief of the English language newspaper, The Daily Star, based in Beirut, and Editor-in-Chief of the English language, Arab News Daily, published in Saudi Arabia. He was subsequently appointed as the first Editor-in-Chief for the London-based pan-Arab newspaper, Asharq Al-Awsat, and also served as Editor-in-Chief of the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper. He is now retired.