During the second half of Ramadan, a number of television stations, including Egyptian stations, will be screening the thirty-part series "Horseman Without a Horse," starring the well-known Egyptian actor Muhammad Subhi and a castof 400 others from Egypt, Syria, and France. The series, whose budget ran six to eight million Egyptian pounds, wasproduced by Arab Radio and Television (ART), established in 1993, which broadcasts to the Middle East, NorthAmerica, Latin America, Australia, and Africa.[1]
In a report on the series, the Egyptian weekly Roz Al-Youssuf[2] described it as the "first of its kind" – bothartistically, as it is the first time a single actor plays 14 different characters, and in the way in which it deals with theissues it raises. The following are excerpts from a report on the series:
"For the first time, the series' writer courageously tackles the 24 Protocols of the Elders of Zion, revealing them and clarifying that they are the central line that still, to this very day, dominates Israel's policy, political aspirations, and racism… The series' first scene is set in 1948, after the retreat of the four Arab armies and the Zionist invasion of the land of Palestine. From this point, there is a flashback to the mid-19th century."
The newspaper states that the idea of exposing the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in a drama series took shape in Subhi's mind as the result of two events. The first of these was the "London Convention" [sic], which he considered the greatest single calamity ever to affect the Arab region. This agreement, Subhi claimed, was the work of three Zionist rabbis, promoters of the Zionist idea, who concocted an elaborate plot according to which Palestine would be annexed to Egypt, and Britain would subsequently conquer Egypt and hand Palestine over to the Zionists
Subhi stated that this is what sparked his desire to investigate the Zionist idea, which existed years before the "London Convention," but emerged only at the first Zionist conference in Basle Switzerland, at which the Jews began to appear as a Zionist organization; previously, they had been active only in associations and large institutions throughout the world.
Also motivating him, he said, was a book by the Egyptian author Abbas Mahmoud Al-'Aqqad on the Zionist movement. Al-'Aqqad said that, "[In order to examine] whether the Protocols of the Elders of Zion are an invention – as [the Jews] claim – all we have to do is to trace the [implementation of the] 24 protocols; if we find that some of them have come to pass, we must expect that the rest also will." Subhi followed Al-'Aqqad's advice, and found that 19 of the 24 protocols had [already] been put into practice. "By means of the series," Subhi adds, "I am exposing all the Protocols of the Elders of Zion that have been implemented to date, in a dramatic, comic, historic, national, tragic, and romantic manner."
The weekly also offered quotes from the Protocols that the series addresses: "We will act to establish a state to be a superpower that will rule the world"; "[When we rule the world], we will damage its morality with pornography, prostitution, and drugs, and we will corrupt the world of the Gentiles"; "We must choose someone corrupt [for the presidency of the superpower] and when he resists us - we will expose him." In this context, Subhi noted, "We all remember what happened to President Clinton and to other presidents throughout history."
The series will also reveal "advice" reportedly taken from the Protocols, such as: "Feed a dog, [but] not a Muslim or a Christian" and "Kill a Muslim or a Christian and take his house as your house and his lands as your lands." He also raises such questions as, "How can a country like America collaborate with the Jews when it is familiar with the Protocols' directives against it [America]?"
