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During a recent TV show, Lebanese presenter Tony Khalifa challenged the conspiracy theories cited by Egyptian author Amr Ammar, his guest on the Egyptian Al-Kahera Wal-Nas TV channel. Of course the rival team celebrates when one of your players accidentally scores an own goal, but that does not mean that the other team bribed him to do so, said Khalifa.
Following are excerpts from the show, which aired on March 10, 2014:
Egyptian Author Amr Ammar: Why has "civil occupation" become the alternative to military intervention? Because when the U.S. withdrew from Iraq, it incurred losses of billions of dollars, its economy collapsed, and it lost its credibility in the entire international community. Therefore, its strategic tactics of partitioning have shifted from military intervention to civil occupation. How are you to spur the peoples, who suffer from this, that, and the other to take to the streets of the countries that underwent the Hebrew spring revolutions?
Lebanese TV Presenter Tony Khalifa: That's a nice play on words, but the reality is different.
Amr Ammar: If you're talking about reality, look how all the Arab armies fell apart. I'm not talking in slogans. If you judge things from a patriotic Arab perspective – according to the Egyptian, Lebanese, Syrian, and Libyan conscience – you will see that all the Arab armies were dismantled for the sake of Israel's security. That was the first achievement of the Hebrew Spring revolutions.
Look how war was ignited between the Sunnis and Shiites in the region, and how the region became a trading ground for weapons in exchange for oil. This is the second strategic goal of the U.S. in its partitioning designs. Look how the flow of energy is being prevented…
Tony Khalifa: Let me ask you a question. What danger did the Tunisian army or the Libyan army pose to Israel? Throughout the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict, where have we ever seen these armies pose any danger whatsoever? Even the Syrian army has not fired a single bullet since the 1973 war. For some 41 years, it has not fired a bullet from the Golan Heights toward Israel.
Amr Ammar: Right.
Tony Khalifa: These are just slogans – "the armies were dismantled," and so on. It appears to be realistic, but… Were the millions who took to the streets from the January 25 revolution onward driven to do so by the Americans and the Israelis?
Amr Ammar: These are two different questions. With regard to the first, about the slogans on the dismantling of the Arab armies, let me refer you to the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies. They issued a report last month in which they celebrate the collapse of all the armies in the region except the Egyptian army. That's my response to your first question, without going into details.
The Jews are celebrating. You may call it slogans, but the Jews are celebrating. They are very happy that these armies have been dismantled. This means that these armies have terrified the Israeli army.
Tony Khalifa: This is an achievement and victory for them, but it doesn't necessarily mean that they were behind it. It happened. It's like when you accidentally score an own goal in a football match. Of course the rival team celebrates because you scored an own goal. But that doesn’t mean that the other team bribed one of your players to score it. We constantly believe in conspiracy theories against us.
In order to avoid blaming ourselves, in order to avoid revealing the truth about what we think and in order to justify our mistakes, we take refuge in conspiracies. We may have made a mistake here, and there may have been some mistake in the January 25 revolution – maybe or maybe not – but instead of admitting a mistake, we choose to believe in a conspiracy. The Americans did this, the Israelis did that, the I-don't-know-who… Why don't we get a reality check?
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