Fresh Air

Readers are probably aware of recent news from the Suez Canal, whereby the giant cargo ship Ever Given became stuck and blocked this vital maritime trade route between the Mediterranean and Asia for almost a week, before finally being freed a couple of days ago.

But did you know that this “accident” was nothing of the sort? The Ever Given got itself stuck deliberately, and this whole incident was actually the product of a massive international mega-plot to replace the Suez Canal with a new Israeli-controlled “Ben Gurion Canal” from the Mediterranean to the port of Eilat on the Red Sea!

At least, this is the claim published in Australia by an Arabic language news portal.

The Australian based portal in question is Farah News, a Sydney-based  website in Arabic notorious for promoting antisemitism and conspiracy theories largely republished from Middle Eastern sources. As my previous research for AIJAC has shown, the texts the editors of Farah News carefully select for republication include ones claiming, for example, that Israel is conspiring with world powers to control its region and created ISIS and instigated the 9/11 terror attacks, or that Jews originated from a Turkish tribe and are inherently corrupt and evil creatures.

Sargon: The “Ben Gurion” Canal conspiracy

Farah News’ item on the Suez Canal incident was an article by Naram Sargon, an Egyptian anti-Israeli and antisemitic publicist, originally posted on his blog.

Sargon has a history of antisemitic extremism. In December 2020, for example, Sargon posted on his blog “The end of Israel .. as expected by William Shakespeare”, wherein, referencing Shakespeare’s“The Merchant of Venice,” he described Jews as motivated by greed, killing Palestinians to take over more and more land. “[The Jew] would not accept less than a pound of the flesh of the Al-Aqsa Mosque to kill his Palestinian opponent and cut his flesh to death and kill everything that threatens his dream,” Sargon wrote.

In the Farah News piece published on March 29, titled “The Suicide Ship and the Assassination Attempt of the Suez Canal … the Nasserite Romance and the Sadat Dream,” Sargon asserts that the Ever Given was a “suicide ship […] to sabotage the idea of the Suez Canal.”

According to Sargon, the ship deliberately blocked the canal as part of a conspiracy masterminded by the Europeans and the US, with Israel also a vital player in this plot. The aim – to make an alternative trade route from Asia to Europe under Israeli control the most appealing option.

In the article, Sargon asserted that Israel is nothing more than a Western puppet that is “tied to the West and can only be in obedience to the West. Because it is in need of it … it is an advance outpost and guardians of the Jewish settlers whose fate is linked to a stroke of a pen from Europe… if Israel thinks about rebellion, the West will leave it to its fate in this enormous Arab sea… Israel will fall within five days if the West decides to leave it to its fate.”

Many other events in the Middle East, such as the wars in Iraq and Syria, the emergence of the terrorist organisation Islamic State and the Beirut port explosion of August 2020, were all stages in the evil mega-plot, Sargon claims. The same dark forces that dispatched the Ever Given to supposedly block the canal also “sent suicide bombers to Baghdad and Damascus and to the New York Towers [9/11] … and blew up [Lebanese PM Rafik] Hariri’s convoy [in 2005] … and blew up the Beirut port,” he says.

These many catastrophes were created by the plotters to block China’s Silk Road trade route through the region, “for the sake of not killing the alternative Israeli canal, which is being prepared with the Saudi project of [building a futuristic city at] Neom, which has no reason to be built except that it serves some Israeli project.”

Ultimately, Sargon says, the plan is that instability in the Middle East will lead countries around the world to conclude that “the only solution to trade in Asia and the West is through Israel” without interference from Arab nationalists. “So all international roads pass through Israel [including the] Haifa-Dubai overland road … and the Eilat-Mediterranean Canal. … and all these roads are in the hands of the West as long as Israel is there.”

Sargon finishes his piece with a long and detailed description of an alleged Israeli canal project, the “Ben Gurion Canal” from the Mediterranean to the port of Eilat on the Red Sea. In his imaginary multi-billion plan, Israel will be aided by US money and by Arab and Asian countries. It will “establish small cities, hotels, restaurants, and nightclubs on the canal” and even terminate the peace agreement with Cairo, if necessary.

In Sargon’s fantasy, Israel “will place spy devices in the depth of the canal… that detect weapons and produce laser images… for every ship that passes through the canal.”

Needless to say, Sargon’s plan does not exist, nor would such a project be politically or economically viable. It is true that alternatives (or supplemental routes) to the Suez Canal have been discussed for many years, including through Israel. While Sargon was echoing genuine Egyptian fears about such options damaging the canal trade monopoly  so vital to the Egyptian economy, at this stage, none of the relevant projects look viable.

Meanwhile, Sargon’s canal conspiracy theory is not the only recent example of extremism coming out of Farah News.

Al-Dawla: “cleanse” the Middle East of Israel

Muhammad Saif al-Dawla is an Egyptian opposition politician affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood and founder of “Egyptians against Zionism”. Al-Dawla’s previous contributions to Farah News included claiming that Jews are racist, promoting Holocaust denial and asserting that Israel is governed “by the laws of pirates and thieves, which stipulate the legitimacy of killing and looting others.”

In his latest Farah News article, appearing on March 27, “Camp David is a system of government, not a treaty,” al-Dawla asserts that the Israel-Egypt Camp David peace accord was an instrument to impose US and Israeli control over Egypt and its economy.

According to his “analysis”, establishing limits on the military presence in Sinai was meant to make sure Egypt “remains hostage to the continuous Israeli threats, in a way that represents the most powerful and effective tool of pressure and subjugation of any Egyptian will.”

Financial aid and trade with the US, awarded to Egypt following peace with Israel, is seen by al-Dawla as “Liquidating the national economy that supported the war effort during the war, and replacing it with US military aid of $ 1.3 billion aimed at consolidating American influence in Egypt and monopolising the majority of Egyptian armaments and controlling the balance of power in favour of (Israel).”

The agreement, concludes al-Dawla, was designed to “establish a new political system of government whose top priorities are protecting the security of (Israel) and preserving the interests of the United States of America”, which “monopolises and controls foreign and local capital over the country’s capabilities and wealth.”

The solution to this historical injustice, says al-Dawla, is cancellation of the peace accords and “the liberation of the entire occupied land and the cleansing of the entire region of this entity called Israel.”

He finishes his article bypraising the mob who stormed the Israeli embassy in Cairo in 2011, labelling them “an example” to follow.

Dr. Ran Porat is an AIJAC Research Associate. He is also a Research Associate at the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation at Monash University, a Research Fellow at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism at the Interdisciplinary Centre in Herzliya and a Research Associate at the Future Directions International Research Institute, Western Australia.

Photo: Wikipedia Commons