Hebrew lessons by radio are nothing new in Israel, a country ever seeking to expand its Jewish population by absorbing new immigrants. But one of these “Let’s speak Hebrew” series has an unlikely source. The program is being broadcast from the television and radio building in Cairo, and among its listeners are Egyptian students of Hebrew language at Cairo University, Ein Shams and El-Azhar.
In existence since shortly after the Egyptian revolution of 1952 that subsequently brought Gamal Abdel Nasser to power, “Kol Kahir” — as the station is called — was established by the government with the express aim of broadcasting hostile information to the citizens of a state which it sought to destroy.
“In the past,” says Ahmed El-Himaly, the station’s manager,” we always tried to base the tone of our program on an assessment of the Israeli citizen — his mentality, his thoughts, his points of view and his opinions — in the light of the state of war between us, as a soldier, not as a person.”
Speaking in proficient though not entirely flawless Hebrew, El-Himaly recalled the early, days of Kol Kahir, which he has directed for well over 20 years. “From the very beginning, when we started to broadcast a special Hebrew program for the Israeli people, we had objectives that were one hundred percent psychological, dictated by the state of war that prevailed then.”
But El-Himaly maintains that even before the peace between Egypt and Israel, the belligerent tone of Kol Kahir did not discourage Israelis from listening. The station’s ratings reached a record high during the Yom Kippur War, when, he claims, one and a quarter million listeners kept their ears peeled to the radio for the regular announcements by Kol Kahir naming Israelis taken prisoner in the fighting. Today, El-Himaly speculates, the station enjoys no less than 60,000 regular listeners in Israel.
TONE OF PROGRAMS MODERATED
His assessment may be scoffed at by some Israelis, but it derives from a conviction that steps taken by the station back in 1973 to moderate the tone of its programs would inevitably increase the number of its listeners and expand its influence over public opinion.
“Since the outbreak of the October (Yom Kippur) war,” says El-Himaly, “we have adopted a very clear line. Following instructions from above… we decided that we must present the facts in their entirety, in order to influence public opinion throughout the world, Israel included. Accordingly, our reports became one hundred percent accurate and we started to speak in a very different tone; beginning in 1973, a dramatic and substantive change took place, not only in the texts of our news broadcasts and commentary, but in the musical programs that were added to them.
“We continued this way until the late President Sadat decided in November 1977 to visit Jerusalem. From the moment that the late President Sadat arrived at Ben Gurion Airport, we received instructions to change our line one hundred and eighty degrees — instead of war, peace; instead of hatred, friendship.”
Today a staff of some 90 Egyptians work at the station, churning out daily five-hour programs that include news in English, French and Russian as well as in Hebrew, commentary, a woman’s hour, a program for youth, history lessons on Egyptian civilization and regular lectures by El-Himaly on some aspect of Jewish life in the Arab world in the pre-Islamic and Islamic periods.
“I prepare special material on the ties that have existed between Jews and Arabs in Medina, Mecca and elsewhere,” El-Himaly explains, “to show how there has always been a near-complete bond between the two sides — the Jews and the Arabs … We enjoyed a genuine peace. So here we have a lesson from the past that we should learn now, as we bear in mind the future.”
SEES NO INCONGRUITY
El-Himaly’s unbounded optimism about the past and future of Jewish-Arab ties may seem almost anachronistic at a time when relations have soured between Egypt and the Jewish State and when the rest of the Egyptian media is regularly attacking Israel in a manner reminiscent of the Nasser period.
But he sees no incongruity in sounding his orations on the need to cultivate Israel-Egypt friendship amid the freeze in relations imposed by his government and preserved with a persistent chill from his colleagues in the press.
“I never quote from the Egyptian press,” he says emphatically.” We have a completely different line … Those who write for the press here are addressing the Egyptian masses — intellectuals and the less educated alike — as well as general Arab public opinion. And you could say their style is extremely biting, anti-Israel. This is clear.”
In contrast, says El-Hamaly, Kol Kahir avoids singling out individual Israeli officials for criticism or censuring Israel as a state, all the while maintaining “our full right to analyze objectively and comprehensively, the positions taken by Israeli leaders.”
Can a man who for nearly 20 years wielded the tongue of his enemy as a psychological weapon of war, feel entirely comfortable using it as a public relations tool for a nominally friendly state, with the declared aim of promoting friendship and understanding?
A REALITY BASED ON PEACE
“Public relations, first of all, is my job,” says El-Himaly. “And public relations always expresses the existing reality. In the past the reality was different; it rested on the continuation of the state of war. Today we have another reality, based on peace … This is the essential difference. In the past I attacked. Today I take an entirely different line.”
The turnabout was completed last spring when the Radio and Television Association of Egypt and the Israel Broadcasting Authority concluded a protocol of cooperation, just before the eruption of the war in Lebanon. The lessons in Hebrew, says El-Himaly, are provided by Israel within the fame work of the protocol, and the Director-General of Israel Radio has provided musical recordings as well — “another sign,” he says “of the new cooperation between us.”
But implementation of the protocol, for all practical purposes, has been frozen, together with the normalization of Egyptian-Israel relations in other areas. Still, El-Himaly, who has visited Israel a number of times, says he continues to receive occasional musical recordings from the Israeli Embassy in Cairo.
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