The extermination of Judaism in the Middle East is “the point of departure” of any processes for the “liberation” of the Arabs, Ashraf Ghorbal, the Egyptian Ambassador to the United States, declared in an interview with the editor of Marchar (To March), an extremist rightwing periodical published here, Editor Patricio Kelly reported in the interview in the March issue that Ghorbal described the boost in petroleum prices by the Arab oil countries as partly “a tactical weapon in the war against Judaism.”
Ghorbal described as “Irrevocable” the Arab decision “to put an end to Judaism, as our friends have already promised to do in the United States, in the Soviet Union, and such as Rega Lopez,” the Argentinian. “strong-man,” had “formulated” in Argentina. Judaism, Ghorbal said, is “the bridgehead” of “exploiting colonialism” which “must disappear. Today, tomorrow, it will disappear.”
He also warned that if the Western nations made a military attempt to take over the Arab oil fields, the Arabs would implement a scorched earth policy. He said “just as Judaism will be exterminated, so will be destroyed all our oil installations.” Kelly asked Ghorbal whether the Arab leaders and the Arab people supported such measures. Ghorbal replied that the Palestine Liberation Organization was “the guarantee that our decisions will be fulfilled to the last soldier,” including the destruction of everything “before the enemy succeeds in occupying the oil fields.”
INTERVIEW AS PROPAGANDA TOOL
(Commenting in Jerusalem on the interview, Yeddiyah Beeri, a Likud Knesset member, urged the Israeli Foreign Ministry to reprint and distribute millions of copies of the Ghorbal interview. Beeri said wide distribution of the Ghorbal interview would be an excellent propaganda tool to justify and explain Israel’s policies. Beeri said the interview would show the world that, according to a man who is one of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s principal advisors, the Arab-Israeli conflict is not over territories but over the very existence of Israel and the Jewish people. He also suggested that the interview be discussed at a Knesset session to determine an appropriate way for Israel to react to it.)
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
