The guy on the left is the head of Mossad, Meir Dagan. Regard him well, he is responsible for the death of an unfortunate German tourist because he enduced a White Tip reef shark to attack her.
Now, I do not want to trivialise the death of this tourist; it was truly horrendous. However, according to sources inside Egypt, it was all part of a Mossad plot to ruin the Egyptian tourist industry.
Honest Reporting set the scene:
Conspiracy theories about Israel and the Jews are common fare in the Middle East and disseminated widely in the Arab media. From accusations that the Jews were responsible for the 9/11 terror attacks to classic anti-Semitic blood libels, the Western mainstream media have failed to report on this as an issue of Arab incitement.
Yes indeed, and it is Mossad with its global reach that is determined to undermine the Egyptian tourist industry with its usual clever tricks. It does not have any other fish to fry, it decided that to put an agent in a fish suit just would not cut it; it trained an ocean-going shark to operate in shallow water with the express purpose of causing a ‘Jaws’ effect and clearing the beaches of Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt’s premier Red Sea resort.
Honest Reporting cites The Scotsman’s apparent gullibility in going along with the story with its headline: ‘Egypt Refuses to Rule Out Mossad Plot Link to Deadly Shark Attack’ implying that the ludicrous story might be true.
The BBC is not much better: ‘Shark attacks not linked to Mossad says Israel’. Well that’s a relief.
So what’s behind it? Again the BBC:
The reports – apparently quoting the South Sinai governor – have been picked up by the Israeli media…
Rumours had circulated in Egypt that there could be an Israeli connection to this unusual spate of Red Sea shark attacks.
However, it was comments attributed to the South Sinai governor, Mohamed Abdul Fadil Shousha, carried on an official Egyptian news site that drew attention.
“What is being said about the Mossad throwing the deadly shark [in the sea] to hit tourism in Egypt is not out of the question, but it needs time to confirm,” he is reported to have said.
I am sure the governor is at this very moment seeking confirmation, but from whom about what remains a mystery.
Ami Isseroff in Zionism-Israel.com has his own take on the story:
In the context of historical anti-Semitism, the view that Jews are at fault for everything is hardly new. In the Middle East, the conflict with tiny Israel (population less than 8 million) is routinely blamed for Arab underdevelopment and the misery of hundreds of millions of people. This view is not confined to kooks and krazies only. It is touted by respected analysts in the west and enshrined in U.N.reports.
But there is at least one sensible voice coming out of Egypt as reported in Israel: Daily Alert
Mahmoud Hanafy, a professor of marine biology at the Suez Canal University, said it is “sad” that Egyptian national TV helped perpetuate the theory that last week’s shark attacks at Sharm el-Sheikh were part of an Israeli conspiracy. On Sunday, Gen. Abdel-Fadeel Shosha, the governor of South Sinai, phoned a TV program to say that it is possible that Israeli intelligence was behind the incidents.
Hanafy said the Oceanic White Tip shark, blamed for the attacks, does indeed exist in Egypt’s waters. He added, “It is sad that they made a person whose only knowledge of sharks comes from the movie “Jaws” go on national TV to propagate this mumbo-jumbo.” ((Yasmine Fathi – Al-Ahram-Egypt))
‘Sad’ indeed that such ridiculous stories can still gain purchase in some circles where Jews/Israel are to blame for anything negative.
Barry Shaw has privately requested me to remind the Egyptians that if Israel cannot control a forest fire they are more likely to have dropped goldfish in the Red Sea. Of course, Barry, they would have to train them not to swim into Israeli waters to attack Israelis or tourists in just the same way that they trained the Sharm sharks to remain in Egyptian waters.