The Curious Farouk Hosny Affair: The Painter, the Preachers & the Politicians

 Why is the nomination of Egyptian culture minister Farouk Hosny to become UNESCO secretary general so important to the Egyptian regime? And why is hard-line Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu indirectly helping Hosny get the post, despite Hosny's knack for anti-Israel statements? Let's call it a case of politics trumping principles in the Middle East--despite all the lofty ideological rhetoric you hear from this part of the world, it happens more than you think.

 Claude Lanzmann,
 Bernard-Henri Lévy 
and Elie Wiesel, three widely esteemed Jewish intellectuals, have written a powerful denunciation of Hosny's candidacy in Le Monde. “Mr. Farouk Hosny is not worthy of this role,” they wrote. “Mr. Farouk Hosny is the opposite of a man of peace, dialogue, and culture. Mr. Farouk Hosny is a dangerous man, an inciter of hearts and minds.”

For their evidence, the writers cite such comments against Israel and Jews widely attributed to Hosny:

--“Israel has never contributed to Civilization in any era, for it has only ever appropriated the contributions of others. The Israeli culture is an inhumane culture; it is an aggressive, racist, pretentious culture based on one simple principle: steal what does not belong to in order to then claim its appropriation.”

--Hosny's boast that he is the “archenemy” of all attempts to normalize Egypt's relations with Israel.

--Hosny's response to a parliamentary question about Israeli books in Egyptian libraries: “Burn these books. If there are any there, I will myself burn them in front of you.”

 Yes, it is hard to imagine how an official who advocates book burning would be a suitable candidate for “one of the most important posts of cultural responsibility on the planet,” as the three protesters put it.  Hosny himself realizes the absurdity of that, too. He apologized in a self-defense Op-Ed penned for Le Monde this week, saying he was terribly misunderstood. “I want to solemnly say that I regret the words that I used. I am a man of peace. I know that peace passes by understanding and respect. In the name of these values I want to go back on the words that I used in May 2008, which were taken as an appeal to burn Hebrew books. These words shocked some and I understand that.” The truth Hosny said, is that he abhors “racism, negating others or any move to harm Jewish culture or any culture.”

 Hosny, an accomplished painter and a government minister for two decades, is an engaging man who has made a habit of getting himself into trouble with provocative statements. He has long been one of the more open, if loose-lipped, officials in a regime infamous for its lack of transparency. He regularly causes uproars for espousing views deemed too liberal for Egypt, like when he criticized women wearing the Islamic headscarf for being “backward.” Blamed for a fire that killed 48 spectators at an Egyptian playhouse, he tendered his resignation with much media fanfare, only to have it rejected with more fanfare.  His comment about burning books was made in response to complaints by members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the main opposition force to the secular Egyptian regime. Most recently, Hosny was under attack for his part in a rare Egyptian reach-out to Israel—for inviting Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim to perform with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra.

 Yet, being a colorful personality is no excuse for Hosny's reckless “hyperbole,” as he calls it. In fact, he has been a leading figure in an Egyptian cultural establishment that has been consistently hostile not only to Israel—anyway, that can be politics—but offensively and unforgivably to Jews as people. One would have thought that such a bitter condemnation from the likes of Lanzmann, Lévy
 and Wiesel would have been enough to sink Hosny's nomination. But curiously, Israel's government, which had been campaigning against Hosny's selection long before the Le Monde attack appeared, has apparently dropped its fierce opposition to his candidacy.

 According to Ha'aretz, during a May 11 meeting with PM Benjamin Netanyahu, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak asked Netanyahu to lift Israel's opposition to Hosny getting the job. And as part of a secret agreement, the newspaper added, citing a “senior source in the prime minister's office,” Netanyahu promised he would do so. The paper quoted the source saying that Mubarak gave Israel something “substantive and worthwhile” in return. He apparently wouldn't say what.

 But as proof of the deal, Ha'aretz quoted a classified cable sent by the Israeli foreign ministry to several Israel delegations that had been waging the campaign against Hosny:

 “Following Prime Minister Netanyahu's visit to Egypt, and at the request of President Mubarak and in line with understandings with Egypt, Israel has decided to lift its objections to the appointment of Farouk Hosny to the post of UNESCO secretary-general, changing our position to not-opposed.”

 The deadline for UNESCO nominations is Sunday, but the election won't be held until October. Obviously, the last lines in the drama are still to be written.

 --By Scott MacLeod/Cairo