Tuesday, February 15, 2011


 
Returning To Egypt
February 13, 2010

It might seem most strange that anyone knowing Jewish History with the exodus from Egypt thousands of years ago would consider the idea that Jews should return to the land of the Pharos. After all didn’t they have enough misery and suffering there? There were actually two exodus’s from Egypt. The first led by Moses. The second exodus, with no distinct leader in 1952, when Nasser decided to seize all Jewish property (sounds like Nazi Germany, or Spain in 1492) and who expelled all Jews. Businessmen,
lawyers, doctors, and merchants of all sorts. To be fair it wasn’t only Jews that experienced the appropriation of their wealth, but Armenians, Greeks, and a list of ethnically diverse entrepreneurs and professionals that made the economy of Egypt hum. All expelled under the banner “Egypt For Egyptians” even though many of the oppressed had been loyal and abiding citizens contributing to the economic wealth of the country sometimes for centuries. My family actually lived in Alexandria so I claim to have some Egyptian blood in me.  Like Spain who pulled the same trick to wipe out the debts the royalty had in one quick swoop, and whose economy started downhill as a result that lasted for over five hundred years, Nasser’s Egypt did the same, and lo and behold for the past sixty years Egypt is still one of the most impoverished countries in the world. The story of Joseph and his management skills comes to the fore. Egypt needs a Joseph today more than ever.

So here is my advice to the new revolutionary pro-democratic movement. Invite the Jews back, and you will become a mighty nation again. Repatriate and re-compensate those whose property and businesses were seized. Allow for tax abatements and holidays for those opening new businesses and factories. Instead of the cry “Let My People Go”, the cry should be, “Come Jewish People and help Egypt and the Egyptian people in their hour of need. Build, develop, inspire, teach and really restore a dormant association with Egypt not seen since the days of Maimonides, one of the greatest physicians and scholars of all times. This could be the real beginning between Jews, and Muslims, and Copts, for a greater more prosperous Egypt.




Long live this relationship and let it begin now. Oh, and don’t forget that if it works in Egypt those 800,000 Jews expelled from Arab Lands after 1948 do the same. Invite them back. Repatriation, and re-compensation for their losses. After all Jews are harbingers and stimulators of creativity, science, medicine, and ethics. All the Arab countries would do just fine if they did the same, and they too and their hungry populations would prosper. This is the way to bring peace and understanding amongst peoples to the Middle-east. “Turn your swords into plough shears” for the earth doesn’t need any more guns. It needs food to feed the hungry and starving. It needs work at a decent wage to satisfy the soul. For what is a man if has no work. Make Allah and Adonai the same, One God, One People.

If this “Finding The Truth appeals to your sense of action needed, contact me because I am forming a group to help Egypt and need your support. Email me at Ira.a.feinberg@gmail.com and I will be there to work with you.