I think the Arab 'spring' in Egypt recoiled this week. I am afraid it is about to snap.
 

A mad group of protesters stormed the Israeli embassy in Cairo this past Friday night. They called for the blood of all Israelis and they chose to begin with those living in Egypt. This comes just days after a recent poll showed that more than 2/3 of all Egyptian have no interest in keeping the Camp David peace accords with Israel. They would rather go back to war and forsake the more than $1 billion in foreign aid they maintain from keeping their agreement. Ironically, as a whole, none of their anger at Israel has anything to do with the defense or sympathy for the Palestinians. Rather, it is unabashed hatred for Israel and Jews. Pure, old fashioned anti-Semitism.
 

You might be asking yourself what I am asking myself: Why? What has Israel done to Egypt? What role did we have in their uprising and ousting of Mubarak and their change from dictatorship to democracy?
I do not have an answer. Do you?
 

In simplest terms, I see the brief history of the past 9 months with Egypt as follows:
Egypt is suffering from poverty, unemployment and poor living conditions. They call for a regime change to make their lives better. Demonstrations in Tahrir Square demand for Hosni Mubarak, leader of Egypt, to step down from power. People feel he is the root cause of their suffering and instability. Mubarak is forced to leave. Poverty, hunger and unemployment continue. Egyptians are still hungry and poor. They blame the Jews. They storm the Israeli embassy in Cairo.
 

I am not a historian but I feel this is an accurate understanding of the situation because it  is the exact paradigm that has put the Jewish people in harm's way for thousands of years. We are the world's scape-goat. We are people's reason for suffering and bad. Frankly, that thinking is idiotic. And that is the reason why education is the best antidote to anti-Semitism. Education slowly cures most viral cases of hatred and bigotry.
 

Ironically, about 4 weeks ago, angry Egyptians called for a 1 million-man march on the Israeli embassy in Cairo to protest Israel's existence. About 1,000 people showed. When asked why so few turned out, an unnamed Egyptian man said, "Israel is not the cause of our problems. Israel is the mirror of success in the Middle East that continually reflects back on us of what we can be with determination, will power and understanding. The frustration is not in Israel's success and productivity - it is on our lack of success and productivity. That is where the anger of these thousand men comes from. That is why more are not here. It has nothing to do with Israel and everything to do with us [the Egyptians]." This has been the case for ages.
 

I believe it is as simple as that. Professors might complicate it with details, and historians with facts from the time of the Pyramids but, it all boils down to un-channeled frustration and anger at one's self and not at the other. Isn't much anger, hatred and resentment based on the same?
 

21 years ago this week on the Jewish calendar, I went to Israel for the first time. The portion we read then, and now, Ki Tavo, gives us an accounting and to-do list of how we should prepare ourselves to enter the Promised Land. The thinking behind that to-do list was the very same reasoning that gave Herzl his blue print for our homeland and enabled the likes of David Ben Gurion, Golda Meir, Jabotinsky and Rabin -  in collaboration with many others - to build a land flowing with Milk and Honey - an oasis in the desert - a true Start Up Nation that has lived up to its prophesy; a Light unto Other Nations. Sadly, that light flickers as we were forced, like in the days of yore, to literally rescue the Embassy and Consulate officials in Cairo by airlift and with the intervention of the US Congress and President.
 

The optimist in most of us saw the Arab spring as a chance to reform the Middle East and its ways. Sadly, the realist in me is remembering the adage - "We can take the boy out of Brooklyn but, we cannot take the Brooklyn out of the boy."  Changing a culture, mindset and blame does not happen overnight. It takes time and patience - or else that spring will snap and recoil and any control of its reach and potential will be lost to aimlessness and frustration.
 

Shabbat Shalom
 

Rabbi David Seth Kirshner