Some everyday antisemitism in Egypt's venerable Al Ahram newspaper ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Tuesday, July 21, 2026

Some everyday antisemitism in Egypt's venerable Al Ahram newspaper

Ashraf Abdel Moneim writes in Al Ahram that Israel is trying to characterize the seven front war it is in as a religious war.

He quotes Netanyahu from October 7, 2023 saying that Israel is in a war. Specifically, he said, "Citizens of Israel, we are at war. Not in an operation, not in rounds of fighting—we are at war."

Somehow, Moneim then goes on a lengthy description of the halachic differences between a religiously obligational war and a discretionary war, claiming that Israel is falsely positioning the wars in Gaza, Lebanon, Iran and elsewhere as obligatory. But Netanyahu never used that terminology - this idea is simply made up.

It is the last paragraph that shows that this is not meant to be a sober analysis of how Jewish Israelis view war.

Numerous arguments and sophistries force us into a contemporary reality with a people who never tire of invoking the tricks of their forefathers—the Sabbath-breakers. These were the people whom God forbade fishing on the Sabbath, yet they resorted to a superficial trick: they set their nets on Friday to trap the fish, then proceeded to catch them on Sunday—thinking they had deceived God and circumvented His purpose. But this trait seems deeply ingrained in them; the text forbids them from waging an expansionist war except under strict conditions and in purely defensive circumstances. So they manipulate the situation by fabricating an existential threat, then play with terminology, oscillating between a "religious war" and an "expansionist war," thus fulfilling the condition formally and legally... to benefit from its advantages!

The Sabbath-breaker story is in the Quran and elaborated in hadiths. It is about a community of Jews who lived by the sea but Allah tested them by having the fish only appear on the Sabbath when fishing is not allowed. Some of the Jewish fishermen defied Allah and set traps on Friday to catch the fish on the Sabbath, ignoring warnings from others in the community. Eventually, Allah lost patience and turned them (and those who did not object) into monkeys.

Moneim is comparing Netanyahu's fictional use of the words "obligatory war" for a war of expansion as a modern way that Jews try to violate God's commandments.

The irony is that Moneim is wrong about the Sabbath and wrong about the war.

There is nothing that stops a Jew from setting a trap before the Sabbath to catch animals and collect them afterwards. This is explicit in the Mishnah; the only disagreement is whether the traps should be set early enough to theoretically catch animals before the Sabbath (Beit Shammai) or can be placed immediately beforehand (Beit Hillel and normative halacha.) The authors of the Quran seem to have been familiar with Talmudic sources, so they should have known this — they may have made up the halacha to illustrate the made-up story, which exists nowhere but the Quran.

And attacking an enemy that not only attacked you first, but has stated its intent to continue to do so, is without a doubt an obligatory defensive war under halacha, even though Netanyahu did not use that language.

The lesson? Don't trust antisemitic Muslim scholars to define Jewish law (or history) for you.

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