Turkey-based TV airs Egypt tapes on Jerusalem

A Turkey-based TV station has released audio recordings it said were of an Egyptian intelligence officer asking influential hosts in Egypt to persuade their viewers to accept a US decision to recogniseJerusalem as Israel's capital.

The recordings in Arabic, aired by Mekameleen TV late on Sunday, were first reported on by the New York Times and appeared to contradict Egypt's public condemnation of the US move.

Mekameleen TV is an Istanbul-based free-to-air satellite television channel, run mostly by exiled Egyptians.

In the audio recordings, a man the Times identified as Captain Ashraf el-Kholi, tells the hosts that war with Israel was not in Egypt's national interest, and asked them to play down opposition to US President Donald Trump's move.

Egypt's State Information Service has denied the Times' January 6 report in a statement, saying its stance on Jerusalem remains unchanged.

Egypt's positions "are conveyed by the president, the foreign minister and in official statements", the statement said, adding that the Times does not provide evidence el-Kholi was an officer with the country's intelligence service.

A Palestinian official also dismissed the content of the recordings on Monday.

Qais Abdulkarim, a member of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation's executive committee, told Al Jazeera he believed Egypt continues to support the Palestinian cause.

He added, "I think the US is working intentionally to try to create an atmosphere which says that their move has been committed or taken with a tacit approval of certain Arab governments."

Egypt was among one of the first countries to criticise Trump's move, which prompted widespread international condemnation and deadly protests in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Cairo also submitted a resolution rejecting the move to the UN Security Council, but it was vetoed by the US.

The recordings released by Mekameleen, however, has cast doubt over Egypt's position.

'How is Jerusalem different from Ramallah?'
In a call with Saeed Hassaseen, a TV host and member of parliament, el-Kholi says he was laying out "the stance of Egypt's national security apparatus and what it stands to benefit from in this matter of announcing Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel".

"We like all our Arab brothers are denouncing this matter," el-Kholi continued. "After that, this thing will become a reality.

Likud calls for annexation of parts of West Bank
"Palestinians can't resist, and we don't want to go to war. We have enough on our plate as you know."

He went on to describe the reaction to Trump's decision "dangerous" and said it could strengthen Hamas, the group that controls the Gaza Strip.

Egypt has long accused Hamas of supporting groups fighting its security forces in the Sinai peninsula, a region that borders Gaza and Israel.

"An Intifada [uprising] would not serve Egypt's national security interests because an Intifada would revive the Islamists and Hamas," el-Kholi said.

The Times said Hassaseen backed out of an interview on the issue.

El-Kholi's other conversations followed a similar line and were with Mofid Fawzy, who denied speaking to el-Kholi, and with Egyptian actress Youssra.

Host Azmi Megahed, the fourth person el-Kholi spoke with, confirmed the conversation to the Times.

In his call with Megahed, el-Kholi suggested that the Palestinians should be happy with the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, home to the Palestinian Authority.

"How is Jerusalem different from Ramallah, really?" el-Kholi said.

He also asked Megahed to say that it was Egypt's regional rival, Qatar and its ruler, Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who were guilty of collaborating with Israel.

Response:

Audience: This article is clearly directed towards United States citizens but also has a much larger appeal because it is speaking on issues in the Middle East. I say this because the article is very much so attempting to contradict both how American citizens and Muslims in the Middle East overwhelming view the issues with Trumps statements.
Publishing Bias: Al-Jazeera is a liberal network out of the Middle East which is very biased towards the Middle East. This article is interesting however because it shows a pro-Israel side which is not common in typical Al-Jazeera content.
Reader Bias: As someone who is pro-Palestine I was very interested in the article because I had just assumed that Al-Jazeera would share my opinions. However when looking at this article I feel that it is a fair assessment which brings up interesting points why ruffling feathers is only going to cause more debacle then it will solve.
Overall Bias: This article is biased in favour of Egypt, in favour of pacifism, against Trumps decision, but also remarkably not in favour of disagreeing to harshly. They are also very biased against Egyptian government.
Personal Response: Despite my initial biases, I actually found this article really compelling and it really allowed me to resonate with the Egyptian people and identify with a lot of their fears. I do wonder how much a pedantic issue is really worth arguing about if it can lead to violence. That being said their is also a part of me that feels like Trumps statements were not simply a pedantic issue and were in fact a disregarding of thousands of years of history. I'm very conflicted by these two sides.

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