Death of a propagandist

Mohamed Hassanein Heikal, who passed away a few days ago, was an important part of the history of the media and political conflict in Egypt and the region. He witnessed the eras of King Farouk and Presidents Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak, as well as the second phase of the Egyptian revolution. Heikal kept working as a journalist from the palace to the street until his death.
He was innovative and always added value to the media and politics, but he divided opinions. Those who were in Heikal’s camp would cheer him without thinking, and those who were against his camp would cheer against him without thinking. He handled media propaganda under Abdel Nasser. When we see Heikal’s work in this context, it is not difficult to understand and appreciate it, like Joseph Goebbels, who was such a master of Nazi propaganda that his theories are still being taught in media institutes.
Heikal was a distinguished professor and an outstanding journalist in the propaganda media. He achieved fame and success under Abdel Nasser because propaganda was one of the three most important weapons along with the political and military ones. Heikal’s performance and the power of his media apparatus were an important reason for the popularity of Abdel Nasser, who relied a lot on the media.
However, the 1967 war was the first media defeat for Heikal because his embellishments failed, calling the defeat by Israel a “setback.” When student demonstrations erupted against Gamal Abdel Nasser in Cairo University — previously the scene of rallies supporting him — Heikal’s propaganda failed to convince the people.
However, Abdel Nasser failed to understand Heikal’s mission and task. The late president wanted to combine flagrant contradictions after the 1967 defeat. He wanted to retain the image painted by Heikal of a pan-Arab nationalist leader against imperialism and Zionism, but at the same time accepted American imperialism and indirect negotiations with Israel. Heikal was able to redraw Gamal Abdel Nasser’s image from a revolutionary akin to Che Guevara, to a tolerant leader such as Mahatma Gandhi, but Abdel Nasser did not want to change his image.
Heikal realized late the enormous difference between what was being fed to the people and the truth. During the 1967 war, he was promoting military data sent to him, publishing them on the front page of Al-Ahram newspaper. He reported, for example, that “Egypt downed 130 enemy aircraft,” but discovered later that not only were no Israeli aircraft downed, but the enemy had destroyed Egypt’s air force and airports and seized the Sinai Peninsula, which is three times larger than Palestine. Israel had reached the bank of the Suez Canal and it was no longer possible for any ship or tanker to sail through it without Israeli approval.