– fordi tiden kræver et MODSPIL

22. Jun 2006

Omar Sharif og Camp David

 
Omar Sharif
Will fra KABOBfest beretter om en aften med den kendte egyptisk-amerikanske skuespiller Omar Sharif på slap line om sin fortid og sit angivelige medansvar for Camp David-aftalerne til en kongres i sidste uge, under overskriften Omar Sharif for President:
In a display of unusual candor, Sharif shared intimate details of his personal life to a partially-stunned banquet audience. Some were taken back by his descriptions of his past love life, his peeping tom-like surveillance of his neighbor Elvis Presley’s topless pool parties, and his subsequent divorce with his first wife (so he could party with the likes of women who partied with the King).
(...)
The following night, he described the evolution of his romantic life. As a young man preparing to go to sleep, he would start a novel, only to find himself calling a "cultured" female friend after one chapter. Now, he admitted, he finishes the book, and "cultures" himself.

The famous actor did not appear visibly intoxicated to me until he spent several minutes trying to calculate how many people 1% of all Muslims, then all Arabs, would be. He stumbled over the math and giggled to himself throughout the process. He then made a barely coherant point about how much mayhem there would be if 1% of us truly were bad apples.
(...)

According to [Sharif], he was [also] a key player in the beginning of the Camp David Accords.

He said that Egypt's President Sadat called him up, and asked him what then-Israeli head Menachim Begin would do if Sadat wanted to visit him. Sharif's expertise, he attributed to Sadat, was that Sharif worked with a lot of Jews in the movie business -- which Sharif had to point out, is run by the Jews.

Sharif, who lived in France, drove over to the Israeli embassy in Paris. He called up Begin, who knew of Sharif from his role as a New York Jew in a romancy film with Barbara Streisand. Begin said he would welcome Sadat, and the rest is history.

Someone told me the Egyptian ambassador confronted Sharif afterwards to lambast him for making Sadat appear so ignorant. That didn't stop the standing ovation he received for that story -- to which I shouted, "hey folks, remember Camp David screwed us Palestinians!" Whatever, Sharif still charmed my pants off, even if I felt a little pathetic for laughing.
Det er selvfølgelig muligt, at man - så upålidelig den egyptiske ambassadør end kan antages at være - skal tage også Sharifs gengivelse af historien med et gran salt eller to?

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