Israeli propaganda exposed Nasser’s grammatical errors to undermine his authority

Evidence

At one time, during the political conflict between Egypt and Israel, the Arabic experts employed by Israeli radio made a point of recording some of President Nasser’s speeches and then playing them back to the Egyptian public with a commentary drawing attention to his grammatical errors and stylistic infelicities. Thereafter, his speeches were marked by punctil­ ious grammatical accuracy more than by eloquence. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1772

Categorization

• CANDY: A deliciously petty Cold War propaganda anecdote — Israeli radio played back Nasser’s own mangled grammar. Easy to retell.
• SHARE: Perfect for someone into propaganda history or rhetoric-as-politics.