ABSTRACT
More than 20 years ago Egypt decided to abandon the option of war and pursue the path to peace. Although the decision was met at the time with hostility from its erstwhile comradesinarms, peace has since become the declared strategic option of all the front-line Arab states. And yet, two decades after Egypt officially adopted the peace line, a culture of war or, at best, of a temporary truce, continues to dominate the thinking of certain circles. Meanwhile, the information media and cultural organs of the state, which are supposed to serve official state policy, are dragging their feet in actively promoting a culture of peace. This has allowed our official media to be used in the recent period as a forum for angry voices talking of enmity to the United States and of the Arab-Israeli conflict in terms clearly inspired by a culture of war and designed to fan the flames of public sentiment.
