Egypt's judges and lawyers are worlds apart while reports claim Saudi Arabia and Israel are somehow in cahoots. Doaa El-Bey and Rasha Saad review the extremes The unprecedented confrontation between judges and lawyers is threatening the entire judicial system in Egypt. Newspapers front paged the details of the crisis and efforts to settle the dispute. Al-Masry Al-Yom wrote in its banner 'The war of filing complaints erupts between judges and lawyers'. Al-Akhbar wrote 'Efforts headed by Sorour to contain the crisis'. Al-Wafd had in its banner, 'Khalifa declares the crisis would ease soon', Nahdet Masr went with, 'Sorour and Ezz fail to reconcile judges and lawyers', and Al-Ahram headlined, 'The two parties' intransigence exacerbates the crisis'. Ahmed El-Sawi wrote that the crisis between lawyers and judges is not like a religious dispute or a bicker between two big families in Upper Egypt. It started with individual differences between a group of lawyers and a prosecutor in Tanta, then grew into a confrontation between judges and lawyers. The crisis, El-Sawi added in the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Yom, showed that the culture of tribal disputes has reached an unprecedented professional level and has spread in two lively sectors in society. On the other hand, it reflected internal crises in both professions. Nepotism, he explained, governed the selection of young judges. Judges can put their children or relatives in jobs to inherit their posts reflecting injustice and inequality. Lawyers, on the other hand, are increasing in number, especially in the provinces, in a way that makes their effort to make an honourable living more difficult. Nabil Rashwan criticised the state of indifference surrounding the crisis between lawyers and judges. He wrote in the independent daily Nahdet Masr that everybody stayed in place watching the dispute without moving to contain it or resolve the differences between the two groups. Everybody was waiting for the green light from the president to intervene. However, he added, presidential interference came after the crisis had reached a climax which witnessed an all- out strike by lawyers and the holding of an emergency meeting by judges. Rashwan asked why the crisis had not been contained in Tanta before it spread to the whole country, and where were the governorates, the minister concerned and the prime minister? Why did they all wait for the green light? he asked. The crisis revealed a general state of anger between the two groups. Rashwan suggested that the reasons should be studied to avoid a repetition. In his brief comment in the official daily Al-Akhbar, Ahmed Ragab prayed to God to find us a way out of the nightmare as it is impossible to achieve justice when the two belligerent parties are justice-makers. The start of the thanaweya amma, or high school year certificate, exams was another worrying event to most Egyptian families. Ziad El-Sahhar sympathised with the thanaweya amma students and their parents who are suffering from the school educational system in our country that is crowned by that certificate. "Despite all the attempts to erase this horrifying ghost, reality confirms that the thanaweya amma will remain the hero and the climax of a dramatic educational serial that is forced upon every Egyptian family," El-Sahhar wrote in the official daily Al-Gomhuriya. The only positive thing, he added, is that spending huge amounts of money on private lessons will stop for the students who finished their second year of thanaweya amma. That spending goes on for over two full years for most students who depend entirely on private lessons, as attending schools has become meaningless for both students and teachers. Even a strict minister of education like Ahmed Zaki Badr cannot change the situation, although he is trying hard. "Although we have repeatedly called for ending the thanaweya amma nightmare, plans and programmes vary from one minister to another but the situation remains the same. And our children remain the guinea pigs of the one-year system at one time, and the two-year system at another, then the new thanaweya amma and so on." El-Sahhar concluded by hoping that we do not see this year and subsequent years pictures of students crying published in newspapers because of thanaweya amma exams. The start of the World Cup was another event that engaged most Egyptian households. Salah Eissa focussed on what hits Egyptians during that time. He wrote in Al-Masry Al-Yom that the World Cup began and will continue for a full month during which time the people of Egypt will be unconscious to anything but the cup. From now on, he explained, nothing is important: not the cost of living which rises every day without any control, nor corruption that has risen up to the top of Cairo Tower. From now until the end of the month, Eissa predicted, there will be no sit-ins or protests because everybody is sitting in front of televisions in cafés watching the World Cup. From now until the end of the World Cup, newspapers will devote their front pages to the news of the matches and the pictures of the goals. They will devote their important pages to analysing and predicting the results of matches. From now on until the end of the World Cup, national unity and social peace will prevail. The crisis between the church and judiciary regarding the judicial ruling permitting the marriage of divorced men, and that between lawyers and the judges will end. Nobody will be interested in the retrial in the Suzanne Tamim case or in discussions in the People's Assembly over the public budget. Newspapers and satellite channels will stop asking the naïve question: where is Egypt going? The answer is known: Egypt is going to the cafés. Amid all these major events, the demand to lift the Israeli blockade on Gaza has receded. Abdel-Moeti Ahmed wrote about the mission of the Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa in Gaza, that the visit was not a reaction to the Israeli attack on the Freedom Flotilla, or a confirmation of the idea that there are two Palestinian states because the Arab states and the Arab League -- as their representative -- reject Palestinian division. The visit, Ahmed added, simply aimed to transcend the present tragic situation and break the blockade imposed on Gaza. The visit translates on the ground the Arab foreign minister's decision to break the blockade in their meeting in Cairo two weeks ago. While he acknowledged that Moussa's mission is difficult, Ahmed said it was not impossible. "The Gaza blockade will not be broken by aid convoys, but via inter-Palestinian reconciliation followed by signing the Egyptian document and the return of the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian Authority. It is not possible to establish a Palestinian state without Palestinian reconciliation," Ahmed wrote in the official daily Al-Ahram. Ahmed summed up by asking whether Moussa would be able to realise that hope.
