Providing examples, Aziza Sami suggests that mundane politics in the region nearly always reflect greater existential questions Occupation and fragmentation, withdrawal and liberation were words and concepts bandied about by writers as they addressed what has become the perennial crisis resulting from the US occupation of Iraq, and the push and pull of the Palestinian-Israeli struggle now witnessing one more episode with the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Writing on Iraq in the London-based Pan-Arab daily Al-Quds, Editor-in-Chief Abdel-Bari Atwan commented: "In 2003, after the American occupation of Iraq, US President George Bush promised the Iraqi people that their country would proceed forth as a unified, sovereign and independent state that will regain the world's respect. Two years and four months later the Iraqis find their country just as divided and occupied, lacking sovereignty and spiralling towards fragmentation and possible civil strife among its different sects and factions." Atwan derides what he terms "the legitimisation (because of its sanctioning of the principle of federalism) of this tragic culmination of events by means of the (US-blessed) draft constitution approved (this week) by parliament (and due to be put to a referendum in October). This, in a country which was a factor of equilibrium and stability in one of the world's most troubled spots, all the more so because of its enormous oil reserves." Atwan concludes, "it is not strange that President Bush should renege on his promises of sovereignty and unity, motivated as he is to exit early from Iraq and to save what he can of his continually falling popularity among Americans who are increasingly adopting the view that the war on Iraq was a deception, unnecessary, and a failure." In the Pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat, Buthayna Shaaban traced parallel movements by women in Iraq and Palestine to contain the effects of strife in these regions, by means of addressing the issues as mothers, or in their professional capacities as journalists or activists. In this respect, Shaaban cites Cindy Sheehan who along with several American women who lost their loved ones during the war on Iraq, formed an anti-war organisation. Shaaban also mentions Um Gabr Wishah, who represents the mothers of Palestinian prisoners of conscience incarcerated in Israeli jails, "who speaks more articulately than do seasoned politicians," and Israeli journalist Amira Haas "who wrote of the assassination by Israeli occupation -- whose settlers represent only a half per cent of the inhabitants of Gaza -- of the freedom, life, youth and children of Palestine -- who, in turn, constitute 99.5 per cent of Gaza." Shaaban suggests that "these women are building hope, and the world needs to listen to them. Can they: mothers in the US, Iraq and Palestine, form a unified movement to unveil the media deception driven by political considerations which are completely at odds with all that is humane and just? Can peace-lovers the world over fund such a movement, to be timed with the nomination of 1,000 women to the Nobel Peace Prize?" Another relative departure from usual pessimistic appraisals of Arab regional horizons reflected itself in comments on Egypt's impending presidential elections. The novelty of the situation, visually at least, was captured by Jordanian commentator Mahmoud Al-Rimawi who wrote in the Pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat that "for the first time since the Pharaohs we see an Egyptian president, casually dressed in youthful attire and projected in the national media not as the pious leader (epithet affixed to former President Anwar El-Sadat), or the people's idol (former President Gamal Abdel-Nasser), but, simply, as a presidential candidate." In the process and despite critics' reservations, Al-Rimawi writes, it the freedom enjoyed by the media and parties which appears to have become almost boundless. And, most important, in the eyes of the younger generations specifically, the image of the state as a condescending, closed and omnipotent entity is deconstructing into one that is more humanised, and therefore fallible since "it is no longer referendums and pledging allegiance to the ruler that will determine matters, but voters and what they choose. "Egypt might not have attained in democracy what countries like Lebanon or Morocco have, but on another level it is the Egyptian experiment that will have the farthest reaching consequences for the Arab world." This, Al-Rimawi adds, is because of impending changes not only at the top of the system, but at a more fundamental level manifest in the army no longer being the source of political power, in greater freedoms in media and syndicate activity, social and cultural vibrancy, and the growing movement by the judiciary to regain its autonomy "despite an obvious formal aversion expressed by the state towards such a step".
