Coming to terms with the re-election of George W Bush is proving exceptionally difficult. Gamal Nkrumah gauges reactions -- almost all disheartening As the shock and horror of George W Bush's second term sunk in, political analysts and commentators in both national and opposition publications concurred that the result of the US presidential elections came as a bolt from the blue. For Egypt and the Arab and Muslim worlds, Bush's re-election most certainly does not predicate easy sailing in the four years ahead. Pundits across the Arab world contemplated nightmare scenarios and impending disasters, both imaginary and real. Bush, backed by bloodthirsty Bible-belt American voters, will no doubt unleash a torrent of pre-emptive anti-terrorist attacks in which the terrorists will emerge unscathed while innocent civilians in Arab and Muslim lands will be the ones to suffer -- and in silence. Bush has a new mandate to defy and indeed dismiss altogether. The international community, the United Nations and America's European and Arab allies, all can no longer hope for a more multilateralist US foreign policy approach. In Bush's book, a long list of Arab and Muslim rogue states merit being violently overthrown, bombed and forcibly de-nuclearised. Topping America's hit list are Iran, Syria and Sudan. Worse, Bush is determined to pound his adversaries in Iraq into a pulp. "An all-out American assault on Falluja," ran a front-page headline of the national daily Al-Ahram. The week before Eid Al-Fitr has turned into a veritable nightmare for the people of Falluja and other restive Sunni cities in central Iraq. Iraqis of all sects and ethnic groups are to be subjected to the most humiliating indignities -- searches, arrest, detention without trial, and curfews under a state of emergency that interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has imposed. American troops and the Iraqi security forces have been persistently bombed and sniped at by the Iraqi resistance fighters. And their vengeance is no less than exacting. "Historical cities battle occupation. Samaraa ... drenched in blood," ran the front-page banner of the national daily Al-Gumhuriya. "Four vehicles explode, 37 killed and 62 injured, the majority being Iraqi policemen." The paper devoted much of its Tuesday edition to the ripple effects of the brutal US aerial bombardment of the Iraqi cities of Falluja, Samaraa and Al-Ramadi in the Sunni heartland. The escalation of violence in Iraq dominated the headlines of Egypt's papers this week. It suddenly dawned on Arab pundits that the dreaded genie, Bush, cannot be squeezed back into the lamp. He's here to stay and will in all probability cause untold torment and anguish on the long-suffering Arab and Muslim peoples. The next few weeks are crucial. It now seems beyond doubt that the Bush administration is not interested in seeing real political reform in the Arab world -- not even cosmetic change. "There is no doubt that the overall picture is shameful and terribly sad. One can only weep at the sorry state of the fraternal peoples in Iraq and Palestine. This really is the pits," wrote the Editor-in-Chief of Al-Akhbar Galal Dweidar. "The [Iraqis and Palestinians] have had their rights violated in a most humiliating and vicious manner at the hands of the occupying forces of countries that feign to be freedom-loving and democratic, countries that supposedly uphold international law," Dweidar noted. There are distressing times ahead for policy-makers in the Arab world, editorials stressed. Egyptian commentators could neither bring themselves to welcome Bush's re-election nor even try to make the most of it. Al-Ahram 's Editor-in-Chief Ibrahim Nafie added a cautionary note. "If Arab countries do not have a clear and equally shared vision and outlook, then they will be liable to face serious setbacks in their relationship with foreign powers, especially the United States. A clear and common vision is imperative if the Arab region is to work hand-in-hand and in a positive manner with the powers that be in order to resolve the pressing problems and challenges facing the Arab world." Al-Akhbar also speculated about the outcome of the US presidential poll. " "The Palestinian people are living through another crisis," Al-Akhbar 's Dweidar wrote. "The possible departure of Arafat, the only leader they have known for the last 40 years, increases tension and adds even more problems on their list," he explained. "The only hope for an end to the present crisis the Palestinian people are suffering from today is to unify their voice and stand firm against attempts to divide and conquer them," Dweidar warned. Other Egyptian publications also lamented the Palestinian predicament this week. The cover story on the weekly magazine Akher Saa puzzled over the precise nature of the illness that afflicts the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. "The mystery of Arafat's illness: Was he poisoned?" There was much consternation about Palestinians washing their dirty linen in public. The much publicised row between Arafat's wife Soha and the Palestinian leadership drew much commentary and chiding remarks. Al-Ahram 's correspondent in Paris disclosed in a report from Paris that a Palestinian official said that "Abu-Ammar's wife had summoned lawyers to lay hands on the people's money." The ugly squabble over the inheritance of the ailing Arafat threatens to spill over and become even uglier. The feud over his fortune, Egyptian commentators agreed, can only play into Israeli hands to the detriment of the interests of the Palestinians. One crucial factor in the coming days, all the papers agreed, will be the manner in which the Palestinians will manage to patch up their differences. Tributes to the late beloved and benevolent Sheikh Zayed of the UAE and accolades galore continued to pour in over the weekend. Akher Saa paid tribute to the "wise knight of the Arab world". Other papers were equally applauding in their praise of the much-respected deceased Arab leader. "When I first visited Abu Dhabi back in 1968 there was not a single hotel where I could stay. Rather, there was an extremely modest guesthouse for foreign guests," remarked the straight-talking columnist Salah Montasser in Al-Ahram. "Touring the city of Al-Ain, it was noticeable that there was no infrastructure: no electricity, no water, no streets. Nothing. Zayed, however, did not waste time on rhetoric and revolutionary slogans. He started work on what real leadership requires -- improving the standard of his people." Montasser hoped that other Arab leaders would emulate the virtuous attributes of the late president. Friday's edition of Al-Ahram ran an editorial which summed up Sheikh Zayed's death. "The greatest gift that Sheikh Zayed gave his people was that he gave them a heritage to be proud of... he put their tiny nation proudly on the map, a nation of seven small emirates that have become a showpiece of social, political and economic progress -- the pride of the Arab world. Al-Gumhuriya gave prominence to the horrific accident which occurred on a highway in Al-Minya Governorate in which 33 people were killed. "It is as if they [presumably the authorities] are happy about the asphalt bloodbath," stated the headline of an inside page of the paper. Al-Ahram, too, gave wide coverage to the crash. The opposition Al-Arabi Al-Nasseri, the mouthpiece of the Pan-Arab Democratic Nasserist Party, splashed a front-page banner that read, "The golden age of thuggery!" The paper requested President Hosni Mubarak's personal intervention in bringing to book the thugs, ostensibly plainclothes security men, who kidnapped and brutishly pulverised the paper's journalist Abdel-Halim Qandil. In an inside page, Qandil recounted his horrifying experience at the hands of mysterious assailants. The harrowing account concluded with the controversial writer casting a long shadow of doubt on the freedom of the press in Egypt today. The opposition daily Al-Wafd looked into another, albeit very different, domestic story. "The closure of the Suez Canal for the first time in peacetime," ran the paper's Tuesday edition. Al-Wafd described how the mechanical fault of a giant Liberian-registered oil tanker brought traffic in the Suez Canal to a grinding halt. The paper also noted how the unfortunate incident cost the country a staggering LE280 million.
