The resort blasts, and who might have been behind them, remained a big issue. Aziza Sami pursues the clues Once again the Taba bombings were the subject of speculation and whatever the quarter which analysts conjectured was responsible for the act, Israel was consistently projected as the ultimate beneficiary. The opposition daily Al-Wafd issued by the Wafd Party on Friday published an interview with the former deputy head of the state security apparatus Fouad Allam who said that he did not think that either Al-Qaeda or local militant groups inside Egypt were responsible for the attacks. Allam said it was more probable that the act was propagated by "an external group trained (outside of Egyptian borders) and which could have sought the assistance of groups inside". He added that "a foreign intelligence agency" -- specifically the Mossad -- could also have been involved. Al-Wafd quoted Allam as saying, "The capabilities and methods used in the Taba bombings were beyond those of Egypt's militant groups whose funding is meagre and who in 1999 renounced the execution of all violent acts inside Egypt." Allam said that the bombings targeted some of the Taba Hilton's pillars, adding that "it is the Israelis who are most familiar with the hotel's construction since it is they who built it and still have its architectural plans." The security expert concluded that "when one asks who benefited from what happened -- the losses to Egypt's tourist industry and possible tension between it and the Palestinians -- then it becomes obvious that the beneficiary was Israel." Adel Hammouda, the editor of the independent weekly Sawt Al-Umma, on Monday in typical manner combined analysis with side-commentary on a plethora of issues. Giving an extensive resume of "the history of militant groups" in Egypt, Hammouda in the process had a word for the Muslim Brotherhood who, he says, "with typical opportunism left the younger generations of militant groups to fight, be imprisoned and die" while they remained safe, far from any confrontation. Hammouda assesses that the Taba bombings could not have been executed by these groups "since training for this operation must have been conducted for months, and its sizeable ammunition smuggled inside the tunnels of Rafah from Israel, Saudi Arabia or Jordan." The writer intimated that the style of attack was "a carbon copy of those which took place in Saudi Arabia, utilising car bombs and powerful explosives". Here, Hammouda did not forget to comment that "those (in reference to the Saudi regime) who harbour serpents must in the end be bitten by them." He concludes: "The Taba operation resulted in even warmer ties between Egypt and Israel. Egypt allowed Israeli rescue teams to enter into Taba after a few minutes with more than 50 helicopters circling in the sky of this precious part of Egypt. Israel also found it opportune to seek more security cooperation with Egypt." Hammouda then alludes to Israeli press reports of a proposal by Presidential Adviser Osama El- Baz that modifications to the Camp David agreement will allow Egypt to deploy more troops to safeguard the Egyptian-Israeli border. "If what was attributed to El-Baz is true," Hammouda writes, "then this is a clear change in Egypt's position which was not to modify the Camp David agreement so as not to open the door to Israel to do the same. The terrorists who attacked Taba have unknowingly served Israel which reveals how politically obtuse their mentality is." The independent daily Nahdet Masr in its weekly issue on Thursday devoted a full page to an interview with author Osama Anwar Okasha who, the paper said, "has come under attack by the self-anointed defenders of Islam and Muslims." Okasha was quoted as telling Nahdet Masr that the reason for the campaign currently being conducted against him is a statement he had made during an interview that sanctifying figures from Islamic history makes them appear "one- dimensional" and that the Muslim army leader Amr Ibn Al-Aas (who led the Islamic conquest of Egypt) is politically and historically controversial, "an ambiguous personality" who disseminated conflict in what is historically known as "the Great Strife" ( Al-fitnatul-kubra ). Following this, Okasha was attacked by a preacher, Khaled El-Guindi, for having allegedly criticised Ibn Al-Aas on religious (and not historic or political) grounds. A claim was also presented to the prosecutor- general by Nabih Al-Wahsh, a lawyer demanding that Okasha be "separated from his wife". Nahdet Masr quoted Okasha as saying, "the greatest threat to Islam is in fact those using it as a label in their terrorist agenda, as well as those who desist from renewing religious thought and adopting a rational approach." He added, "You only have to read the Qur'an to know that it consistently calls for rationality and reflection." Abdallah El-Sinnawi, the editor of the opposition weekly newspaper Al-Arabi issued by the Nasserist Party, on Sunday took up his favourite topic -- that of the presidential succession. The writer quoted a recent statement by President Hosni Mubarak during a meeting with the NDP that he "might respond to the opposition's demands to elect the president from amongst several candidates." El-Sinnawi also quoted the president as having said: "I will win the presidency whichever way it is decided." Commenting, El-Sinnawi said: "If the president is really confident that the people will elect him out of their own free will, then why this procrastination in undertaking the needed constitutional modifications? We also need a national dialogue -- a serious one this time -- for a broad consensus allowing the establishment of new rules for the rotation of power in Egypt." The writer concludes by interpreting the president's statement as "an admission of the seriousness of the opposition's demands. It could also be interpreted as a preliminary admission of anxiety over the regime's future, implying that the constitution could be modified and presidential elections held." The national daily Al-Akhbar 's satirist Ahmed Ragab took up one of his usual refrains, referring to a long-awaited deal in which Egypt buys Sudanese meat at much cheaper prices than at home. The government promises this will help relieve the pressure of rising food prices. Ragab wrote in his daily "Half a word" on Sunday, "the lights are flooding the place, line after line of school students are awaiting in Alexandria (the port where the meat will be delivered) and chanting patriotic songs. Fireworks of all colours and missiles fill the sky: an official reception, as I have heard, to receive the Sudanese meat."
