With a full plate, the Egyptian press needed a thorough going over by Gamal Nkrumah Where to start to make sense of the sprawling mass of Egyptian papers? Not an enviable task but whichever way you turn one thing is certain: domestic issues vie for the attention of the pundits along with a host of intractable regional concerns. On the domestic front, educational concerns, the sorry state of the economy and the much anticipated ministerial re-shuffle grabbed the headlines. Regional attention focussed squarely on Iraq and Palestine, with Saudi Arabia and Sudan grabbing some attention, too. The residential compound in Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia, which was stormed by Islamic militants this week, was widely covered. On Tuesday, many papers highlighted the news that both the Palestinians and Israelis had accepted in principle Egypt's proposed cease-fire plan. In Tuesday's edition of the opposition daily Al-Wafd "An Egyptian initiative to kickstart the stalled peace process" was the front page headline of the paper. "Israel and the Palestinian Authority accept an Egyptian cease-fire plan, the resumption of peace talks and a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his Palestinian counterpart Ahmed Qurei. Three hundred Egyptian officers keep the peace in Gaza with American and European support," the paper noted. "The Palestinians and Israelis agree to Egypt's plan to end the violence in Gaza, ensure Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and implement the stalled roadmap," ran the front page headline of the national daily Al-Ahram on Tuesday. The paper said that Sharon had agreed to stop assassinating Palestinian leaders. "Mubarak returns to Cairo after positive and fruitful discussions with the leaders of Russia and Romania," the national daily Al-Akhbar proclaimed on the front page of its Sunday edition. Chairman of the Board and Editor-in-Chief Galal Dweidar revealed that Egypt and Russia share a "common vision" on the Palestinian and Iraqi questions, reform and strengthening bilateral relations. By the end of the week the tenor of the papers, in spite of the grim realities of the stalled Palestinian-Israeli peace process, was a touch more upbeat. The US-led occupation of Iraq once again dominated the headlines. The naming by the Interim Governing Council (IGC) in Iraq of the person who would succeed Saddam Hussein as president, the choice of a new prime minister and those poised to take key posts in the Iraqi government animated political discussion in the Egyptian press this week. The papers extensively covered the bombings and hostage-taking drama in Saudi Arabia's oil-rich eastern province. "Egypt condemns the Al- Khobar attacks," ran the front page headline of the national daily Al- Gumhouriya on Monday. The paper noted that following the attack, Egypt's Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmed Maher telephoned his Saudi counterpart Saud Al-Faisal and that Egypt expressed solidarity with the Saudi authorities. In much the same vein, the independent Al-Ahrar had "Terrorist attack on a housing compound in eastern Saudi Arabia" on the front page. "The attack resulted in the killing of six foreign nationals including an Egyptian," the paper said. Sudan was in the news of many Egyptian papers. Watani, the Coptic Christian weekly, ran a front page story on the signing in Naivasha, Kenya, of the three Sudanese peace protocols. "Happiness pervades the streets of Khartoum," the paper stated. It highlighted the importance of the signing of the accords as a means of facilitating a comprehensive Sudanese peace agreement. The steps taken to end the conflict in Sudan caught the attention of the official papers as well. "Sudan will not enjoy real peace unless the government works with the same seriousness and determination to halt the ongoing armed conflicts in Darfur in the west of the country and Beja in the east," wrote Attia Essawi in Al-Ahram. Domestic concerns featured prominently in Egypt's press this week. "Will America impose sanction on Egypt?" trumpeted the melodramatic Al-Osbou . The paper's Editor-in- Chief Mustafa Bakri pondered the implications of this hypothetical question in his front-page column. In marked departure from the usual fare of news about Iraq and Palestine, Akher Saa splashed the photo of the minister of education across the front page of its Wednesday 2 June edition. "Every student shall have his rights preserved," ran the headline quoting the minister. "I was a father before I became a minister," Hussein Kamel Bahaaeddin said. Akher Saa 's Editor-in-Chief Mohamed Baraka focussed instead on President Mubarak's visit to Moscow and the buoyant nature of Russian- Egyptian relations. Al-Arabi Al-Nasseri, issued by the opposition Nasserist Party, launched its usual anti-American tirade. "Six thousand tonnes of spoilt American wheat stored in secret silos in Kafr El-Sheikh," ran one front page headline in its Sunday edition. "An Egyptian scientist languished in the jails of occupied Iraq, then met a horrible end," ran another headline. The lecturing of the paper's pundits was as sharp and as uncompromising as ever. The paper delivered yet another of its scathing critiques of the Egyptian political establishment. "Egypt is humiliated and the Egyptian street is seething with anger," ran a headline of a page on "What does Mubarak expect?" wrote Said El-Swerki and Riham Said. "The country's intellectuals demand a radical political overhaul," the writers impressed on readers. Al-Arabi Al-Nasseri covered a wide range of topics including EgyptAir's woes, Youssef Wali's never- ending scandals and the trials of the Muslim Brotherhood in thought- provoking full-page spreads. Along the same lines, the independent Sawt Al-Umma splashed ugly images of what it described the country's rotten political core. One headline pondered the "fate of the American spies in Baghdad and Cairo". Another headline highlighted how cabinet ministers lied to the president. The paper also outlined Israel's supposed "new plans to declare war on Egypt and re-occupy Sinai." Three weeks after Egypt failed to garner a single vote in its drive to host the 2010 World Cup, the sobering event still haunts the press. Minister of Youth Alieddin Hilal came under intense fire from commentators. In their search for a scapegoat, the press found an easy target in the person of the minister although occasionally a writer would put in a good word for him. The economy daily Al-Alam Al- Youm took up the cause of the much- maligned minister in Moufid Fawzi's opinion piece, "In defence of the minister of youth". "Let me make clear that I bear no relation to the minister. He is not a relative nor a close friend. My relationship with him is that between a journalist and a man who is a public figure in society," the writer explained. The independent weekly Al-Qahira featured a wide range of exciting topics, both political and social, including an insightful piece by Madkour Thabet on the repercussions of Michael Moore's film Fahrenheit 9/ 11. "The first American director to openly declare that he is a Communist," was how Thabet introduced his readers to the topic. He compared Moore to director Alan Frankovich who left the United States to "protest against the deteriorating political situation" of America at the height of the Cold War.
