Aziza Sami looks at the Arabic press on the eve of the Sharm El-Sheikh summit While the Arabic press in general pursued the usual topics related to Iraq and the Palestinian problem, the Egyptian national dailies gave great emphasis to the impending visit by US President George W Bush to the region to discuss the implementation of the roadmap to peace between the Palestinians and Israelis. However, underlying questions as to whether the US administration would carry through its commitments to resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and to implementing the roadmap were also posited. THE ONLY PROBLEM: On 3 June, the day on which the Sharm El-Sheikh summit was scheduled to convene, Al- Ahram's Editor-in-Chief Ibrahim Nafie described it as "putting US-Arab relations to the test. The Arabs have done all they can to pave the way for a historic rapprochement with Israel, based on retreat from all the Arab territories occupied in 1967 and the establishment of a Palestinian state," Nafie wrote. Nafie continued that the Palestinians had undertaken their commitments "related to the first part of the roadmap, with the Palestinian factions expressing a preliminary readiness to stop their operations for a period of time on condition that Israel stops its attacks and transgressions against the Palestinian people. What the role of the US will be becomes even more pertinent now in view of the occupation of Iraq." Nafie wrote that "the worst that could afflict the US's reputation in the region would be if its peoples were to perceive that what is now taking place was only intended to diffuse anger over what took place in Iraq, or to divert attention from it," adding that "this is why what will happen in Sharm El- Sheikh today, and at Al-Aqaba tomorrow, will represent a decisive turning point in the history of the region and of Arab- American relations". The emphasis given to the summit in the Egyptian national press contrasted with the coverage given in the Syrian national daily Tishrin, which had ignored the event the preceding week. On 27 May, Tishrin's banner made only indirect reference to the new "initiatives" to implement peace. The headline attributed statements to Syrian President Bashar Al- Assad to the effect that his country "does not intervene in what the Palestinians decide" and that it was a "just and comprehensive peace which would realise permanent security and stability in the region". On 28 May the paper reported "the continuation of media attention to the speech given by President Al-Assad to the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Anbaa". Special attention by the international news agencies, Tishrin said, was being given to Al- Assad's statements to Al-Anbaa that "the problem between us and the US is only the Israeli question. The Americans and Europeans are in agreement [with us] that [we must go back to] the foundations laid down in Madrid and to UN resolutions 242 and 228." ALL HOSTAGES: The pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat over the week gave equal attention to internal conditions in Iraq as it did to the Palestinian-Israeli peace process. On 27 May, the newspaper's banner reported that "Attacks intensify on Americans in Iraq: one killed, several wounded and threats of martyrdom attacks". Underneath, a smaller news item reported that "Israel says that a summit of the three might be held in Jordan, and Bush meets Arab leaders in Sharm El-Sheikh". The Saudi daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat turned its attention to dangers coming from across Saudi Arabia's borders, reporting on 27 May that "Washington demands that Tehran hand over Al-Qa'eda elements and cooperate in investigations of the Riyadh explosions". On 30 and 31 May the newspaper gave great emphasis to the arrest of "Abu Gheith, Al-Qa'eda's spokeman in Iran". Al-Sharq Al-Awsat's editor-in-chief, Abdel-Rahman Al-Rashed, on 27 May wrote an editorial entitled, "We are all hostage to the Palestinians", exemplifying a new and emergent camp of writers who have opted for doing away with the old "givens" of Pan-Arabism and the centrality of Palestinian question, now thought to be part of the much- maligned "Saddamist camp". "Everyone is entangled," El-Rashed argued, including the Palestinians who have "Arabised" their case so that decisions on how it should be resolved have been taken out of their hands. For their part, "the Arabs have 'Palestinised' their policies, so that Palestine has become a domestic issue for them, by which their success, or otherwise, is to be measured." El-Rashed wrote that both the Palestinians and Israelis had realised that the manner in which their mutual problems had been negotiated over the past 50 years -- military action by the Arabs, occupying territory by the Israelis -- had been futile, and he directed a special note of censure to the Arabs who had "raised slogans about Palestine ... as forlorn as those raised by Saddam Hussein claiming liberation, whose regime collapsed within three weeks". VERY OBTUSE: The Egyptian opposition weekly Al-Arabi, issued by the Nasserist Party, reported on 1 June that the US ambassador to Egypt, David Welch, speaking at the American Chamber of Commerce in Cairo last Wednesday, had lambasted Al-Ahram's columnist Salama Ahmed Salama for his "obtuseness" in comparing double-standards and human rights violations at the US military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, with atrocities committed by Saddam Hussein. Luncheons at AmCham, at which American ambassadors speak their mind on Egypt's domestic scene and especially on its press, as well as on what the country needs to do to become more democratic, have become rituals, having been initiated by Welch's predecessor Daniel Kurtzer. Welch's censure of the widely respected Salama, who is regarded as a non-partisan and non- governmental writer, contrasted with the more benign tones he reserved for the head of the Egyptian parliament's external relations committee, Mustafa El-Feki. El-Feki had written a number of recent articles prescribing what was "required" of Egypt on the educational, intellectual and political planes in order that it might become "functional", and accepted by the US, in the post-Saddam era in the new Middle East. Directing his critical acumen at the question of democracy in Egypt, Salama Ahmed Salam in Al-Ahram on 29 May wrote of the Court of Cassation's recent ruling annulling elections in certain districts because they had been monitored by "non-judicial parties". He recommended that rather than going into arguments as to which quarter should qualify for monitoring elections, "the example of other countries should be followed in the setting up of a totally independent body headed by a respected judicial figure to monitor the election process from a to z." This was urgently needed Salama said because "we have had enough of elections whose flagrant flaws become apparent every time. And we have had more than enough of admonishments for greater democracy coming from outside, inducing and pushing us to undertake political reforms". ALWAYS RIGHT: On 29 May Salama Ahmed Salama wrote on "the seriousness of the US and Sharon's intentions", describing the impending summit between the American president, Palestinian Prime Minister Abu Mazen and Sharon as coming "rather belatedly perhaps after the war on Iraq. While the war has bred feelings of defeat and disappointment in the Arab world, the US administration sees it as a victory [for Israel] since it has led to the defeat of a regime which had constituted a threat to it." Moving to the "objections" set by Sharon "before the talks had even started" over the roadmap, as regards Israeli settlements in the occupied territories and the right of return for Palestinian refugees, Salama said that such objections had laid the groundwork for doubts as to what the Israeli prime minister's intentions were. "The roadmap might move forward, but then again it might not if Sharon makes it devoid of meaning, aided and abetted in this course by a US that is under pressure for time and awaiting presidential elections." . Echoes of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's call for convening an international conference on the definition of terrorism following the September 11 2001 attacks were reflected in one of Al-Ahram's smaller banners, which stated on 27 May that "Mubarak participates in the G-8 Summit on fighting terrorism". On 28 May, Al-Akhbar's Editor-in-Chief Galal Dowidar asserted in a column that "Egypt is always right", noting that the call by President Mubarak for convening a conference that would define terrorism and the means for confronting it went back to 1986. Such a conference, however, Dowidar said, had not taken place because of the "selfishness and self-interest of countries [claiming] freedom and democracy who claim they are ensuring global security". He commended French President Jacques Chirac, "who, [at the G-8 meeting in Evian] had given credit to President Mubarak for undertaking to rally international efforts to counter terrorism". Dowidar concluded that "this, and the upcoming Sharm El-Sheikh summit, doubtless shows that Egypt always follows the right path, and that its role -- whatever the conspiracies -- will never be a marginal one". NOT SO WELCOMING: A different note was sounded on the visit by the American president to Egypt in the Egyptian opposition and independent press. The weekly newspaper Al-Arabi, issued by the opposition Nasserist Party, carried the banner, "The murderer Bush crushes Egyptian dignity at Sharm El-Sheikh." The paper's smaller headlines explained this by saying that "Washington asks Cairo to stop communicating with Arafat and to give Abu Mazen's government security information about Hamas and Al-Jihad. [It also demands] that Palestinian bank accounts in Egyptian banks be revealed." For its part, the London-based pan-Arab daily Al-Quds, in its weekend issue of 31 May, referred to the impending summit in a small, front-page news item. The headline read that "Jordan [tells] Abu Mazen to wage war on the Islamic resistance groups." Al-Quds said that "Jordan is throwing its full weight behind the American- Israeli idea that Abu Mazen should wage a campaign against Islamic activists." Basing its report on Reuters, Al-Quds quoted the Jordanian ambassador to Washington, Karim Ke'war, as saying that "it is important to give the new prime minister the support he needs to fight terrorism. He needs to wage a war against Hamas and Islamic Jihad." WISE UP: Writing in Al-Hayat on 3 June, the opening day of the Sharm El-Sheikh summit, columnist Hazem Saghiya asked whether "there is not a contradiction when we say that 'Israel is not ready for peace' at the same moment when we are hastening to reject the peace initiatives offered us". Saghiya conceded that the Israeli prime minister was "manoeuvring" over the roadmap, but he also warned that we should "not forget that [former Israeli PM Ehud] Barak was also accused of manoeuvring at Camp David and at Taba, and when the Palestinians rejected him for this they gave the grounds for Sharon [to procrastinate about peace]". Saghiya recommended that "the Palestinian leadership this time had better not follow the course it did before. It must pursue the path followed by Abu Mazen and develop it." This course, Saghiya wrote, would mean that the Palestinians should accept less-than-perfect solutions and the less-than-perfect state offered them by the roadmap. These were the only things possible, given the current "balance of power". From there, the Palestinians could work on attaining their rights through political solutions. Nevertheless, Saghiya was aware of the dilemma faced by Abu Mazen over how to "disassemble Hamas and Islamic Jihad". Should he do so, Saghiya said, he would risk alienating the whole history of past resistance and a whole constituency of Palestinians and Arabs. The dilemma here, Saghiya wrote, was that it was not likely that Sharon would undertake initiatives enabling Abu Mazen to undertake this leap of faith.
