Doaa El-Bey finds that Egypt's political and economic help for the Palestinians might have been tempered by political differences affecting the humanitarian dimension Egypt's role in Palestinian reconciliation especially after the election of a new rightist Israeli government and the failure of a truce between Israel and Hamas were the focus of many writers this week. Sherif Riad wrote that the Egyptian role in supporting the Palestinian issue was growing stronger. As a result inter-Palestinian dialogue took off last Thursday in Cairo while Egypt hosted a donors conference on the reconstruction of Gaza this week in Sharm El-Sheikh. Riad regarded the positive results of the Palestinian dialogue as a sign that the Palestinians realised that reconciliation and burying the hatchet were the only way to face the new extremist Israeli government. However, the writer expressed desire that the Palestinian parties would follow the timetable they drew up in Cairo as it was their "last chance" to recapture the support and trust of the world. Riad hailed the conference on the reconstruction of Gaza as an "unprecedented achievement" in supporting the Palestinians by hosting more than 70 counties as well as international donor institutions. "It is a huge achievement that can only be carried out by a big country," he wrote in the official daily Al-Akhbar. The editorial of the official daily Al-Ahram reviewed Egypt's continuous efforts to resolve the Palestinian issue especially during the latest Israeli aggression against Gaza. Cairo's priority then was to conclude a ceasefire followed by the withdrawal of Israeli troops and reaching a truce that would pave the way for a peaceful settlement. Meanwhile, as the editorial added, Egypt did not neglect the Palestinian divisions, but moved decisively to patch up differences between Fatah and Hamas by hosting the Palestinian dialogue last week. Egypt then hosted the conference on the reconstruction of Gaza. "The conference, together with Palestinian reconciliation and a truce with Israel, should come hand in hand in order to ease the suffering of the Palestinians and resolve their crisis on the basis of the Arab peace initiative," the editorial read. The bomb blast near Al-Hussein Mosque in Cairo was still a talking point. Given that it happened more than 10 days ago, writers were better able to analyse the incident and take an in-depth look into its causes and significance. Mahmoud Khalil wrote that all official bodies, including the People's Assembly and the grand sheikh of Al-Azhar, denounced the blast, but nobody bothered to look at the reasons behind it. He pointed to a number of factors that one should consider. First, there are many people who like to upset the government, not only economically by affecting tourism, but also politically by embarrassing the government or humiliating it via proving that it did not manage to combat terrorism as it claims. Second, linking any terrorist blast to religious groups is not always right because, at present, there are millions of citizens and various political groups who want to embarrass the government or keep it in a state of conflict. "Unless the current circumstances under which citizens live change, there will be more and more individuals who are willing to embarrass the government and accentuate its deficient performance by committing acts like the Al-Hussein blast," Khalil wrote in the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Yom. Rifaat Abdel-Rashid wrote that the incident was a chance to look at the performance of security in an objective way. He emphasised that any unbiased person will never deny the outstanding performance of security officials in dealing with terrorism. In addition, official international as well as local reports hailed the performance of the Egyptian security and the Egyptian strategy in combating terrorism. However, the writer viewed that the real problem facing security was the tendency to cast doubt on its performance and the means it adopts to arrest or gather evidence, as if it is a planned campaign to shake the trust in the people who work to maintain security for the Egyptian citizen. Trying to maintain an objective stand, Abdel-Rashid said that we fail to judge the situation in a sensible instead of emotional manner. That is, we do not need to belittle the importance of the Al-Hussein bomb blast by claiming that it was a one-off incident committed by inexperienced terrorists and that it would not have any impact on tourism. Meanwhile, we should not exaggerate in estimating the significance of the incident. Rashid concluded in Al-Akhbar that Egyptian security is in need of honest writers who appreciate its efforts to protect Egypt as well as those who note any deficiency in its performance and look at it in an objective way. Rising litigation fees was still an issue for concern this week. Amid popular discontent with that rise, especially among lawyers, many writers criticised it. Mohamed El-Sayed El-Agroud said that the rise is not right because justice should not be a commodity that the poor or the weak cannot get. He questioned why the state is giving now away its role when all religious as well as the secularist states had always been responsible for legal proceedings for their citizens. "Thus it is very important to alert everybody to the dangers of making legal action more difficult for the citizen because it has always been the protective shield of the society," El-Agroud wrote in the daily Al-Wafd, the mouthpiece of Al-Wafd Party. Shawki El-Sayed reviewed the issue of an increase in litigation fees from the viewpoint of all the involved parties in the daily Rose El-Youssef. The government claimed it had taken the step because the value of money had decreased since the old law was passed in 1944 and that it aimed to improve services. The public says the rise is beyond their financial abilities. Specialists say the draft law was an obstacle before litigation and that increasing litigation fees means that the state is neglecting its responsibility to protect the right of litigation for every citizen. Lawyers launched strikes and protest marches and said it was against their interest. El-Sayed hailed the justice minister's decision to amend the law in response to popular anger and discontent with the law. He regarded this as a lesson to the government as well as the people. The government should consult the people and listen to their point of view before drafting any law. And the latter should always express their point of view clearly and sensibly in order to protect their rights legally.
