Arafat and Ebeid
Affirming Arafat's right to remain in the occupied territories, the Egyptian press this week urged instead that the Egyptian prime minister go, writes Amira Howeidy
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Al-Osboa's Amr Selim depicts a crossed-out official from the Iraqi Interim Governing Council. Below reads, "boycott American products.";
Saadeddin in Al-Ahram features an old woman talking on the phone. "Hello? The compensations office? My husband died in Lockerbie and he was unlucky to die in Air France, too...";
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In tandem with Arab reaction to Israel's announcement that it will expel Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from the occupied Palestinian territories, the Egyptian press expressed outrage at the decision -- even though the move had been long expected. Prominent journalist Salama Ahmed Salama in his 14 September column in Al- Ahram suggested that the only response to Israel's decision to send the Palestinian leader into exile is to "expel the Israeli ambassadors in Egypt and Jordan... and freeze [bilateral] relations and activities". Al-Ahram's editorial blamed the US for "everything that is happening in the region; the aggression and terrorism practiced by an occupying power against the Palestinian people. And if the US doesn't take up an effective role in stopping Israeli violations, it will be held responsible for the upcoming explosion in the region."
In the same issue, senior columnist Salah Montasser described Arafat as a person "who flourishes on crises after he had been apparently isolated in his Ramallah prison and dubbed an obstacle to peace by Israel, the US and some European and Arab countries. The Israeli decision [to expel] the Palestinian leader has galvanised Arabs and united the Palestinian street behind him. And thus, Arafat returns once again."
Montasser argued that Israel's decision came in response to Hamas's threat to target Israeli buildings "in the same way Israel demolishes Palestinian houses... And if the resistance succeeds in destroying Israeli buildings, that would place Sharon in a real crisis."
What seems to be a rise in Arafat's popularity was reflected in the opposition Nasserist Party's mouthpiece Al- Arabi in its 14 September issue which devoted almost a quarter of its front page to Arafat's picture next to a headline reading, "the scenario of expelling Arafat".
A report from Ramallah in the independent weekly Al-Osbou's 15 September issue said that "Israel's decision to expel Arafat revived the popular element in the Intifada after it had taken military forms in the past few months. It also brought back control to the Palestinian Authority which had been on the verge of collapsing. Despite political and intellectual differences, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat remains the only individual around whom the Palestinian people, notables as well as factions -- including those critical of his negotiating policies [with Israel] -- can rally around."
An interview with Pope Shenouda, head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, in the same issue of Al-Osbou' quoted him as saying that deporting Arafat will "cause an explosion in the region". The pope criticised the US for confining itself to issuing condemnations of Israel's assassination policy. "Condemnation without punishment remains only talk."
In this respect, Al-Arabi's Editor Abdallah El-Sinawi devoted his column this week to discussing Egypt's position on all of this. "Where is Egypt? I'm afraid that we might have forgotten that Egypt is the largest Arab country. And its role, due to its geographical location and history, is crucial to the region. It's not reasonable therefore for some of our officials to assume that the most that can be done is to issue one warning followed by another. [Egypt's] foreign policy is a weak one that can envision only warnings of the repercussions of expelling Arafat. As if the region is not sitting on a volcano which is erupting and spewing its lava on Palestine and Iraq."
As President Hosni Mubarak took off on an official European tour, in which he visited Italy and France, the national press gave much of its front page coverage to the visits which coincided with the stepped-up pace of events in the occupied territories. Israel's announcement of its plans to expel the Palestinian leader shifted attention from the president's statements in Al-Ahram's 10 September front page headline which quoted him as telling the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Serra, "I will ask the permission of my people to visit Jerusalem if I believe that everyone is exerting every effort to achieve peace."
While the Egyptian press seemed nonchalant about the second anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington, Al-Jazeera's broadcasting of the latest video tape of Al-Qa'eda leader Osama Bin Laden and his right-hand man Ayman El- Zawahri brought the spotlight back to the two-year-old event. Al-Arabi said it contacted El-Zawahri's uncle who confirmed that the tape was authentic, adding that his family is "happy with the tape as it confirms that he's still alive". The independent Sawt Al- Umma splashed an image of Bin Laden, dressed as the Statue of Liberty and holding the Qur'an and a Kalashnikov, on its front page.
The national daily Al-Akhbar's Said Sonbol wondered if the footage was in fact authentic. "But what is the point of fabricating such videos?" he asked in his 15 September column. "The objective simply is to emphasise, once again, that Al-Qa'eda members carried out the 9/11 attacks and this is reinforced by video and audio confessions. So those who were in doubt about any of this should just be quiet!"
This week's coverage of the ongoing economic crisis had, as a backdrop, the approaching school year, bringing to the fore issues such as school expenses which the press said had increased with the soaring rise in prices. Education Minister Hussein Kamel Bahaaedin, in Al-Ahram's 14 September issue, urged schools not to expel students who do not pay their fees while Al-Osbou' ran a feature on the dilemma of limited income parents who are unable to meet their financial school year obligations. According to the article, most schools increased their fees by 30 per cent. Another feature in the national Al-Mussawar magazine's 10 September issue claimed that the cost of school uniforms and stationary had increased this year because of the steep rise in the value of the dollar against the Egyptian pound. Citing figures from the "various chambers of commerce" the report said that prices had jumped from between 40 to 60 per cent from last year.
A campaign directed at Prime Minister Atef Ebeid reached its peak this week. Al-Arabi's 14 September issue ran a "profile" of the prime minister "before he's laid off". Sawt Al- Umma's 15 September issue took a similarly hostile line against the prime minister with a large headline reading, "Angry queues for a loaf of bread". A meeting between Ebeid and the parliament's economic committee received wide coverage and harsh criticism from the opposition and independent press. The left-wing Tagammu Party's mouthpiece Al-Ahali's 10 September headline read, "the prime minister refuses to discuss the issue of the rise in prices at the parliament's economic committee." Another headline said, "the dollar jumps to LE6.75 for the first time since floating the Egyptian pound in January."
Sayed Abdel-Aty in the Wafd Party's mouthpiece Al-Wafd urged Ebeid "to go" in his 14 September column. Referring to Ebeid's parliament meeting, Abdel-Aty said that the prime minister told the committee "that the Egyptian economy has achieved what could be called a miracle (!!). He also said that he was ready to resign immediately if any Egyptian or foreign investor could prove that he had offered bribes to officials, be the latter big or small (!!)."
"We have no comment on the miracle part except to say may God forgive you." But the bribe issue, Abdel- Aty wrote, "means that Ebeid's era has been marked by transparency and that there is no such thing as an official taking a bribe to facilitate work or help his personal interests. And that if there is such a thing, then he will resign immediately. Either Ebeid does not really know that corruption and bribery have exceeded all limits in Egypt, or he has a different and new understanding of what the two words mean... Mr prime minister, just leave."
The headline of Al-Osbou's 15 September issue read, "FAILURE" in red capped letters and "letter of resignation from Ebeid's government to President Mubarak." Inside, the paper published a one-page fictional resignation by the prime minister submitted to the president which listed these reasons: "we have four million unemployed people, our efforts to control the rise in prices failed, growth rates have collapsed, the budget deficit is escalating, inflation reached four per cent, our local debts have increased by LE39 billion in one year, and external debts $28.7 billion, the strategic reserve is diminishing, exports are falling and the Egyptian pound has passed away."
Al-Ahram: http://www.ahram.org.eg
Al-Akhbar: http://elakhbar.org.eg
Akhbar El-Yom:
http://www.akhbarelyom.org.eg/akhbarelyom
Al-Wafd: http://www.alwafd.org
Al-Arabi: http://www.al-araby.com
Al-Osbou': http://www.elosboa.com
Al-Ahali: http://www.alahali.com
