The intention is clear
The Egyptian press this week offered little cause for optimism at both the regional and domestic level. Shaden Shehab looks at the reasons why
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An exasperated Egyptian government rebukes the hungry: "I'm tired of hearing about the price of bread. Eat croissant, eat pies, eat Danish, stupid." Mustafa Hussein in Al-Akhbar;
as a multitude of words pour down on empty plates, Nabil Sadeq in Al-Ahrar pokes fun at the "achievements" of Egypt's National Democratic Party. "Enough!" cries out an embattled mother of five. "We've had all this before."
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The Egyptian press continued to highlight the escalating tension in the occupied territories, with emphasis this week placed on Israel's "intention to antagonise" some Arab countries. After the air raid near the Syrian capital of Damascus on 5 October under the pretext that the site of the attack was being used as a training camp by Palestinian militants, Israeli officials indicated that Libya and Iran were developing nuclear weapons.
Switching to Egypt, Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said they did not rule out the possibility of an Egyptian-Syrian attack against Israel and that Egypt was developing its military in a way that threatened Israel's security. Moreover, last week Israeli officials accused Egyptian authorities of not doing enough to prevent what they said was weapons smuggling in secret cross-border tunnels from the Rafah border between Egypt and the Palestinian territories of the Gaza Strip. Israel launched massive raids in Rafah code-named "Operation Root Canal" under that very pretext.
The press retaliated. In a two-part column beginning Sunday, Al-Ahram's Board Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Ibrahim Nafie cautioned that "the situation in the Middle East is approaching a very dangerous juncture as a result of constant Israeli impulsiveness and the eternal American support of the ruling right-wing in Tel Aviv."
"It is clear," wrote Nafie, "that [Ariel] Sharon's government is exerting great effort to escalate tension with the major Arab countries... Sharon and other Israeli officials continue to proffer baseless accusations." Nafie underlined how Egypt was the target of Israeli statements following Sharon's claim that there was a possibility of an Egyptian-Syrian attack against Israel and that the Egyptians were allowing weapons to be smuggled to the Palestinians. "This was to justify the Israeli military operations carried out in Rafah... such allegations are part of a plan... and are a bunch of lies."
On Monday, Nafie continued: "At a time when Egypt is exerting efforts to ease tension in the region and search for a new starting point for a settlement of both the Palestinian-Israeli and Arab-Israeli tracks, Sharon's government is deliberately sealing off all outlets to peace. If this is to considered natural [Israeli behaviour], what is new is the adoption of Israeli policies by the US administration. We can now say that Washington is taking responsibility for all the killing, terrorism and escalation of tension being practiced by the Israeli government.
"With American hegemony worldwide, Israel is working to be part of this hegemony at the regional level. Sharon's government is increasing tension on all levels with a large number of Arab and Islamic states, then demands that Washington confront such countries. Consequently, Washington's [image] is changing from that of a superpower to that of an opponent and an arch-enemy to these countries and their people."
In his column on Saturday Akhbar Al- Yom's Editor-in-Chief Ibrahim Se'da wrote that "trying to trick Egypt" is not a new practice for the Israeli government. "It has become a habit." Se'da wrote that "accusations of all sorts are hurled every time President [Hosni] Mubarak denounces Israel's brutal war against the Palestinian people and calls on both parties to sit down at the negotiating table to reach a comprehensive and just peace settlement."
"A dangerous Israeli escalation against Egypt," read the banner of the Wafd Party's mouthpiece on Monday. Moreover, the chief editor of Al-Wafd newspaper, Abbas El-Tarabili, wrote in his back page column that Israel wanted to drag the region to the edge of the abyss. "After its failure to provoke Syria by an air raid, it violated Lebanese air space to terrorise Lebanon and Syria. Then it hinted it will strike the Iranian nuclear project. And now it is trying to involve Egypt."
Tarabili said that despite the peace treaty that Egypt is respecting, Israel is signalling that its troops are prepared for any hostilities since Egypt's [military] strength has developed in a way that threatens Israel's security. "Not only does this constitute a threat but it is an attempt to turn the world against Egypt by making it appear that it is Egypt that wants to go to war. We have to be wary of the trap that Israel is setting for Egypt and the whole region, as took place in 1967. At the same time we should not downplay the Israeli threats and work to abort an Israeli plan which seeks to engulf the whole region in flames," wrote Tarabili.
In another story, the Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv last week published a story claiming that Ashraf Marawan, son-in- law of former Egyptian President Gamal Abdel-Nasser and a member of the inner circle of ex-President Anwar El-Sadat, was either an Israeli agent or a double agent. The independent weekly Sawt Al- Umma was the only Egyptian newspaper that dealt with the allegations. Aharon Bregman, an Israeli historian residing in Britain, hinted in an article he wrote in the Israeli Yehdiot Ahronot in September and in his book "A History of Israel" that an Egyptian double agent who was a relative of Abdel-Nasser and code-named the "in- law", had served Egypt at a time when he was considered an invaluable spy for Israel. Sawt Al-Umma had then asked Marawan to comment. His reply was that it was a "silly detective story".
The weekly magazine Al-Ahram Al- Arabi then interviewed Bregman who said he had been referring to Marawan. He said he had exposed his identity because "I have to defend my good name as a historian and I cannot accept this." He also said he was one of Marawan's admirers since Marawan "succeeded in deceiving Israel. He is the person who more than anyone else should be credited for Egypt's success in deceiving Israel before the [1973] war."
After the Ma'ariv article was published last week, Sawt Al-Umma translated it in full. However, the newspaper was misleading in its banner which read: "The Mossad uncovers for the first time secret documents: Ashraf Marawan is an Israeli spy." The story, which ran on page five, said that the Ma'ariv article had questioned whether Marawan was an Israeli agent or a double agent. "Did Sadat use him [Marawan] to delude Israel or was Marawan using Egypt and Israel to achieve his goals?" ran the headline. The newspaper said, in accordance with what Ma'ariv had published, that Marawan had told the head of the Mossad, Zvi Zamir, on 5 October 1973, hours before Egypt and Syria launched their attack, that the war would start at about 6pm the next day. But the war began at 2pm; the time had been changed at a meeting of Egyptian and Syrian officers.
Another issue was the banning of a programme in the private Egyptian satellite channel, Dream, which hosted senior political analyst Mohamed Hassanein Heikal. Last year, Heikal had "addressed the nation" in three two-hour shows called Al-Ustaz, or The Professor, each of which made a point of discussing controversial political topics using an approach entirely different from that of the mainstream media. The shows had a huge impact but when Dream aired a lecture that Heikal gave on 14 October 2002 at the American University in Cairo in which he talked about Egypt and its future, the channel said it could not air it once more for what it called technical reasons.
Again, celebrating Heikal's 80th birthday, Dream TV broadcast documentaries of Heikal's life. The last of the series was supposed to have been broadcast on 14 October featuring Heikal himself in addressing the nation and giving reasons for why he had decided to retire. In the run-up to the show, Dream proudly announced its achievement of having Heikal on their show. But the programme was never broadcast.
"Why was Dream prohibited from airing Heikal's programme?" was the headline to an article in the independent weekly Al-Osbou'. "A lot of people cancelled whatever appointments they might have had in anticipation of what Heikal had to say. He was expected to speak about why he chose to stop writing and to shed light on the contemporary international, Arab and Egyptian scene. But people were in for a surprise when the channel apologised for not airing the programme." Al-Osbou' revealed that while Heikal was recording the show, Dream TV owner, businessman Ahmed Bahgat, received a 10- minute phone call. Shortly afterwards, Bahgat suggested to Heikal to omit parts of what he said. According to Al-Osbou' Heikal told Bahgat that he was the last one that would want him harmed and asked that the entire show not be aired.
The mouthpiece of the Nasserist Party, Al-Arabi, gave a similar story. "The problem is not Heikal nor Heikal's statements. One day the programme will be seen on Dream or another channel. The problem is that some take the liberty to restrict freedom of speech in our country and deny the right of a free media to its citizens," the opposition paper said.
On the rights of citizens, the editor-in- chief of Al-Arabi, Abdullah El-Senawi, wrote in his column, "if we are in a country that respects the rights of citizens, the government would have been dismissed after a man named Ibrahim El-Dessouki Abdel-Dayem committed suicide because he could not afford to buy his children what they needed for the new school year. If we are in a country that respects the rights of citizens, the government would have been dismissed when prosecutors sent a student to a mental hospital because he protested the behaviour of the security detail of the parliament speaker. What rights and what citizenship?"
The right to breathe clean air was another hot topic this week. For the fifth consecutive year, the infamous black smog swept across many parts of the country, creating a rash of chest complaints. What causes the smog? asked the press once more. Asking, too, were officials. The national daily Al- Gomhuriya had at first kept fairly quiet but could not resist joining the opposition newspapers in criticism after Environment Minister Mamdouh Riad said that the smog was a "natural climatic change and a result of car exhausts". In past years, the burning of rice straw was to blame but on Monday Al-Gomhuriya wrote, "the surprise of the environment minister. Now the winds are to blame!"
