Evil without end
A leading columnist attacks Richard Perle's new "manifesto of evil" while the collapsed apartment building at Nasr City induces renewed, if not novel, commentary, writes Aziza Sami
Not for the first time, news of a collapsed city apartment building and lives lost dominated the press on 27 January. Articles abounded in the national and opposition newspapers, giving voice to the opinions of architects, engineers and politicians, underscoring -- as with every fresh catastrophe -- the unplanned urban chaos which is Cairo.
The opposition weekly Al-Ahali, issued by the left-wing Tagammu' Party, on 28 January highlighted "scandals uncovered" by the tragic collapse and in-house bickering between Cairo's governor, and, of course, petty officials (since responsibility for such "incidents" never extends to high-placed officials like ministers). The opposition Wafd Party's daily Al-Wafd on 29 January wrote that "the government admits corruption," citing the minister for local development's statement that "vested interests prevented the removal of the collapsed building's extra floors built in violation of the construction code."
In the final analysis, it seemed that the solution would be through "directives" issued from above. On 31 January the national weekly newspaper Akhbar Al-Youm predicted that "the cabinet and governors, after the holiday, will discuss procedures to implement President Hosni Mubarak's directives to review the situation of all construction violations, in all of the provinces, and demolishing any building not adhering to the law." However, in Al-Wafd on 2 February columnist Abbas El-Tarabili sceptically commented that "after what happened in Nasr City, and every time a new building collapses, every person will feel their neck in fear, confident that their homes will soon come tumbling down upon their heads."
The souring attitude harboured by the US towards its "allies" in the Arab world was brought to light in an article by Al-Ahram's columnist Salaheddin Hafez. On 27 January he wrote that "American media campaigns against a number of Arab and Islamic countries have intensified over the past weeks, on the premise that they 'breed terrorists and support the axis of evil.' As president G W Bush continues to adhere to the strategy of 'preemptive strikes', along with it he adopts the extremist Zionist-Christian Right doctrine which purports to counter the new 'Islamic evil', feeding upon an 'Islamophobia' not much different from that hatred of the West which has consumed certain Muslim groups and induced them to commit terrorist acts." Hafez lambastes Richard Perle, the neo-conservative former chairman of the Defense Policy Board, on account of his new book, An End to Evil: How to win the War on Terror. The book is co-authored with former presidential speech-writer, David Frum, best known for coining the phrase "axis of evil".
Referring to Perle as "the other face of Bin Laden", Hafez writes that "more than anyone else, Perle played an overwhelming role in inciting President Bush against the Arab and Islamic countries, to which one may add a racist hatred of the Palestinian people." In Perle's new publication, "we read foolish and ignorant ideas ranging from regime change and instilling democracy the American way, to expelling 'the bureaucrats' (meaning the 'doves'?) in the US State Department."
Hafez writes that the new Perle-Frum manifesto bodes battle with an expanded axis of evil which now extends "from North Korea and China to France, Germany and Russia, passing, of course, through the Middle East. No one is spared, none exempt, except for Israel." In conclusion, the columnist recommends that a portion of the budget allotted by the US administration to instilling democracy in the Middle East be directed to translating Perle's book and distributing it en masse amongst Arab citizens in hopes of creating a fifth column of "Americanised Arabs" to lead the Arab world into embracing the neo-conservatives' foreign policy vision.
The role played by the neo-conservatives in marginalising the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the Bush administration's agenda was also the subject of an article which appeared in Akhbar Al-Youm on 30 January. "It is known that the Zionist lobby and neo-conservatives participating in the Bush administration revere Israel as the apple of their eye, and place it at the heart of their plans, some of which have been implemented, and others, not yet," wrote veteran diplomatic correspondent Maha Abdel-Fattah.
Abdel-Fattah characterises the current "alliance" between the Evangelical or Christian Right and the Zionist lobby in the US as "quite utilitarian", yet one whose danger arises from the messianic religious doctrine upon which it is based. Formulating a vision of "the return of all Jews to Israel, followed by the Battle of Armageddon, and, finally, the second coming of Christ, after which the world will live in peace for one thousand years." Abdel-Fattah says that the realisation of this apocalyptic vision necessitates, in practical and political terms, "that Israel be unconditionally supported, and that Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria be overtaken by the Jews -- as is currently happening." She adds that "such is the intransigence of the Christian Right, that when Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced his 'nominal' acceptance of the roadmap, they accused him of 'betraying Zionism'!"
Abdel-Fattah's article can be read in the context of many others which appeared in both the Egyptian and Arab press over the past year. For the greater part, these have been written with the express purpose of explaining what has, for the Arab reader, been an obscure and often misunderstood, yet important, aspect of American politics. The general outlook has also been that given the renewed role that religion is playing in American politics, accusations directed against "Arab and Islamic" countries of mixing religion with politics appear hypocritical. And so, Abdel- Fattah ask rhetorically, "Which 'fundamentalists' are more dangerous to the world? Sporadic and nebulous (Islamist) groups scattered between dozens of nations, or a single one, that has come to rule Israel and after it, America?"
