Honeyed harmony

A leading columnist best sums up the ironic twist that "strategic ties" between Egypt and the US seem to have taken. Aziza Sami reads on

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The manner in which the Egyptian press covered the assassination of Hamas's leader Abdul-Aziz Al-Rantisi, and before that, US President George W Bush's notorious declaration of assurances given to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, brought to the fore the usual host of contentious issues pertaining to both the Palestinian and Iraqi situations.

Newspaper coverage reflected in the headlines and opinion articles carried strong condemnation of the use of force by both the US and Israel to resolve political problems, and their equating of national resistance to occupation, in both Palestine and Iraq, with "terrorism". Increasingly, coverage of events, especially this week, gave the impression that singularly harmonious positions -- with not one iota of variation -- are increasingly being adopted by the US and Israel on all matters pertaining to the Middle East.

The national daily Al-Ahram on Sunday carried news of the assassination of Al- Rantisi, adding in the headline that "Egypt strongly condemns the Israeli crime, asserts that it kills all chances for peace and pushes the region to a catastrophe."

The newspaper's editorial was devoted to the American president's recent "carte blanche" given to the Israeli prime minister allowing him to withdraw from Gaza while consolidating the continued existence of West Bank settlements, and, just as serious, Bush's de facto abrogation of the Palestinians' right of return to their homeland and re-mapping the boundaries to conform to the 1949 partition line, an act which earned him the epithet in the press at large as "the new Balfour" in reference to the British foreign secretary whose promise enabled Zionism to create a "homeland" out of Palestine .

Al-Ahram wrote, "The new transformation in American policy which clearly violates international legitimacy and UN resolutions supporting Palestinian rights, is positing a new danger to the region since it will do nothing but perpetuate the current spiral of violence and tension. Withdrawal from Gaza, while demanded in principle, must be within the context of a clear and comprehensive plan for attaining a just peace between Palestinians and Israelis according to the roadmap. The ultimate aim of the latter is purportedly to establish an independent and viable Palestinian state within the boundaries of 4 June 1967. This necessitates that issues like the final status of refugees, boundaries, Jerusalem and water, can only be settled through direct negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis. Any attempt at unilateral solutions is doomed to be short-lived."

On Tuesday, the editorial of the national daily Al-Akhbar was called "The assassination of Al-Rantisi and the promise of Balfour W Bush". Al-Akhbar writes that the assassination of Al-Rantisi was aimed at directing attention away from the new "Bush promise" giving Israel the right to keep West Bank territory. "It is clear that there is a new alliance between Bush and Sharon as regards the new Middle East," wrote Al-Akhbar, "one based on the policy of acting as thugs, and eating up the resources and lands of the peoples of the region. The US advocates such policies as conforming with the so-called new realities on the ground, but this approach of assassination and imposing de-facto policies cannot succeed in the face of fierce resistance by the Palestinian, Arab and Islamic peoples."

The independent and opposition papers which came out on Sunday did not make it on time to catch Al-Rantisi's assassination but they, too, were rife with commentary on the Bush-Sharon declaration and the circumstances surrounding President Mubarak's visit to the United States. Analysts from the opposition to the independent and national press seemed united in their assessment that the announcement of the Bush declaration immediately following the visit by Mubarak to the US was extremely undermining of the concept of "strategic ties" between Egypt and the US. "An affront to Egypt" was the way Al-Arabi, the weekly newspaper issued by the opposition Nasserist Party, put it on Sunday. On the same day, Abbas El-Tarabili, editor-in- chief of the daily newspaper Al-Wafd, issued by the opposition Wafd Party, wrote, "The American president could not wait for his Egyptian guest to leave US soil before he and Sharon made a declaration meant to embarrass President Mubarak and abort the very meaning of his visit to the US."

But perhaps more than anyone else, it was Al-Ahram columnist Salama Ahmed Salama who on Saturday most succinctly portrayed the adverse consequences of what happened, coming so soon after the president's meeting with Bush.

Salama underscored the shock such an act must have constituted to the Egyptian delegation visiting Houston and the negative light with which it must have made President Mubarak's US visit appear to the Arab public. Under the headline, "The lure and the shock" Salama wrote, "it was not necessary for anyone to actually go to the snakepit at (Bush's) Crawford ranch in order to know that an arrangement had been reached between the Americans and Israelis which would respond to all of Israel's demands." Referring to the assertion by Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry that he supports Sharon's demands and stands with Israel's right to expand its territory and acquire Palestinian land, Salama comments, "This shows how the Israeli lobby has directed its blow and obtained the support of both current and possibly new administrations."

The writer questions "the extent to which we (Egypt) knew the magnitude of the conspiracy being prepared. It had been clear that President Bush is too weak to refuse any Israeli demand and that he had decided to use all possible means in order to be re-elected at any cost, even if that cost meant America's credibility, humiliating the Arab world, and distorting the significance of (President Mubarak's) visit which had been undertaken with the aim of reinforcing healthy strategic ties with the US. What I fear most is that it may be said that Egypt participated, even if unwittingly, in this criminal American sabotaging of the Palestinian question, and that it remained silent versus this act, after having exaggerated claims that 'warmth' had returned to the Egypt-US relationship. But what sort of relationship is this, one may ask, which is founded on deception and lies? What is the position of the Quartet and where has the roadmap gone? Finally, what is the use of convening an Arab summit anyway?"

How economic initiatives may take on negative political implications was reflected on Monday in the coverage of the independent weekly Al-Osbou of the plan by Egyptian businessman Naguib Sawiris to establish a satellite channel in Iraq. In "Sawiris obtains a licence from the occupation authority to establish a new television station ... in Baghdad!" Al-Osbou 's article stated in a somewhat ironic tone, "it seems that the presence of the American occupation in Iraq has whetted the appetite of famous businessman Naguib Sawiris. In his unique manner of presenting things, Sawiris says that he aims by establishing the satellite channel to counter what he calls the social and political disintegration suffered by the Iraqi people since 1958!"

Al-Osbou writes that Sawiris's proclaimed objectives include "enhancing the collective spirit of the Iraqi people, building trust and countering the principle that violent resistance is the only means of liberation. The channel will emphasise current reconstruction efforts as opposed to images of death and the wounded."

Al-Osbou concludes by saying that "Sawiris has tried to associate the project with the Egyptian people at large, saying that it proves the competence of Egyptians over other nationalities who competed for the bid." Apparently unmoved by this claim, the newspaper concludes by saying that "Sawiris established the first mobile network in Iraq in a suspicious deal which was rejected by Egyptian public opinion which saw it as implicit support of the American occupation of Iraq."