Bush everywhere

Egyptian columnists could not stop writing about the American president. Aziza Sami says it's not hard to figure out why

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It must have been a record number of times in which the name G W Bush appeared in the Egyptian press. In the headlines and in stories, throughout the week, the American president was here, there, everywhere, and being dubbed, as in the week before, Balfour W Bush.

On Wednesday, the opposition weekly Al-Ahali, issued by the left-wing Al-Tagammu Party, covered "demonstrations sweeping Egyptian universities" in protest against the events in Palestine and Iraq. Editor-in-Chief Nabil Zaki wrote in his column of the "Bush-Sharon conspiracy" arguing that "British Foreign Secretary James Balfour was surely more moderate than Bush because even Balfour did not dare go as far as to give all of Palestine to the Jewish people. He spoke of a 'homeland' which would not infringe upon the rights of the non-Jews in Palestine. The Bush-Sharon duo on the other hand wants to give what is left of Palestine as a gift to settlers arriving from all over the world." Zaki concludes by saying that Israel will only work to consolidate its presence in the West Bank. As for the Arabs, he directs at them the usual criticisms, adding that "there is no hope to save the situation except by offering various means of support to the Palestinian and Iraqi people. There should be no negotiations with Israel unless it accepts to withdraw to the borders of 4 June 1967 and all international recommendations issued in this respect."

Al-Ahali also devoted a full page to covering Al-Tagammu's "recommendations for political reforms which include separating between the ruling NDP and the state's apparatuses, re-distributing wealth, and the peaceful rotation of power by means of periodic, free and clean parliamentary elections".

Writing of President Mubarak's recent visit to the US and his subsequent European tour, Makram Mohamed Ahmed, the editor-in-chief of the weekly national magazine Al-Musawwar, wrote, "Bush shocked the Egyptians, angered the Arabs and annoyed the Europeans." Ahmed argued that "despite the blatant bias towards Israel exhibited by Bush and his administration, which is hostile to Arab rights, it never happened before that there was such a clear and deliberate conspiracy as in the assurances presented by Bush to Sharon which cancelled at the stroke of a pen the Palestinians' right to set up their independent state within the 1967 borders. What is strange is that the American president is asking all the Arab states to participate with the Palestinian Authority in its 'war against terror' and aid it in destroying the infrastructure of resistance groups. So can the Tunis summit, which is supposed to convene on 22 May, respond to Bush's demands in the manner they deserve, which is outright rejection and a courageous Arab stance supporting the Palestinians' legitimate right to their land and dignity?... Such Palestinian resistance can take many forms, avoiding attacks on Israeli civilians unless they start first."

On Thursday, the national daily Al-Ahram published two interviews with the US and British ambassadors to Egypt in which the British envoy Sir Derrick Plumbly projected a stance more favourable to the Arab point of view on the situation in Palestine, calling the Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat the legitimate leader of his people. "International legitimacy is the foundation for negotiations," Sir Derrick was quoted as saying, adding that "withdrawal from Gaza must be in cooperation with the PA." US Ambassador David Welch said that "it is true that there are differences between the US and Egypt over conditions in the region... and the US refuses to be compared to Saddam Hussein."

On Friday, satirist Ahmed Ragab asked: "Who is he?" answering, "You can know instantly from the following: worst evil-doer in the world, creator of tension and depression on the globe, widow-maker, orphan-maker and refugee-maker. On top of that, he is a religious fanatic. It is also not strange his attributes apply -- to the letter -- to Osama Bin Laden."

On Sunday, the independent weekly Al-Osbou published on its front page that President Mubarak had sent an "urgent letter" to President Bush warning of the consequences of Israel carrying out its threat to assassinate Arafat. According to the newspaper, Mubarak also "criticised the Bush Declaration and asserted that the stances of the Sharon government will lead to a dangerous level of violence, instability and the spread of terrorism the world over".

The two national dailies on Tuesday extensively reported on the meeting between President Mubarak and Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei. Al-Akhbar reported in its banner that "Mubarak discussed with Qurei a plan to defend Palestinian rights" and quoted the prime minister's statement that "Mubarak is presenting all possible support to (our) cause and will not accept Arafat's alienation." Al-Akhbar also reported that Sharon had "ordered the assassination of Hamas's leader Khaled Mishal".

Al-Ahram reported extensively on an "important new archaeological find" near the Pyramids at Saqqara. According to the newspaper, "a joint Egyptian-French expedition discovered over 50 mummies, some of them in excellent condition and whose age goes back to 1,000 AD, buried in deep wells south of Cairo." The newspaper quoted the Head of the Egyptian Antiquity Authority Zahi Hawass as saying, "The Egyptians used a network of wells and catacombs from the 26th Dynasty up to the time of Cleopatra to store mummies. They eventually stacked them up one on top of the other because of the shortage of space available."