Stepping inside the strip

In the Arab press, Dina Ezzat sees who's for and against Egypt's proposed security role in Gaza

---

Readers of the Egyptian press this week could not have missed the determination with which prominent commentators and chief editors defended Egypt's proposed security role in Gaza.

The press for the most part said Egypt's initiative for Gaza was only meant to stabilise the situation in the densely populated Palestinian strip in view of the ongoing Israeli military attacks and the potential political and security vacuum that might result from Israel's planned unilateral withdrawal from Gaza.

The defensive tone was adopted in the wake of attacks in the Arab press against the proposed Egyptian plan. Hardly a day passed without opinion pieces criticising the Egyptian role.

Some critics, especially in the Palestinian press, opted for the subtle approach and warned of a possible -- if not inevitable -- quagmire that could face Egyptian security forces in Gaza if caught between Israeli forces and Palestinian resistance movements.

Many of those called for caution on the Egyptian side and also reminded Egyptian officials of the difficulties they have had in the past in getting their Israeli counterparts to show some decency in administrating the flow of Palestinians at the Rafah checkpoint that is seen by many Palestinians as symbolising humiliation.

Critics, with the London-based daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi in the forefront, voiced strong and at times offensive criticism suggesting that Egypt was meddling in Palestinian affairs and attempting to coerce Palestinian resistance of the Israeli occupation to please Washington.

"The fact that Egypt has decided to implement the job that [Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon failed to do [in relation to controlling Palestinian resistance in Gaza] raises too many questions about the rationale behind this Egyptian decision," wrote Mohamed Abdul-Hakim Diab in Al-Quds Al-Arabi on Saturday.

Diab, who rarely misses an opportunity to slam Egypt and its officials, was not short on ammunition in attacking the Egyptian Gaza decision. "This is a free contribution that Egypt is making to wash Zionist hands of Palestinian blood."

It was sheer fear, Diab argued, that prompted this Egyptian decision. Egypt, the writer recalled, had earlier turned down an Israeli request to monitor security in Gaza in the event of the execution of a unilateral withdrawal. What changed the Egyptian position, Diab argued, were extensive military operations the Israeli prime minister recently conducted in the Gaza Strip under the pretext of preventing arms and drug smuggling. "This was a clear message from Sharon... that indicated that [Israel] will not hesitate to enter Sinai" under the same pretext.

Diab also attributed Egypt's decision to an attempt by Cairo to please Washington shortly before America's presidential elections.

But most of all, Diab attributed the Egyptian decision to "political short-sightedness", an attempt by Cairo to throw a safety net for Sharon and Bush although it was just about too late for them to use it.

Such articles were common in the Arab press this week, along with some news about developments in Egyptian-Israeli relations. A statement attributed to Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom about a presumed Egyptian "strategic decision to improve ties with Israel" received wide attention in the Arab press on Monday.

Not surprisingly, it was an Egyptian commentator who managed to find enough column inches in the Arab press to defend, at least indirectly, the Egyptian initiative on Gaza. The commentator, Wahid Abdel-Meguid, is a well-known critic of the Palestinian Authority's relationship with Israel.

"Will Arafat help Egypt save the Palestinians?" was the headline of Abdel-Meguid's article on Sunday morning in another London-based daily, Al-Hayat.

According to Abdel-Meguid, the Egyptian initiative on Gaza "might be Egypt's last chance to play an effective role to save the Palestinian people and its cause". There are threats, he suggested, which stem from a clear Israeli attempt to liquidate the Palestinian cause at this point in time when "it has uncontested control of initiative- taking on both the political and military fronts."

If the Palestinians continue to play hard ball with the Israelis at a time when they have no support, political or otherwise, then they are bound to sustain heavy losses, maintained Abdel-Meguid. The way ahead, the author of the article wrote, was to show the necessary wisdom by establishing security in territories that Israel is set to withdraw from and to seize the opportunity to launch a process that could help the Palestinians regain some of their as yet unattainable legitimate rights.

For Egypt to help make this happen, Abdel- Meguid said, "it needs to build bridges with the Israeli prime minister... and this is why it has [offered] its initiative."

But the big question, argued Abdel-Meguid, is whether Palestinian President Yasser Arafat is willing to help Egypt achieve its mission in Gaza or "continues to procrastinate at a time when the Palestinian people are paying a heavy price for the current state of affairs".

Sharon needs to make peace moves now to serve his own political agenda, Abdel-Meguid concluded. The US also needs peace in the Middle East with the presidential elections coming soon. As to whether Arafat will cooperate, the writer offered no definite answer. "But without Arafat's... willingness to help, Egypt will not be able to help," he stated.

In the Lebanese daily Al-Mustaqbal on Monday, Khairallah Khairallah echoed support for the Egyptian decision to intervene in Gaza in the case of an Israeli withdrawal, also calling for a Jordanian effort in the West Bank.

Khairallah's argument was not meant to defend Egypt as much as it was to praise Arafat who gave the green light to the Egyptian intervention "with no sensitivities" in relation to his control over security issues.

For Khairallah, an Egyptian role in Gaza or a Jordanian role in the West Bank was not the real issue. "The real issue is the wall of separation that Israel is constructing and that is eating up occupied territories on which the Palestinians are supposed to have their state." He said Palestinians should not fall in the Israeli trap of getting too involved in a debate over the Egyptian initiative but should use it as an opportunity to pick up the pieces to restore the political initiative, especially in relation to the unabated Israeli construction of the wall.

"Palestinians must realise that Israel has a clear objective: to delay any negotiations with them until it has finished constructing the wall; in other words when there is a whole new reality on the ground. It would, therefore, be wise for Palestinians to make use of [every Arab effort] that could help them in challenging the wall."