Carnage and the circus

A curious comparison between Darfur and Gaza vied with domestic concerns for the attention of the reader, writes Gamal Nkrumah

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"Lessons of the crisis and the genius of playing the part," was the captivating title chosen by the Chairman of the Board of Al-Ahram Mursi Atallah for his redoubtable column. Atallah examined Egypt's role in cementing the complex ceasefire between Israel and Hamas brokered by Egypt. Israel's continued economic blockade of Gaza and the incessant launching of rocket attacks threaten the precarious truce by Hamas militants. The Herculean role played by Egypt and efforts by Cairo to exact peace confirmed Egypt's status as the most influential and greatest power in the region. "Egypt is far bigger than the typhoons that envelop the region. It cannot relinquish its responsibilities concerning the resolution of the Palestinian question," Atallah explained in Al-Ahram.

If talks between the rival Palestinian factions and between the Israelis and the Palestinians gain momentum, this could seriously improve prospects for the region, thanks to the ingenuousness of Egyptian diplomacy. Writing in the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Yom, Ahmed El-Sawi argued that Israel neither won nor lost the war. "Certainly Israel did not emerge victorious in the Gaza war, nor was it defeated. Certainly Hamas was not defeated, but it did not achieve a victory. Perhaps Israel did not achieve its declared goals that centred on eliminating Hamas as a governing body and a resistance group in Gaza. However, Hamas failed to achieve a level of deterrence sufficient to make the people of Gaza secure," El-Sawi observed.

Also writing in Al-Masry Al-Yom, Osama El-Ghazali Harb wondered whether Israel declared its goals. "Certainly not. Yes it killed and injured thousands of Palestinians, destroyed thousands of buildings and public facilities. Even if it partially succeeded in achieving its short-run goals -- [temporarily] hampering the firing of rockets by Hamas from Gaza, dealt a powerful blow to Hamas. However, it will never be able to permanently stop the firing of rockets from Gaza while Hamas is still there." The writer advanced his argument further. "The most important of all is that the tactical [short- run] achievement Israel did has dealt a death blow to the main strategic goal of Israel: making the peoples of the region accept the fact of having Israel living among them in peace," he noted. "And, this is the only certain outcome of the war waged on Gaza."

In much the same vein, writing in the daily official Al-Ahram, Said El-Lawindi argued that a more prominent role in the Middle East peace process by Europe is now sorely needed. "We always hoped that Europe would bring about a much missing equilibrium to current international relations like the case during the era of the two world powers [the US and the Soviet Union]." He conceded, however, that: "Europe has never lived up to our expectations. During the war on Gaza, the EU issued a statement that was a shock to all of us. The statement acknowledged Israel's right to kill and crush the bones [of the Palestinians] in defence of itself."

The writer stressed the paramount importance of European intervention. "No sooner had we overcome this shock than we received yet another one when the EU stressed that it would stick to furthering the diplomatic and political relations with Israel, emphasising that the Israeli war on Gaza might delay the negotiations over the furthering of these relations, but it would never hamper them." The writer concluded that "Europe has always paid us [Arabs] lip service and meanwhile it has always consolidated its relations with Israel. Now, however, the EU has given up paying lip service to us to absorb the Arabs' anger, preferring to clearly express its unlimited support to Israel by giving the latter a distinguished position in the bodies of the EU. What's remarkable in this situation is that we [Arabs] do not want to realise these facts and insist on seeing in Europe what is not in it."

Meanwhile, on the Sudanese front there is much consternation about the new administration in Washington. "The United States seeks to partition Sudan and France smuggles children and embarks on proselytisation missions in Darfur," thundered a front page headline of the daily Al-Wafd, the mouthpiece of the opposition Wafd Party. The article by Gamal Younis reported that a delegation of Sudanese parliamentarians currently visiting Egypt claimed that the US is attempting to unify the three regions of Darfur (Western, Northern and Southern) in order to facilitate the province's secession from Sudan.

The Sudanese parliamentarians maintained that Israel, France and the US are working in tandem to sow the seeds of discontent and rebellion in Darfur and to prompt Darfurians to opt for breaking away from Sudan. "The US refused to exploit the proven reserves of oil in Darfur since 1989 in order not to strengthen the Sudanese economy and government. The US, however, was alarmed when China, India and Malaysia started the commercial exploitation of the oil of Darfur."

The official daily Al-Akhbar, however, focussed on domestic matters instead. In a thought-provoking article on the popular rallies on Saturday and Sunday in support of the policies of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) and its leader President Hosni Mubarak, Ayman Anwar wrote, "Egypt rises over the trivia and its perspective of the unfolding tragic events in Gaza was proven correct by 100 per cent."

"[The president's son] Gamal Mubarak emphasised that the Egyptian stance with regards to Gaza proves that President Mubarak's position and that of the Egyptian government was right all along. We are on the right track," Anwar noted, indicating that Egypt would remain loyal to its pledge to the Palestinian people to champion the Palestinian cause over and above the petty interests of any particular Palestinian political faction.

In much the same vein, the equally official Al-Gomhuriya elaborated on the subject. "The president marked the red lines delineating national security," read the front page headline of the paper. Al-Gomhuriya also quoted Zakaria Azmi as saying that: "We are with the Palestinians without slogans or hidden agendas." The Editor-in-Chief of Al-Gomhuriya Mohamed Ali Ibrahim in his editorial entitled Mustaqbal Misr (Egypt's Future) seconded the call for reconstruction and the rehabilitation of Gaza stated in reflections on the Al-Jazeera pan-Arab satellite channel by the foremost writer on Arab affairs Mohamed Hassanein Heikal.

The inauguration of Obama as the 44th president of the United States is a unique and historic event. Many Egyptian observers are cynical about the significance of the development as far as the Arab world is concerned. And, as far as the American politics goes Israel is always the innocent party and Arabs are rogues. Democrats and Republicans trade accusations over who is a stronger supporter of Israel, and Obama is no exception. Writing in the daily independent Al-Dostour, Ibrahim Eissa argued that the "Arab state of affairs is bleak, a fact stated by Arab rulers themselves [during the Arab economic summit]. They agreed that the Arab world is in a state of fragmentation, weakness and decay. In fact, they came up with nothing new. Having agreed on this fact however, why don't they leave office as they are to blame for this state of deterioration?"