Playing the Palestinian card

A warm presidential welcome in Paris, Rome and Turkey, and big unknowns about the Palestinians, writes Gamal Nkrumah

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This is a sobering time for peacemakers in the Middle East. The latest rhetorical joust is over Gaza. Now, more than ever, pragmatic caution should be the watchword in dealing with the Arab-Israeli conflict. This, at least, was the consensus among Egyptian political commentators. Official papers focussed on President Hosni Mubarak's European tour that took him to France, Italy and Turkey. The nature of Mubarak's visit to France was as much political as economic, while in the other two European countries, the onus of the visit was on the economic.

If so, then there is a lot to talk about.

"Egypt is the only path", ran the headline of the official daily Rose El-Youssef. According to the paper, French President Nicolas Sarkozy told his American counterpart that there is no peace in the Middle East without Egypt. Apparently US Vice-President Joe Biden responded that America is committed to cooperating more closely with Egypt to resolve the Middle East conflict. "Egypt is the major strategic partner of France yesterday, today and tomorrow," wrote Editor-in-Chief of Rose El-Youssef Abdallah Kamal.

"The Shalit deal will not be clinched until late Monday evening at the earliest," Kamal predicted. "If the Shalit deal is not concluded before the start of the Israeli elections, then it will not be clinched even if Qatar pays half a billion dollars more." Kamal was obviously referring to the desperate attempts by all parties concerned to ensure the release of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit who was taken hostage by Hamas in 2006. The authorities in Gaza refuse to release him until an unspecified number of Palestinian activists incarcerated in Israeli prisons are unconditionally released. The Israelis balk at the very idea of kowtowing to Hamas.

Little happened on that front, and as Kamal foresaw, no amount of Qatari largesse is likely to ensure Shalit's release. Qatar pledged during the Doha summit to donate infinitesimal sums of money to fund a conflict resolution deal between Hamas and the Israelis. Moderate Arab countries, so-called, are disparaging of the Qatari tendency to flaunt its diplomacy of donations. Kamal noted that Hamas are not a bunch of gangsters bent on securing a handsome ransom. They are freedom fighters and the Qataris cannot speak or choose their political recourse on their behalf.

The French president also has a stake in the release of Shalit, Kamal pointed out. After all, the Israeli soldier is a French national and his family resides in France. "Without the Qatari bounteousness, Egypt had already put together a plan for the release of Shalit together with 400 Palestinian prisoners of war in Israel and without recourse to Qatari largesse whose true motives are unascertained. "And, it is understandable that the French harbour serious reservations as far as the Qatari plan is concerned," Kamal concluded.

Another official daily, Al-Ahram, applauded the efforts of President Mubarak in securing peace in the Middle East. "Mubarak expects a peace agreement to reinforce the ceasefire in Gaza by next week," Editor-in-Chief of Al-Ahram Osama Saraya wrote from Paris. Saraya quoted the French president as saying, "President Mubarak has vast experience and expertise in the international arena. He has the necessary networks and contacts that no other leader in the region has."

The independent daily Al-Masry Al-Yom focussed instead on the repercussions of Israel's continued punitive air raids on Gaza. According to the popular paper, an Israeli publication revealed that "Cairo managed to broker a deal between Hamas and the Israelis in four phases."

Even so, little happened on that front, Al-Masry Al-Yom concluded. The ruthless pounding of Gaza by the Israelis continued unabated, it maintained.

Pundits discussed at length the pros and cons of the growing chorus of disenchantment with Egypt's role in the Middle East peace process. Several commentators criticised the stance of the so-called militant states who want to see Arab states, spearheaded by Egypt, play a more assertive and dominant role in the Middle East peace process.

But the message came loaded with so much anti- Egyptian bile, insist some. Others adopted a more reconciliatory idiom -- let's put their insults to one side and see what, in concrete terms, they are offering.

Opposition papers, however, protest that these efforts are based on the premise that only a two-state solution can bring about peace. The majority of political commentators, however, concurred that a loss of Palestinian lives is unjustified on any grounds. They also agreed that nothing concrete would transpire until the results of the Israeli elections are broadcast. At any rate, the Israeli elections that took place on Tuesday received scant coverage in the Egyptian media. The consensus among the pundits was that whichever Israeli party emerges the winner their anti-Palestinian posturing is bound to reduce the chances for peace in the Middle East. Israelis of all political strands are not interested in Palestinian rights, but are only concerned about their merciless land-grab and the annihilation of the Palestinian people's will to resist.

The Israelis unabashedly advocate genocide as a means of appropriating Palestinian land. So-called leftist Israelis have played a deeply political game throughout.

European sympathy for Israel was crumbling even as the Palestinian death toll rose and as the extent of the destruction of Gaza became apparent. Several commentators commented on the change of heart in Europe regarding Israeli atrocities against the Palestinian people. This new more sympathetic attitude towards the plight of the Palestinian people was amply evident during Mubarak's European tour.

Maybe so. However, the Europeans are urged to persuade the Israelis to lift the economic blockade on Gaza, and this was the message that Mubarak conveyed to his European counterparts. "France supports Egypt's efforts to convene a Gaza reconstruction conference in Cairo," noted the official Al-Akhbar.

Editor-in-Chief of Al-Akhbar Mohamed Barakat stressed in his column "Without hesitation" that "the Egyptian efforts over the past few weeks were designed to arrive at a comprehensive peace that essentially aims at rescuing the Palestinian people from utter devastation at the hands of the Israelis. Egypt's real goal is Palestinian-Palestinian reconciliation and solidarity."

Hamas, which adamantly refuses to recognise Israel, is as popular as ever in Gaza. And, there is nothing that the Israelis can do about that except the futile collective punishment policies they are applying with full force.

Political commentators were not bereft of ideas even in the cataclysmic aftermath of Israel's onslaught on Gaza. Stripped of all diplomatic and strategic rationale, the Israelis have been denounced as hypocritical brutes. Israel's Gaza barbarous offensive spurred pundits into unleashing a tirade of stinging critiques of Israel. However, there was no shortage of anti-Hamas vitriol. One such scathing anti-Hamas bombast was by Sabri Said writing in Nahdat Misr. "Hamas is the handmaiden of Israel. It is Israel that created Hamas... to hell with you Hamas leaders and supporters," Said concluded caustically.

The schemes of Hamas misread the real present danger for the Palestinians, Said insisted. The Israelis are exacerbating the tension between the Palestinian factions. This is surely the right time to encourage Palestinians to create a united front against the Israelis.

Hamas, Said warned, is playing a dangerous divisive game. "This is low politics."