Virtual realities
The Egyptian press this week concentrated on the Sharm El-Sheikh and Aqaba Summits, expressing concern at the concessions forced on the Palestinians, writes Aziza Sami
The editorials of the national dailies this week commended the seriousness of intent expressed by US President George W Bush at the Sharm El-Sheikh Summit, as regards attaining a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the implementation of the roadmap. The underlying scepticism that had accompanied this initial reaction became apparent, however, in the wake of the Aqaba Summit held between Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in the presence of the American president.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell's reference to Israel as a "Jewish state" for instance, elicited a strong reaction from editor-in-chief of the Egyptian national daily Al-Akhbar, Galal Dowidar. On 6 June Dowidar wrote of "the shock induced by [these] ambiguous statements issued by Powell and approved by Bush, after the Aqaba Summit". He described talk of a Jewish state as "opposed by the Palestinians -- and justifiably so -- since this totally contradicts their legitimate right of return to their land, from which they were evicted by Jewish settlements and colonialism".
Dowidar, who has been forceful in his criticism of US policies, argued against what he described as "American complicity" that was aborting the implementation of international resolutions on the right of return of the Palestinian refugees. He directed strong words at what he described as the "contradictions" of a US policy that allowed the establishment of "a theocratic and apartheid [Jewish] state that practises [violence against other religions] ... at the same time that America is conducting campaigns against Islam, for promoting 'terrorism'".
Arguing in a more restrained tone, but in a similar vein, editor-in-chief of the national daily Al-Ahram, Ibrahim Nafie asked "How can normal relations be conducted between Arabs and Israelis, when Israeli armed forces continue their invasion of Palestinian territories? How can the Arabs, even as they condemn terrorism, agree to the confusing of legitimate resistance to occupation with terrorism?"
On a different note in Al-Ahram on 6 June, Egyptian-American academic Ma'moun Fandy, whose arguments often go against the grain of mainstream thinking and "obsolete" Pan-Arab and Islamist notions, wrote of the Sharm El- Sheikh Summit as having been a "Point of Transformation". Fandy commended Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's call at the Summit, to "fight terrorism, regardless of its ... justifications or motivations", describing the president as "a symbol of clear-headed leadership -- which not many will contest". Laudations of the president tend to adorn many of Fandy's articles, who also claims to understand completely how decision-makers in the US think. He thus described the Sharm El-Sheikh Summit as "having truly and decisively" settled the question of "how to deal with the environment that breeds violence and terrorism in the region".
An interesting, unsigned editorial in Al-Ahram on 4 June entitled, "The necessity of distinguishing between terrorism and resistance", argued somewhat differently that "since 11 September, 2001, US policies have illogically and unjustifiably made 'terrorism' synonymous with 'the Palestinian question and the Arab-Israeli conflict'." This "artificial connection" had been induced by pressures exerted on the US administration by Israel and Zionist lobbies within the US, argued Al-Ahram, causing the US to adopt an Israeli vision which "brands the Lebanese and Palestinian resistance groups as terrorists, and aims at equating martyrdom operations undertaken within this context with the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington".
On the domestic front, Abbas El-Tarabili, a scathing commentator on economic affairs and editor-in-chief of the daily opposition newspaper Al- Wafd, on 5 June turned his searing criticism to contradictions in the government's new budget. "If our resources are, as the government claims, rising by billions, why then is it that we are being asked to tighten our belts ever further, and why is the government seeking to take more of what is in people's pockets"?
El-Tarabili pointed to the current budget deficit, which rose from LE10,311 million last year to LE16,570 million this year. This has been accompanied by rising government expenditure, and, according to El-Tarabili, unsubstantiated claims of rising revenue in addition to ambiguity over the real size of domestic debt and how it is being dealt with. "Egypt is sick," he admonished, "and its cure does not lie in the hands of the government alone." He demanded "a comprehensive solution in which all Egyptians will participate, even the NDP, which does have brains and competent people like the rest of the political parties and currents".
This contrasted with the optimistic statements highlighted on 8 June in Al- Ahram's banner which reported Abdel-Shakour Shaalan, board-member of the IMF, as saying that "the Egyptian government is moving in the right direction, and we expect growth to attain three per cent in the current year." The national weekly Akhbar Al-Yom and the economic daily newspaper Al-Aalam Al-Yom on 7 June both reported "news agencies" predicting that a Free Trade Area between Egypt and the US was "impending".
This, one should take with a grain of salt, since similar news, reported with great fanfare in the Egyptian press in the past, has consistently proven to be wishful thinking. It did not help that Akhbar Al-Yom added in a self- contradictory manner that "a Bush administration official said he had no information on the possibility of talks on an FTA."
The independent and opposition press was interesting as usual, with the independent daily Al-Osbou devoting three-quarters of its 9 June issue to the arrest of its Editor-in-Chief Mustafa Bakri and his brother Mahmoud, the paper's managing editor. The arrests of the Bakri brothers on charges of defaming Chairman of the Social Justice Party Mohamed Abdel-Aal (currently serving time for bribery and forgery) have taken on the proportions of a national crisis, with allegations being made that the authorities were attempting to reign in the sometimes virulent political campaigns launched in the independent press. Head of the Journalists Syndicate Ibrahim Nafie has stepped in to mediate the issue.
The independent daily Sout El-Umma fell short of good taste, however, when it announced in its banners on 9 June that "The Muslim Brotherhood's Supreme Guide Ma'moun Al-Hodeibi, is afflicted with Alzheimer's!" Mis- diagnosing the disease as "temporary amnesia", the paper reproduced photocopies of "medical certificates" attesting to Al-Hodeibi's loss of memory. It is intriguing that the Brotherhood, whom many observers view as a political force to be co-opted, not alienated, should remain subject to periodic "press campaigns" of this kind. One wonders whether this will not be self-defeating in the end.
The opposition daily Al-Arabi , issued by the Nasserist Party, titillated its readers as usual with more crossing of "red lines". "Who will rule Egypt after President Mubarak?" queried an article published in the 8 June issue. The smaller headlines answered "the parties are besieged, with no alternatives on the table." Al-Arabi said that this article was a translation of a study published in a US contemporary affairs journal called Current History, which had written about "the conflict over Egypt's future". Al-Arabi reported that "Gamal Mubarak will go to Washington on 26 June" on a visit "in which he will be asked questions on the political situation in Egypt, and whether he is being groomed to take on the presidency".
The paper also re-printed the article written by Al-Ahram's columnist Salama A Salama on "the American Chamber of Commerce" published last week. In a separate story the newspaper asked, "What exactly is AmCham doing? Brokerage, agencies and funding the Future Party". More of such campaigns against AmCham may be expected.
But then again, the choice of AmCham as a venue for rhetorical heavy- handedness by US officials becomes irksome after a while, especially when journalists are singled out by name, as happened with Salama. We must not forget, either, that the astute and well-argued criticism of domestic policies and other ticklish issues by this "columnists' columnist" has never led to any such censure from an Egyptian official.
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 12 - 18 June 2003 (Issue No. 642)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/642/pr1.htm