Advancing U.S. and Western Interests

MANY editorials and opinion articles in Cairo's press yesterday addressed issues related to the US and Israel and their polices towards Egypt and the Arab region. Writing in Al-Messa'iya evening newspaper, Mohamed el-Sakhawai noted that neither of the two main U.S. presidential candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain, would favour Arab interests as both were interested first of in advancing U.S. interests and policies. The writer believed that the goal of U.S. leaders would be to "prolong the lack of unity in the Arab world, using Israel as a catalyst, which is a goal for the West as a whole."

Al-Ahrar opposition newspaper, in a two-page investigative story, harshly criticised what it termed as interference the U.S. Ambassador to Egypt, Margaret Scobey, in Egypt's internal affairs. While noting that the majority of the opposition parties had received Scobey, the paper argued that such parties condemned the alleged interference. The criticisms by the majority of academics and MPs interviewed by the paper focused on Scobey's remarks criticising the recent two-year imprisonment verdict by the Egyptian judiciary against Saad Eddin Ibrahim, the Egyptian-U.S. head of Ibn Khaldoun Centre for Development Studies, for seeking to distort Egypt's image abroadand to spoil Egyptian-US relations.

Israel from within Writing in Al-Masry Al-Youm, Khalid Azab urged Arabs to study the cultural and ideological interactions inside Israel to be better able to deal with that country, making use of its current ideological trends. Quoting the recently published"Genocide in Palestine" by Israeli historian Ilan Pappe, Azab recalled the many massacres committed against the Arabs in some 500 villages and towns Palestine before the 1948 war. The writer believe that the first step for Israel to live in peace with others was to acknowledge that such crimes were indeed committed and to compensate for them, as such crimes had caused lingering hatred of Israel by its neighbours.

Writing in Al-Ahrar, Refaat Sayed Ahmed noted the 'strategic importance' of Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. According to Ahmed, their importance for Israel caused the IsraeliGovernment "to provide the settlers with aid, tax exemptions, services and utilities to encourage them to live in the occupied territories."

An unsigned editorial in Al-Ahram newspaper criticised Israel's reported conditions for a final settlement with the Palestinians.The editorial rejected the conditions reported by the Israeli Maariv newspaper, which involved the continuation of the presence of the Israeli Army along the Jordan River and at border crossings. The editorial concluded that Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims would not accept a continuation of Israel's control over the Palestine territories, particularly Al-Aqsa Mosque." Any final settlement should be fair and meet the demands of both the Palestinians and the Israelis, and not simply seek the security of Israel alone," read the editorial.

Freedom of speech Writing in Al-Wafd opposition newspaper, Saeed Abdel-Khaleq noted that the level of freedom of opinion in Egypt was unprecedented since 1952, but urged that such freedom should not be misused to cause harm to the homeland or distort Egypt's reputation abroad. The writer, however, blamed the policies of government officials and their misuse of power that had caused much of the criticism concerning the government and Egypt. While highlighting the importance of difference in opinions, he urged that writers should not claim, at home or abroad, to be speaking in the name of the Egyptians from the point of view of the man of the street.

According to Mohamed el- Hawari, writing in Al-Akhbar, the recent tours by the Egyptian Minister of Investment Mahmoud Mohieedin to Malaysia and Singapore, and Minister of Trade and Industry Rashid Mohamed Rashid to Brazil were to help Egypt benefit from theexperiences of the progressive economies of these countries. The writer regretted that these countries, unlike Egypt, managed to achieve booming progress in short period of time and urged Egypt to follow their example "To do so would take a strong Government and bold economic policies," el-Hawari presumed.

Writing in Al-Alam Al-Youm business daily, Sayed el-Babli praised the skills and discipline of Asian workers and craftsmen as opposed to Egyptian workers. The writer urged that specialised companies and training centres be set up for such professionals and craftsmen to improve their standards. According to the writer, this would prevent over dependence on foreign workers instead of the Egyptians at home and abroad, which harmed the image of Egyptian workers abroad and increased unemployment at home. Woes of the Stock Exchange Writing in Al-Gomhuria newspaper, Abdallah Nassar raised many questions about the performance of Egypt's Stock Exchange and the way in which it was being run. The writer criticised the board of directors which operated the Stock Exchange for failing to take appropriate decisions and put an end to the 'fragility' of the stock market and the recent deterioration of its performance. He attributed this to a lack of control and monitoring of performance of listed companies trading in the stock market.