Thursday, January 01, 2009

Ja`ja` (Ga`ga` in Egyptian accent) and Mubarak

"Among those who blame the Arab states friendly to the US – especially Egypt – for the current crisis are pan-Arab newspapers like Al Quds al Arabi and the Egyptian opposition paper Al Dostor. Their common theme is that the Egyptian regime has sold out to Washington and Tel Aviv. Hardly a week goes by that Fahmy Huwedi, one of Egypt’s most influential columnists, does not repeat some variation of this theme in Al Dostor. One late October column, for example, sarcastically suggested that the Egyptian government treats the leaders of Hamas with scorn but opens its arms to “every Tom, Dick and Harry with a pro-US orientation.” He noted that the Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, managed only a brief meeting with Egypt’s foreign minister during a recent visit to Cairo. By contrast, Huwedi wrote, the Lebanese Christian politician and former warlord Samir Geagea, a member of the pro-US March 14 coalition “whose hands are covered with Palestinian blood”, received a full audience with Mubarak." (thanks Nathan)