Egypt accuses U.S. of having double standard
Mubarak aide labels Sharon a war criminal
By Teresa Castle
San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 17, 2002
Cairo -- In a sign of a widening gap between the Arab world and the United States, President Hosni Mubarak's chief spokesman accused the Bush administration of "playing this game of double standards" in the Israeli- Palestinian conflict.
In an interview with The Chronicle, Nabil Osman lashed out angrily at the Bush administration for not criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for what the Egyptian called his "war crimes."
"What's being committed now against the Palestinian population in the occupied territories is no less heinous and no less ferocious and no less inhumane," he said, comparing Sharon's West Bank military campaign to the Balkan conflict that landed Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in a war crimes court in The Hague.
Osman's tough talk also appeared to signal a new intensity in the war of words between the Mubarak government and Israel. Early this month, Mubarak denounced Sharon's incursion into the West Bank and cut off all relations except for those related to the Palestinian Authority.
"The war crimes being committed by Sharon will not lead to an end to the violence," said Osman, jabbing his finger in the air. "They will only lead to revenge and counter-revenge."
As Secretary of State Colin Powell struggles to find a way out of the Middle East stalemate, there are growing signs that Israel's deadly two-week operation in the West Bank is provoking a dangerous sense of outrage in Arab countries that threatens to wipe out any real will for a lasting peace.
Such collective frustration is also evident among moderate nations such as Egypt and Jordan, which have been crucial intermediaries in peace initiatives sponsored by the United States and are central to the Bush administration's hopes of forging a comprehensive regional deal.
Scoffing at the terrorist label that Sharon has pinned on Yasser Arafat in an attempt to discredit his credentials as leader of the Palestinian Authority,
Osman took Israel to task for what he said was cynically invoking the war on terrorism.
"They have abused the American preoccupation with combatting terrorism to try and smear the image of the Palestinian leadership," he charged. "They are trying to blur the eyes of the world -- and the Americans mostly -- to what's happening on the ground."
Osman also predicted that the Israeli assault on the West Bank town of Jenin would rank with the infamous 1982 massacre in the Sabra and Chatilla refugee camps in Lebanon, which left from 800 to more than 2,000 Palestinians dead. At the time, Christian militiamen went on a killing spree after being allowed into the camps by Israeli soldiers then occupying the western sector of Beirut.
Palestinian officials put the death toll in Jenin in the hundreds; Israeli officials say there are about three dozen fatalities so far.
The anger expressed by the Mubarak government has found an even more strident voice in the streets.
"Anyone who fires a bullet at an Israeli is supported," said an activist who helped organize recent anti-Israel demonstrations in Cairo and who asked not to be named. "The Palestinian cause is the strongest radicalizing force in the region."
In Jordan last week, 15,000 protesters called for a "holy war" against Israel. In Egypt, police were called to quell riots by about 10,000 demonstrators in Alexandria, and one student protester was killed when he was shot in the chest.
The governments of Egypt and Jordan have come under enormous pressure to cut off relations with Israel. Protesters are demanding that their leaders withdraw the recent Arab League peace proposal, which offers "normal relations" with Israel in return for Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories and establishment of an independent state of Palestine. Instead, they want their leaders to support the Palestinians not only with words but with funds to buy weapons.
But their governments' unwillingness to sever all ties with Israel is drawing the ire of many protesters. "Such solidarity poses a problem for their own regimes," said the same protest organizer. "The silence of the Arab world is destabilizing."
To be sure, there are still vocal peace advocates in Egypt.
Abdel Monem Said Aly, director of the al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, insists that peace with Israel is essential because of the interdependence of the Israeli and Arab regimes. As a first step, he advocates a troop pullout from the West Bank and an international observer force to separate the belligerents.
He also said he thinks that the window of opportunity for the Arab League proposal has passed and that only a new international conference, as proposed by Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, can pave the way for peace.
But he acknowledged the difficulty of the task. "You cannot negotiate in the environment erected by Sharon," he said. "It is too poisonous."
In a mark of the sudden rise in militancy in Egypt, condemnation of suicide bombers has given way to vocal support for their actions, even from unlikely quarters.
Some government-appointed clerics, who command great respect among the people, recently dropped their long-standing policy of condemning attacks on civilians. Mufti Ahmed al-Tayyeb, a state appointed Muslim cleric, called Palestinian suicide bombers "martyrs of the highest order."
Osman said the Egyptian government is firmly opposed to suicide bombers but added, "We must look at the root causes of such attacks. Why are these people - - young girls of 16 or 18 even -- committing suicide? Because somebody has pushed them to the edge of despair and even beyond. If there was no occupation, we would not be talking about suicide bombing."
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MILITANT MANIFESTO
As governments in the Middle East walk a fine line by condemning Israel while trying to rein in public anger at the Israeli incursion in the West Bank, militant groups are stepping in to fill the void.
Last week, several militant groups published a manifesto declaring that Arab governments had betrayed the Palestinians and called holy war "the religious duty of every Muslim."
"The armies and security apparatus in the Arab and Islamic countries should be with their people, supporting their right of freedom of expression . . . instead of facing them with bullets and batons," the statement read.
The declaration bore the signatures of the leaders of the Lebanese Hezbollah, the founder of Hamas and the leader of Egypt's outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, as well as the heads of militant Islamic groups in Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Syria, Morocco, Iran, Malaysia, Yemen, Sri Lanka, Libya, Iraq, Turkey, Algeria, Tunisia, South Africa and Mauritania.
©2002 San Francisco Chronicle
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