"THE Palestinians and Arabs have the full right to be angry at the UN Human Rights Council's decision to postpone debating the report of Judge Richard Goldstone that accuses Israel of committing crimes against humanity during its war on Gaza," Ibrahim Se'da wrote in Al-Akhbar semi-official newspaper yesterday.The writer sees that the report is a golden opportunity for defusing Israel's traditional claim of using violence against the Palestinians as the only possible response to counter Palestinian terrorism against Israeli civilians
."However, the UN's fact-finding committee, led by the reputable judge, proved that Israel has committed war crimes and called for referring their perpetrators to the International Criminal Court, a matter that scared the Israelis and caused their premier to direct inappropriate verbal accusations against the UN Secretary General," he said."The Secretary General paid no attention to the Israeli reaction and ordered the report to be referred to the UN Security Council to take a vote over its recommendations of condemning Israel as a terrorist state using its weapons for mass cleansing of the inhabitants of Gaza," the writer continued.Se'da, therefore, expressed his shock at hearing the news of the indefinite delay in debating Goldstone report, which 'pleased the Israelis and received the praise of the Obama administration'.He criticised the 'suspicious silence' of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas over this delay, while he praised the Arab League Chief Amr Moussa, who complained that such a step had not been preceded by consultations with the pan-Arab organisation.Suspicious deals behindthe scenesMeanwhile, Ibrahim Nafea, writing in Al-Ahram semi-official daily, accused Moussa of only paying lip service in dealing with this report."The Arab League made no more than a forum and press conference to announce the start of taking measures to pursue the Israeli war criminals after the Gaza assaults. Then it displayed full silence," reckoned Nafea. He expressed his belief that a political deal had been conducted between the Palestinian Authority on the one hand and Washington and some European capitals on the other, for restarting the peace talks on the condition of not seeking to bring 'the Israeli criminals' to justice.The European countries might have warned of not financially assisting the Palestinian Authority (PA), a threat that has prompted the PA to take the decision to delay debating the Goldstone report, Nafea finally suggestedOptimistic signs onIranian nukesIn the same newspaper yesterday, Makram Mohamed Ahmed sounded optimistic about the possible settlement of the Iranian nuclear dispute through diplomatic means, citing significant progress made on the Iranian file in talks in Geneva."There is some progress on the Iranian nuclear file after Tehran's acceptance of allowing international inspectors into the new uranium enrichment site being created close to the city of Qom." He pointed out that the International Atomic Energy Agency's director Mohamed el-Baradei had refused to accuse Tehran of possessing a military nuclear programme for a lack of evidence. Nonetheless, he expressed his concern at Tehran's failure to respect the IAEA's decision committing Iran to inform it of the Qom site before its creation in 2006.Patriotic 6 October callMarking the 36th anniversary of the October 6 victory, meanwhile, Mohamed Amin suggested in Al-Wafd opposition newspaper changing the public holiday and some others to days of work to deal with national problems."I don't know the public reaction to my call of turning October 6 into a day of work, on which the State pursues the implementation of an important project such as replanning one of the shanty towns located in different parts of the country," he suggested.Amin explained: "This is not a call for cancelling a national day but for transforming it into a day of serious work for the welfare of the country". He continued that Egyptians should be inspired by the sense of victory they accomplished on that day 'to be more active'.Spirit of October victory In a similar spirit, Alaa Abdel-Wahab wrote in Al-Akhbar yesterday, urging citizens to continue their war against economic, cultural, and social weakness and to restore the national spirit that managed to achieve the October victory around 36 years ago."We are still living in the climate of a war that we should launch in different cultural, economic and social fields and to obtain victory if we are honest about creating a better future for this nation. Can the grandchildren of October's heroes repeat this triumph in other fields?"Actively anticipating electionEgypt's parliamentary elections still one year to go, some political parties and activists have already started preparing for that day. The independent newspaper of Al-Shorouq yesterday carried three relevant stories. The first quoted the noted political activist Yehia el-Gamal as calling for the creation of a national front to hamper the alleged succession of power from President Mubarak to his son.El-Gamal, a legal expert, accused the regime of working on turning Egypt into a "royal" republic.The second story dealt with the creation of an alliance under the name of 'Egyptians for Free Elections' led by judge Mahmoud el-Khodeiri, who recently resigned, and includes as members parliamentarians and university professors as well as former diplomats. The alliance is aimed to create the machinery for ensuring free, honest elections.Concerning the "Egyptians for Change" front, the paper reiterated its call upon the opposition parties as well as the banned Muslim Brotherhood group to boycott the 2010 parliamentary elections if they do not have enough guarantees to ensure their transparency and honesty.The paper wrote that this front calls for forming an impartial committee to supervise all stages of the elections, including the preparation of the voters' lists according to the ID numbers. The front also demands that official media give access to all candidates in order to explain their programmes and to have the elections supervised by the Egyptian human rights groups and the Arab League, as well as the international supervision of the UN, the European Union and the African Union.Gamal's youthful supportersMeanwhile, Al-Wafd wrote on its front page about the creation of a new website on Facebook by some young members of the ruling National Democratic Party supporting Gamal Mubarak to succeed his father in ruling the country. The paper reviewed some opinions of those young supporters, emphasising that their number did not exceed 19 persons.Fortresses in Garden CityOn the last page of Al-Messa evening newspaper yesterday, Mohamed Fouda criticised the stringent security measures in place near the US and British embassies in the Garden City quarter of Cairo. "Unlike other foreign embassies in Egypt, these two embassies enjoy firm security measures preventing vehicles from passing through the streets adjacent to them. Strangely enough, these two embassies are built as if they were fortresses of the Medieval Ages and no conventional weapons could threaten them. As a result, citizens are forced to take long routes to reach their jobs close to these embassies."Fouda wondered if the Egyptian embassies in Washington and London enjoy similar protection so as to justify giving similar treatment to these two embassies in Cairo."We urge removing barricades set up by the security agencies around these embassies as it gives a bad image of the Egyptian people, making them look like terrorists and not peace-loving people."
From The Egyptian Gazette
