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Egyptians React To Recall Of Ambassador
CAIRO (IslamOnline) - In a rare show of national unity, Egyptians rallied around President Hosni Mubarak’s decision to recall its Egyptian ambassador from Israel, still demanding the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador in Cairo and tougher measures to end nearly two months of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
Several political parties, opposition groups and intellectuals raced on Wednesday to declare their support for Egypt’s decision Tuesday to protest what Cairo calls “Israel’s excessive use of force.”
The semi-official daily, al-Gomhouria, urged Israel Wednesday to withdraw its ambassador to Cairo as his presence in the Egyptian capital was “no longer welcome.”
“What does Israel wait for to recall its ambassador here,” wrote Samir Raga, editor of the popular paper. “No one on this pure soil of Egypt can bear him [Israeli ambassadors] any more.”
Similar calls were echoed in other official wide-circulation newspapers: al-Akhbar, the opposition leftist weekly al-Ahaly and the independent Osboa newspaper.
Egypt’s largest Islamic group, the Muslim Brotherhood, which won 17 seats in November’s parliamentary elections issued a statement in support of the diplomatic move.
Mostapha Mashhour, Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, which claims to be the most popular party among Egypt’s 65 million people, described the measure as “very brave.”
Cairo was fiercely criticized at home for failing to take tough measures against Israel during an emergency Arab summit held in Cairo in October to review the situation in the Palestinian Occupied Territories. Egypt, the Arab world’s most powerful country, was the first nation to sign a peace treaty with Israel and has since acted as a regional peace broker.
The Brotherhood, which has often called for hard-line measures against Israel, said “bigger steps were also needed if rights were to return to their truthful owners.”
Public opinion in many Arab and Muslim countries has been running high after Israel harshly cracked down on Palestinian demonstrators protesting a visit by a militant Israeli politician to the al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site, on September 28th.
Egypt's diplomatic action was the strongest sign of protest by a Muslim nation since the Palestinian uprising began two months ago in which more than 250 lives have been lost, most of them Palestinian.
This major diplomatic move followed Israeli missile strikes on Palestinian targets in Gaza killing one person and wounding at least 20. Israel had launched the strikes after a bomb blast outside a Jewish settlement killing two Israeli settlers.
More than 2,000 intellectuals signed a collective petition on Tuesday to call on Arab and Muslim governments to “live up to the expectations of their own people,” by taking practical measures to punish Israel for its atrocities against Palestinian civilians.
The Egyptian government also said it will allow humanitarian aid donated by Egyptians and collected by volunteers and Muslim non-governmental organizations (NGO) to be delivered to the besieged Palestinians through the Arab border-crossing point of Rafah on the border with Israel. The convoy will arrive to Rafah on Thursday.
In spite of the applause at home Egypt’s decision received, experts in Israel said Egypt was only playing for public opinion at home. The Jerusalem Post, a daily English-language Israeli paper, quoted several Israeli experts as saying that is “still keeping the door open for continued contacts with Israel.”
The paper quoted Middle East affairs expert Gabriel Ben-Dor of Haifa University's Political Science department as saying "Egypt is interested in being the great Arab country which leads the Arab world, while maintaining normal relations with Israel.”
“This has been the case for over 20 years and the Egyptians have adhered to this line at great odds and under very difficult circumstances," he said.
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