The Egyptian press of late has not expressed support for either George Bush or John Kerry in tomorrow's US presidential elections. That's because most Egyptian editors and columnists think, as the title of one article put it, "Bush or Kerry, No Difference". The Egyptian commentators believe the American administration, no matter who wins Tuesday's election, will maintain a pro-Israel stance.
Monday's Al-Akhbar newspaper carried an opinion piece entitled "No More Dreams!" in which the author, Eissa Morshed, warned, "We commit a grave mistake when thinking that the next US administration would change its stances towards the Middle East, as the Zionist Lobby in the US does its best to back the Israeli dream in the Arab world. All evidence indicates that nothing good can take place...." For Morshed, the last Arab hope is "that the European Union would continue backing the Arab position...."
In an identical lament, Abdul Mo'ati Ahmed, writing in Egypt's leading daily, Al-Ahram, said that "both Bush and Kerry are two faces of the same coin and their stances will never change; there is no hope that any one of them would change his mind to support the Arabs' legitimate rights, as both pay a special attention to the Zionist Lobby in the US." Ahmed went on to declare that "the US will remain biased to Israel, so we have to take the responsibility for settling our own issues, since others can never settle them."
Kamal Abdel Raouf, managing editor of Akhbar Al-Youm, was a bit more decisive in his paper's Saturday edition: "We in Egypt and the Middle East hope that Bush would lose the elections, not out of love for Kerry, but out of hatred for Bush, who holds aggressive feelings against the Islamic world, and who openly expresses his biased attitude in favor of Israel and his friend Sharon."
On the other hand, Abdel Raouf doesn't feel the Democratic contender will be any different: "Kerry is equally submissive and enthusiastic for Israel, and has already given a lot of promises to Israel, while he refused to meet a delegation of American Muslims, or answer their telephone calls or e-mails. This means that Bush or Kerry is all the same to us, and the US policy will pursue its blind bias to Israel and its enmity for the Arabs."
An article in Al-Gomhouriya from Thursday agreed that John Kerry "would be biased towards Israel...." However, the author Ali Hashem opined, "If Bush won a second term, tension, violence and terrorism would be ignited in the whole world, as the reform initiatives he called for in the name of the Greater Middle East project would come back to life. Also, Bush would go on practicing terror against the countries that opposed the war on Iraq, besides continuing to impose a hegemonic scheme on the whole world by force."
While Hashem expressed concern that Kerry might initially neglect the Arab-Israeli arena ("a catastrophe Israel might like, yet the Arabs would surely regret"), "I think he would change the US policy as to the Arab-Israeli conflict...."
Al-Ahram's unsigned Friday editorial disagreed vigorously with the Al-Gomhouriya columnist: "Mistaken is he who imagines that the current US policy towards the world might change if the Democratic candidate J. Kerry could keep away the neo-conservatives from the ruling lobby by ousting G. W. Bush from the White House." While current US policy has led to "more tension and instability regarding world issues in general and Arab matters in particular," the newspaper warned, "quite mistaken is he who thinks that the coming alternative for the US presidency would seek to reform the presently adopted American policy."
In fact, according to the Egyptian newspaper, "Those who follow Kerry's statements would soon realize that American policy will not change if the current president leaves the White House."
As for the Arabs, "What we wish for is a policy that defends justice and international legitimacy and advocates peoples' rights to live safe and secure." In contrast, "the prevailing policy is that of using power only to impose the status quo."
Monday's Al-Akhbar newspaper carried an opinion piece entitled "No More Dreams!" in which the author, Eissa Morshed, warned, "We commit a grave mistake when thinking that the next US administration would change its stances towards the Middle East, as the Zionist Lobby in the US does its best to back the Israeli dream in the Arab world. All evidence indicates that nothing good can take place...." For Morshed, the last Arab hope is "that the European Union would continue backing the Arab position...."
In an identical lament, Abdul Mo'ati Ahmed, writing in Egypt's leading daily, Al-Ahram, said that "both Bush and Kerry are two faces of the same coin and their stances will never change; there is no hope that any one of them would change his mind to support the Arabs' legitimate rights, as both pay a special attention to the Zionist Lobby in the US." Ahmed went on to declare that "the US will remain biased to Israel, so we have to take the responsibility for settling our own issues, since others can never settle them."
Kamal Abdel Raouf, managing editor of Akhbar Al-Youm, was a bit more decisive in his paper's Saturday edition: "We in Egypt and the Middle East hope that Bush would lose the elections, not out of love for Kerry, but out of hatred for Bush, who holds aggressive feelings against the Islamic world, and who openly expresses his biased attitude in favor of Israel and his friend Sharon."
On the other hand, Abdel Raouf doesn't feel the Democratic contender will be any different: "Kerry is equally submissive and enthusiastic for Israel, and has already given a lot of promises to Israel, while he refused to meet a delegation of American Muslims, or answer their telephone calls or e-mails. This means that Bush or Kerry is all the same to us, and the US policy will pursue its blind bias to Israel and its enmity for the Arabs."
An article in Al-Gomhouriya from Thursday agreed that John Kerry "would be biased towards Israel...." However, the author Ali Hashem opined, "If Bush won a second term, tension, violence and terrorism would be ignited in the whole world, as the reform initiatives he called for in the name of the Greater Middle East project would come back to life. Also, Bush would go on practicing terror against the countries that opposed the war on Iraq, besides continuing to impose a hegemonic scheme on the whole world by force."
While Hashem expressed concern that Kerry might initially neglect the Arab-Israeli arena ("a catastrophe Israel might like, yet the Arabs would surely regret"), "I think he would change the US policy as to the Arab-Israeli conflict...."
Al-Ahram's unsigned Friday editorial disagreed vigorously with the Al-Gomhouriya columnist: "Mistaken is he who imagines that the current US policy towards the world might change if the Democratic candidate J. Kerry could keep away the neo-conservatives from the ruling lobby by ousting G. W. Bush from the White House." While current US policy has led to "more tension and instability regarding world issues in general and Arab matters in particular," the newspaper warned, "quite mistaken is he who thinks that the coming alternative for the US presidency would seek to reform the presently adopted American policy."
In fact, according to the Egyptian newspaper, "Those who follow Kerry's statements would soon realize that American policy will not change if the current president leaves the White House."
As for the Arabs, "What we wish for is a policy that defends justice and international legitimacy and advocates peoples' rights to live safe and secure." In contrast, "the prevailing policy is that of using power only to impose the status quo."