EGYPT: Bush should not expect warm welcome

U.S. President George Bush arrived today in Sharm El-Sheikh for peace talks with his Egyptian counterpart, Hosni Mubarak, and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas.

Yet, no warm welcome should be expected, especially when it is believed that he mainly came to the region to celebrate Israel's 60th anniversary. Earlier this week, demonstrators in downtown Cairo protested his visit, accusing him of siding with Israel at the expense of the Palestinians.

Egypt is the final stop in Bush’s Middle East tour after Israel and Saudi Arabia. He first landed in the Jewish state, where he addressed the Knesset to congratulate the Israelis on their country's anniversary.

“Masada will not fall again,” Bush said in his speech Thursday, referring to the Jewish desert fortress that was attacked by troops of the Roman Empire. While the speech was hailed as “historic” by some Israeli papers, it elicited stir in Egypt. The state-owned daily paper Al-Ahram dismissed the speech as inspired by the Torah. 

“May the U.S. president allow me to convey to him the outrage that his speech elicited in the Arab street as he did not mention one word about the plight of the Palestinian people or the illegitimacy of occupation,” wrote Morsi Atallah in today’s issue of Al-Ahram.

Bush is also expected to meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai as well as Abbas today. Then, he is set to meet with Jordan's King Abdullah, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and Iraqi officials on Sunday.

Last week, Bush made front-page news in the local press after the exclusive interview he had given to Egypt’s most popular talk show, “10 P.M.” He was criticized for commenting that Palestinians and Israelis had suffered equally over the last 60 years.

“Most probably, when Bush was a kid, he did not learn anything about history, except George Washington’s history,” commentator Lamis Gaber mocked today in the well-respected independent daily al-Masry al-Youm. “It seems that he was armed before the presidential elections with little information on history and politics. However, he did not memorize it well.”

-- Noha El-Hennawy in Cairo

Photo: President Bush addresses the Knesset in Jerusalem this week. (AP /Susan Walsh)

P.S. The Los Angeles Times issues a free daily newsletter with the latest headlines from the Middle East, the war in Iraq and the frictions between the West and Islam. You can subscribe by registering at the website here, logging in here and clicking on the World: Mideast newsletter box here.

Comments

[Stephen Swain]

Perhaps it would be better just to begin ignoring this president. He has worn out his welcome at home and abroad so completely that the only decent thing to do is to move on. Let us hope that whoever is elected to replace him will have a greater sense of reality than he. May his retirement from public life be as blissfully unaware as his tenure in office has been, as he seems constitutionally incapable of understanding anything of moment.

[Sean K]

If we shouldn't even be talking to Hamas, how can we give speeches in the Israeli parliament... how can we sell them the means to their neighbors destruction and allow them nuclear capabilitiy? Maybe its because their white Europeans whose religion we're at least familiar with. The American perspective on the middle east situation cannot be understood in any way other than through the looking glass of racism.