EGYPT: Arab states divided over Gaza

Arab foreign ministers met Wednesday to work out a common stance on the situation in the Gaza Strip amid deep rifts among Arab states in their positions on Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement that runs Gaza.

The envoys were expected to discuss a proposal made by Qatar and Syria to hold a summit in Doha, the Qatari capital, to develop a joint Arab position. That idea, however, was opposed by Saudi Arabia and Egypt, both U.S. allies, who were unwilling to throw their full support behind a summit that might boost Hamas. 

Though all Arab states hold Israel responsible for the situation in Gaza, Saudi Arabia and Egypt put the blame partially on Hamas for the escalation of violence.

In his opening speech, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al Faisal argued that the division of the Palestinian leadership--Hamas ruling in Gaza and Fatah in the West Bank--contributed to the ongoing Israeli attacks. “This massacre would not have happened had the Palestinian people been united behind one leadership,” he said. 

AFGHANISTAN: Marines preparing for deployment

There are increasing indications that more Marines will be going to Afghanistan to bolster the 3,000 already there.

The Marines are revising training at their California bases to prepare troops for Afghanistan, the Marine Corps Times reports. Those changes will affect the desert training facility at Twentynine Palms and the mountain warfare training center at Bridgeport, the newspaper says.

-- Tony Perry in San Diego

Photo: A Marine in the Khowst province of Afghanistan, near the Pakistani border. Credit: Steve Hebert Polaris / For The Times

GAZA STRIP: Aid boat docks in Lebanon after being damaged

They sailed toward the Gaza Strip coast on a mission to provide the Palestinian territory's besieged civilians with medical care.

But the group of international activists was forbidden Tuesday by the Israeli navy from reaching  its destination.

Their small boat was seriously rammed by Israeli warships, the activists said, and they were warned to leave immediately.

"We were so shocked that at first we didn't react," said Caoimhe Butterly, an activist with the Free Gaza Movement, a U.S.-based organization that sent the ship Dignity from Larnaca, Cyprus, to Palestinian shores with 3 tons of medical supplies and three doctors aboard.

Butterly said that the ship was well in international waters when Israeli gunboats fired flares and flashed huge floodlights before ramming the boat three times and hitting the side of it hard:

"We began taking on water and, for a few minutes, we all feared for our lives.... After they rammed us, they started screaming at us as we were frantically getting the lifeboats ready and putting on our life jackets. They kept yelling that if we didn't turn back they would shoot us."

IRAQ: Bush, the shoe thrower and the judge

Iraq’s highest judiciary panel postponed the trial of journalist Muntather Zaidi, who tossed his shoes at President Bush on his visit to Baghdad this month. Zaidi's ill-fated throw catapulted him to notoriety as the man who stood up to Bush, making him a folk hero to some and a hooligan to others.

Iraq’s Supreme Judiciary Council said it had delayed the trial so an appeals court could consider Zaidi’s lawyers’ motion that the journalist should face less than Iraq’s maximum 15-year prison sentence for assaulting a foreign leader. Zaidi’s trial had been due to start Wednesday.

“They wanted to have his trial ... before the New Year and Bush’s last day in the White House. That is what those politicians wanted. Thank God the judge was neutral,” Zaidi’s brother Thirgam told The Times.

EGYPT: Under a torrent of Gaza anger, Cairo defends itself

Egypt has seized on the death of an Egyptian security officer, allegedly killed by Hamas at the border with Gaza, to defuse public sympathy for the political group amid mounting regional pressure. 

Most state-owned newspapers ran a picture of slain Egyptian officer Yasser Essawy on their front pages Tuesday and condemned "Hamas irrationality.”

Mohamed Barakat, the editor in chief of Al-Akhbar daily wrote:

“Despite our deep and continuous sympathy with the Palestinian people in the ordeal they are facing now and despite our anger at the unjust aggression and the brutal cleansing they are going through, we consider what happened [to the officer] a major flaw that shows blindness and irrationality…

Hamas heroes, who suffer from shortsightedness and the inability to distinguish right and wrong and friends and foes, are the ones responsible for the blood of the Egyptian martyr Essam Essawi. They [Hamas fighters] acted haphazardly, which allowed Israel to drag them into this trap and gave it the pretext to launch this attack on Gaza.”

Essawy was allegedly shot dead Sunday by Palestinians at the Egyptian-Gazan border.

Since the outbreak of Israeli air strikes in Gaza, Egypt has been facing regional pressure to open the border crossing.

Demonstrations against the Cairo regime were arranged in Egypt as well as in several Arab capitals. Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary general of Hezbollah, criticized Egypt harshly on Sunday and Monday, calling on Egyptians to take to the street to protest their government’s response to the Israeli attack.

EGYPT: Coptic pope bans phone confessions

Egypt's Coptic pope has outlawed confessions over the phone for fear that state security agents might be listening in, a local newspaper reported this week.

"Confessions over the telephone are forbidden, because there is a chance the telephones are monitored and the confessions will reach state security," the pope was quoted as saying in the independent al-Masry al-Youm daily.

Pope Shenouda III also forbade online confessions as they might be read by others.

“Confession through the Internet cannot be considered confession because everybody can read it and hence it will not be a secret,” added the pope.

Telephoned confessions are a relatively new practice -- only allowed for the last four or five years, Coptic bishop Marcos was quoted in a report by Agence France-Presse.

In the same press report, Marcos said that the pope also has banned monks from using cellphones.

"The monk is supposed to be secluded from the world," he said. "But the mobile phone brings the world to him,"

—Noha El-Hennawy in Cairo

Photo: Pope Shenouda III. Credit: Freecopts.net

GAZA STRIP: In praise of Al Jazeera, Part 2

I almost pulled off a historic bit of journalistic sociology last night.

A producer with Fox News e-mailed me, asking for an interview on what the situation was like in Gaza. Like many people, he didn't realize that I'm not actually in Gaza and that Israel has prevented journalists from entering since the conflict began.

The poor guy was clearly desperate for some sort of on-the-ground perspective, and I saw my opportunity.

I told him by phone. "You know, I can get you in touch with a really good reporter and fluent English speaker who's been reporting from the Gaza Strip for months."

He got excited. I waited for a few seconds to build anticipation.

LEBANON: Hezbollah says it won't provoke Israel clash over Gaza

Will Hezbollah or won't it?

That's the question on the minds of many throughout the Middle East.

Will the Shiite militia which fought Israel to a stalemate in the summer 2006 war intercede militarily on behalf of Palestinians in Gaza or won't it?

The answer so far seems to be a resounding "no."

At least, that is what the Shiite militant group has strongly suggested over the last couple of days.

On Sunday evening, in an address to Shiites in Beirut’s southern suburb, Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah made it clear that his party would not actively seek to provoke an Israeli attack against Lebanon and would only react to defend itself.

We should be aware that this bad timing amid Arab collusion, an international void, an economic crisis and the U.S. political vacuum between Bush and Obama, might tempt Israel to take a certain action against Lebanon, especially since they need to make such a move for political and electoral gains.

He also denied any responsibility for a set of rockets discovered along the border with Israel last week, stating even that the Jewish state might have actually planted them to find justifications to strike Lebanon.

Lebanon has to be cautious and not to underestimate what is happening around it. ... I have asked the brothers in the resistance in the south specifically to be present, on alert and cautious because we are facing a criminal enemy and we don't know the magnitude of the conspiracies being weaved around us.

In his recent speeches, Nasrallah focused instead on galvanizing the Arab world to push their governments to provide more support to the Palestinians.

IRAQ: Islamic New Year in Baghdad

Monday marked the first day of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar, and the start of the most significant religious festival for Shiite Muslims.

In Khadamiya, a Shiite neighborhood, vendors began setting up small stands to peddle holiday goods, including drums, flags and cymbals to be used during the procession of Shiite pilgrims traveling to the shrines of the Twelve Imams, who are believed to be the descendants of the prophet Muhammad. In Baghdad, pilgrims pay their respects at the shrine of Khadim, who is considered the Seventh Imam. The Ninth Imam is also honored at this shrine.

"I opened this stall two days ago because this is the beginning of the season," said Mohammed Heider al-Ghaith, 19. "It is different than the last years. It used to be that our market flourished on the sixth or seventh day, but now it started early and business is very good thanks to the security situation achieved by our government."

AFGHANISTAN: Taliban bomber kills 14 children in attack

One of the more horrifying aspects of the struggles in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere has been the slaughter of school children and the conversion of their schools into instruments of warfare.

In the early days of the U.S.-led the invasion of Iraq, troops found schools where Saddam Hussein had stockpiled weaponry in classrooms, including closets full of suicide vests.

In northwest Pakistan, as The Times' Laura King reports this morning, several children were among those killed when a suicide-car bomber sought to disrupt voting. A school was being used as a polling place and children had accompanied their parents.