Israel behind Bush's drive

2003-11-08 14:22

Cairo - A state-owned Egyptian newspaper on Saturday said US President George W Bush's drive for democracy in the Middle East was an Israeli-inspired idea aimed against countries hostile to Israel.

Akhbar Elyom's chairperson and chief editor Ibrahim Saada, a man close to President Hosni Mubarak, said in an opinion piece covering the entire front page that Bush's message was also an attempt to divert Americans' attention from the Iraqi "swamp."

"I don't rule out that the Israelis were the ones to have advised President Bush to announce this important discovery, that is democracy, and his invitation for implementing it in the Arab world and Iran as well as other countries hostile to both the United States and Israel," wrote Saada.

"I also do not rule out that the US Jewish lobby stands behind this invitation that contains attacks against Arab governments with which it (Washington) has old ties," in order to damage those relations, he said.

"I tend, indeed, to believe ... that the content of Bush's speech is an attempt to divert the attention of his people away from the tragedy of the attrition swamp in which the US soldiers have fallen in occupied Iraq.

"But it will he a failed attempt. Nobody's attention will be diverted and it will only lead to more Arab hatred towards the United States and its government," he added.

Bush, in a speech on Thursday, urged Middle East leaders to embrace democracy, and repudiated 60 years of US help for illiberal regimes that "did nothing to make us safe" from terrorism.

Saada responded to this argument, writing: "We, in turn, say that our policy towards the United States over the past half a century was a failure because we, Arabs, have given our trust to somebody who does not deserve it ... somebody who covers all the wrongdoings of Israel, at the expenses of the rights and humanity of the Palestinian people."

- SAPA