On a mid-October diplomatic shuttle mission to the Middle East — her seventh visit to the region this year — United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stopped in Egypt to drum up support for the upcoming US-sponsored Annapolis Middle East peace summit, set to convene sometime before year’s end.

Stressing US President Bush’s (rather last-minute) imperative to craft a MidEast peace deal before leaving office and the vested US interest in creating a Palestinian state, Rice arrived for the four-day tour determined, but cautioned against great expectations, suggesting that a breakthrough in stalled negotiations between Israel and Palestine on a joint framework for the conference was “unlikely.”

The Bush administration is hoping that by getting Egypt and Jordan, the two key moderators — and the only two Arab states (aside from Mauritania) that have full diplomatic relations with Israel — to sign on to the Annapolis agenda, other, less-involved Arab actors will follow suit. This includes Saudi Arabia, which, along with main players Egypt and Jordan, has been especially critical of the process. Syria has so far threatened not to attend unless its concerns regarding the Golan Heights are included in the agenda — a prospect which so far seems unlikely.

As a key negotiator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Egypt is indispensable to the process and to winning Arab support during this preparatory phase. After meeting with leaders including President Hosni Mubarak, Foreign Minister Abul Gheit, Head of Intelligence Omar Suleiman, as well as Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa, Rice received what amounts to a cautiously generous endorsement from both Egypt and the Arab League.

Only a week before meeting with Rice, Moussa had likened the conference to an American solicitation for a “photo op.” Abul Gheit, who only a day before had suggested the summit be postponed, said the meetings with Rice had shed light on US intentions for the conference, about which he had renewed “faith” and “confidence.” Rice’s Cairo talks set the tone for meetings with Israelis and Palestinians in Jerusalem and the West Bank towns of Bethlehem and Ramallah, as well as with Jordan’s King Abdullah in London.

WHILE MAJOR US MEDIA outlets initially ran headlines such as “Rice Wins Egypt’s Support for Conference” and “Egypt Backs Rice on Mideast Peace Effort,” skepticism in the Arab world continued unappeased by the Secretary of State’s efforts. Analysts in the state-owned Al-Ahram Weekly likened the visit to nothing more than “theater” and “a prelude to the collapse of the November peace summit.” Meanwhile, US analysts criticized the US’ new “soft” position on human rights and democracy in Egypt. (Indeed, in light of recent crackdowns on the media and opposition groups in Egypt, it seems as if Washington has chosen a “stable” regime over a “democratic” one.)

By press time, even the Western media had changed its tone from bland optimism to reluctant realism and even mild fatalism — most playing on the irony that at last everyone can agree on something: failure.

Many Arab analysts are also wary of what seems like a sudden US interest in Palestinian welfare. Why now? At the end of his term, mired in the swamp that is Iraq, Bush may be looking to clean things up and smooth some of the damage done in the region. To many in the Muslim and Arab world, these renewed energies seem somewhat contradictory in nature to a sustained US support of Israel — often at the expense of Palestinian interests. Getting Egypt to publicly back the conference is the first step, but widespread disdain within the Arab world and the apparent inability for Israel and Palestine to agree on fundamental conditions for the conference will be harder to overcome.

ISRAELI AND PALESTINIAN leaders and their negotiation teams have met several times in attempts to hammer out a framework for the Annapolis summit.

GPO, Amos Ben-Gershom, HO Neither Abbas (left) nor Olmert have strong backing from their constituencies, making any real compromises unlikely.

Palestine, Egypt and the Arab states all see a detailed document outlining negotiations — including a timeline for the creation of a Palestinian state — as prerequisite to any summit. The Israelis, on the other hand, want to keep any framework vague on “final status issues,” namely the right of return for Palestinian refugees, the status of Jerusalem, borders and Israeli settlements. Israel has rejected the notion that both parties must agree on a timeline prior to the summit, and Rice has concurred, though not as vehemently. As reported in local and international press, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert suggested that the framework itself is unnecessary, saying that though the objective “is to arrive at a joint statement during the international conference [] the existence of such a statement was never a condition for holding this conference.”

However, speaking in a phone interview with Egypt Today, Walid Kazziha, political analyst and chair of the political science department at the American University in Cairo, suggested that the Secretary of State’s visit was successful in convincing Arab leader because there is an understanding that there will be mention of the five or six permanent status issues in the declaration: “They [permanent issues] have to be mentioned, otherwise I think none of the Arab parties would be able to legitimize its presence there.”

Mentioning the issues in the document, however, does not mean they will be mentioned at the conference. “I think that’s the compromise: In that conference, we’re not going to talk about [the final status issues],” says Kazziha.

CRITICS, HOWEVER, CONTEND that Olmert isn’t budging on extant hardliner positions. According to local press, he has promised his cabinet a vague joint declaration that would merely reiterate the Palestinian Authority’s obligations under the first phase of the Road Map and pre-existing US guarantees to Israel.

Petros Giannakouris Is there an entrance fee in the offing? CityStars officials won’t say.

On the other hand, Olmert did reportedly say for the first time that Israel would be willing to share control of Jerusalem (albeit outer Arab cities). Such diplomatic maneuvers have jostled the Israeli government, eliciting concerns that it could collapse. Two right-wing ministers have threatened to quit if the conference tackles such sensitive issues, while Yakov Margi, Shas leader in the Knesset, said his party had “reached its limit” on Olmert’s diplomacy. The prime minister has shrugged off such concerns, but if his coalition unravels it will mean Israeli elections and the end of the peace process. To appease these concerns, Olmert has reportedly agreed to get parliamentary approval for any legal document or agreement with the Palestinians — even though he has also said from the outset that the framework will not be legally binding.

IN RAMALLAH, PA prime minister Mahmoud Abbas pressed the timetable issue with Rice and warned that the conference would surely fail without some common agreement on core issues. Abbas’ Information and Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki made the point directly: “[W]ithout a document to resolve this conflict, we can’t go to the conference next month.” He added that, “Olmert is looking for a public relations conference and one that will allow normalization with Arab countries. We will not help him in this.”

The Arab world shares that sentiment. In what amounts to a face-saving operation, Arab leaders are careful to bring too much to the table, knowing that the conference won’t likely be a forum for material negotiations, but rather a basis for future ones. This, notes Kazziha, is why Saudi Arabia will likely pull out at the last minute — because there is “too much for them to lose and very little to gain. [] There are no commitments to be made, except the compromised declaration.”

According to Gassan Khatib, PA minister of labor and political analyst, the US has not shown enough muscle in dealing with Israel, at least not in Rice’s recent tour, to warrant such strides. In an October 24 article, he advises the Arab world “to restrict its representation at Annapolis to those countries that already have relations with Israel, i.e., Egypt and Jordan. Attendance by countries such as Saudi Arabia and Syria would mark a diplomatic victory for Israel. Such a victory cannot come for free. If there is to be no end to settlement expansion, no easing of restrictions on movement in occupied territory and no clear commitment to negotiate an end to the conflict at Annapolis, there is no need to grant Israel any diplomatic victory in this way.”

Courtesy o f Star Alliance Coming soon to Cairo International Airport: As EgyptAir joins Star Alliance, the new Terminal 3 will become a Star hub.

Meanwhile, the PA appears to be in just as precarious a position as their Israeli counterparts, if not more. Fatah elements urged Abbas not to attend the conference, fearing that failure would corrode their political platform (based in part on a successful resolution to the peace process) and upset a fragile balance of power in the conflict with Hamas.

It is this weakness of the Palestinians, notes Kazziha, that will ultimately attract Israel to the table. “From an Israeli point of view, why go to the rescue when the Palestinians are shooting themselves and the Arabs have no consensus? [] If there is deterioration [of the PA], it is to their advantage. If there is no deterioration, it is still a good situation for Israelis to try, a good opportunity for them to try to make a deal with Abbas at his weakest.”

The future of the process will depend on how well each can hold up under the increasing pressures. State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack announced that Rice, among other delegates, is scheduled to visit Jerusalem and Ramallah again from November 4-6, in what might be the final push for solidifying the terms of the summit, injecting a much-needed shot of hope into the long-term process, and staving off the violence that’s just waiting for a good excuse to erupt.

Afight over a phone CARD turned into an intertribal shooting spree that left dozens injured in the northern Sinai town of El-Arish last month, prompting angry protests in an already tense region.

Saedi Press The government plans to get rolling on road safety.

Local media reported that when a customer got into a fight with a shop owner from the Arish Fawakhriya tribe, two Bedouin from the Tarabeen tribe tried to intervene and were beaten up. They left and came back with 15 trucks of men, who opened fire in the Fawakhriya square.

Enraged that security forces weren’t doing enough to protect them, thousands of Arish residents stormed the streets for over five hours, burning tires and blocking roads. They attacked the local National Democratic Party headquarters, and threw stones at the Ministry of Interior’s offices, prompting police to throw tear gas and arrest hundreds. Over 15,000 central security forces were deployed to North Sinai.

Two days after the clashes, security officers were able to bring together leaders from both tribes to work things out and restore an uneasy calm.

Local opinion is that this latest flare-up was a release of the Bedouins’ built up frustration at being ignored by the authorities and denied access to jobs in the booming tourism and petroleum sectors. At least 75,000 Bedouins do not hold Egyptian citizenship. The government has some cause for mistrust: The Bedouins are reportedly major players in the trafficking of people, arms, drugs and other goods between Gaza and Egypt, and Bedouin extremists have been suspected of involvement in terrorist attacks in the Sinai including bombings in Dahab, Taba and Sharm El-Sheikh in recent years.

In July of this year, protests went on for weeks to express their dissent at their overall economic condition, limited access to jobs, police harassment, detained fellow Bedouins, and to demand that the government revoke its decision to evacuate homes within 400 meters of the Gaza border, which they did in order to limit the amount of arms smuggling through tunnels under the border. Mass protests also broke out earlier this year between Bedouins and police authorities when they tried to cross the border to Israel in search of better jobs. (EK)

Ricardo Moraes Egypt is one of the top buyers of conventional weapons in the region.

Egyptian manufacturers participating in Qualified Industrial Zone (QIZ) agreement can start putting a little more local love in their products: Trade talks last month led to a signed agreement that reduces required Israeli contribution to QIZ products by 1.2 percent.

Under the original QIZ deal, Egyptian manufacturers in designated zones can export any goods to the United States duty free, provided an Israeli company furnishes one third of the required 35 percent content of local origin (11.7 percent in total) and both manufacturers finance a minimum 20 percent of the costs of production. Following an October meeting between President Mubarak and Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Eliyahu Bichai, the required Israeli component was reduced to 10.5 percent.

Minister of Trade and Industry Rachid Mohamed Rachid was quoted in the local press as saying that the move increases the percentage of Egyptian raw material, hence raising local profit and job opportunities.

There are 689 companies with QIZ licenses, with 17 more companies in Upper Egypt awaiting approval from the US. At press time, a date had not been set for implementing the October agreement. (RH)

Egypt Today Archives Giza’s baladi dogs are getting a new leash on life.

Rumors flew over EID THAT CityStars would enforce a new entrance fee of an undecided amount to prevent onlookers and large masses from entering the mall just for the sake of walking around and creating havoc. CityStar’s management would neither confirm nor deny the rumors, but did acknowledge that there is a problem especially during major holidays, for which they say they have not yet found a solution. According to the officials, the mall has broken shopping records in the Middle East, with the number of visitors per day reaching somewhere between 80,000—100,000. The mall during Eid was so crowded that customers trying to do some last-minute food shopping at Spinneys supermarket had to wait in a line just to enter the store; at one point, only women were allowed to enter the hypermarket.

Eid el-Fitr celebrations we-re marred for some families as 14 soldiers and a civilian driver were killed on the road to Sharm El-Sheikh when their minibus crashed into a water truck and civilian car, refocusing the spotlight on the nation’s second-leading cause of death: road accidents. Official figures estimate that in 2006 alone at least 6,000 people were killed and 35,000 injured in road accidents. A 2006 National Council for Road Safety report claims that 73 percent of road accidents were the result of human error, 22 percent were caused by the poor state of vehicles, while the rest were due to bad roads.

The government has pledged to spend up to LE 8.5 billion in the next 24 months on improving road safety standards, particularly on highways such as the Cairo-Alexandria desert road as well as modernization of the 100-year old national rail network. There are approximately 120 railway accidents each year.

Amr Nabil Saad Eddin Ibrahim is being called to court once again.

Also last month, six children were killed and dozens injured when a Nile ferry sank in Minya in central Egypt. The cause of the accident is believed to be the collapse of the boat’s railings and a faulty ramp that was used for docking as people were boarding the ferry.

According to the US Congress-sponsored report Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations, 1999-2006, Egypt ranks fourth worldwide in purchases of conventional weapons — after India, China and Saudi Arabia, in that order. During the research period, Egypt reportedly inked $13.3 billion worth of arms transfer agreements. Within the Middle East and North Africa region, Egypt ranked third, with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in first and second places, respectively. Israel came in fourth in terms of total value of arms transfer agreements.

The US was the top supplier of conventional arms to developing nations, with a total $70.62 billion in transfer agreements over the period studied. Russia and France ranked second and third, respectively. (All figures based on September 2007 dollar values.)

In the wake of an international campaign to end what global activists have termed the “maddening killing of street animals in Egypt,” Giza municipal veterinary officials are piloting a sterilization program in an attempt to reduce the governorate’s stray dog population without resorting to killings. In an exclusive interview with Egypt Today, Dr. Abdallah Badr, undersecretary of the Giza veterinary department, says he met with members of the Egyptian Society of Animal Friends to develop the program, which at press time was to start at the end of October in the Badrashein area.

The veterinary department and the society will be responsible for catching the stray dogs, neutering them either at the Society facility in Shabramant or the government-affiliated Imbaba Animal Hospital. The dogs will be kept one to four days in the hospital for observation and vaccinations, then returned to the areas where they were picked up.

At the end of September, local and international media reported that after a four-month moratorium, the municipal veterinary department would resume shooting and poisoning feral dogs, quoting Badr as saying that a sterilization program was too expensive. The global outcry, first reported in May on the All Headline News website, was inspired by a photograph posted by a Canadian tourist who witnessed a pregnant dog being shot in Haram. The Society for the Protection of Animal Rights in Egypt picked up on the cause, encouraging people to send online petitions and hundreds of letters of protest to Egyptian authorities and media outlets including et. As protests raged, the Giza veterinary department stopped responding to all but emergency requests.

Badr argues that his department’s animal control activities have always been conducted in coordination with the Animal Friends and that shooting is a last resort after other “humane efforts fail.” Citing tens of recent cases over the past three or four months alone of dog attacks on Giza residents, Badr maintains that it is his department’s duty to protect people. “The public have a right to be protected, and when people go to police stations seeking help when dogs attack their children, I can’t just stand around with my hands tied. [The goal isn’t] eradication campaigns. We were trying in all possible ways to do it with the most compassionate means we can.”

In a telephone interview with et, Ahmed El-Shebiny, chairman of the board of the Egyptian Society of Animal Friends, announced that because very little funding had been raised for the current campaign, which focuses on the Abu El-Nomros area in Giza, only some 150 dogs will be rounded up for sterilization and vaccination. The money is not expected to last more than six to eight weeks, and El-Shebiny is campaigning to raise more for his cause.

Joining the Stars

In a year’s time, the stars will align for EgyptAir — right on the tarmac of Cairo International Airport. Last month Star Alliance officially accepted the national carrier as a future member, making it the first Arab airline to join the world’s largest air alliance and only the second Arab airline to join any global air alliance.

At press time, Star Alliance comprises 17 member airlines and three regional carriers that fly to 855 destinations in 155 counties. Another three carriers will attain full membership by 2008, expanding the network to 935 destinations in 161 countries.

EgyptAir flies to 60 destinations in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, North America and the Far East. EgyptAir’s route network adds nine new cities to the Star Alliance portfolio, including five airports in Egypt (Abu Simbel, Alexandria, Assiut, Aswan and Sharm El-Sheikh) plus Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates; Benghazi, Libya; Kano, Nigeria; and Medinah, Saudi Arabia.

According to Star Alliance CEO Jaan Albrecht, EgyptAir has much more than routes to offer the alliance. “EgyptAir is different than the other Mideast carriers [] in that EgyptAir is offering a new home market to the customers. [],” Albrecht explains. “It’s not a city in the desert, it’s not an airport in the desert. Cairo Airport is representing a gateway to a country with 80 million people with rich culture, with tourist attractions, with leisure possibilities. So it’s more than just a connectivity possibility as the other airports in the area are trying to offer.”

Albrecht also points out that EgyptAir is the largest North African carrier in terms of destinations and fleet and the flag carrier of one of the most important African economies in terms of GDP.

The new Terminal 3 currently under construction at Cairo International Airport will become the hub for EgyptAir and Star Alliance carriers when it opens in 2008, meaning Star passengers will not have to change terminals when changing flights. A single terminal as an alliance hub allows member airlines to offer shorter passenger transfer times and shared support services like alliance-branded lounges and lost luggage offices.

“In order to be attractive, it’s not only about airlines working with each other but you have to work hand in hand with infrastructure,” Albrecht says. “If you don’t have the right environment, the right airport to allow you to [] build this connectivity, you will not be offering a good product to the customers.”

For EgyptAir, joining an alliance was a requirement for survival in what CEO Atef Abdel Hamid calls “a very complex and constantly changing [aviation] environment.” It was not a question of whether to join but which one to join. “Star Alliance became EgyptAir’s preferred choice mainly because it is the biggest, strongest and most dynamic alliance, focusing on rendering services to passengers ahead of minimizing costs — a concept which EgyptAir is really applying.”

On the operational side, the alliance offers economies of scale when negotiating with fuel suppliers and aircraft manufacturers, saving money for its members.

With the official announcement in October, the Star Alliance has accepted EgyptAir in principle, but the national carrier still has a long to-do list before it achieves full membership. Abdel Hamid says that there are more than 50 minimum joining requirements to make new members compatible with alliance services.

One of those services is the ‘Star Alliance Upgrade Awards’ program, where passengers use the internet to redeem frequent-flyer miles from one airline for a seat upgrade on a different alliance airline. As one of its joining requirements, EgyptAir will make its IT systems compatible for its loyalty program to participate in the Upgrade Awards.

The Star Alliance CEO says that based on their experience with other new members, EgyptAir should be ready for full membership in about eight to 12 months.

7,000the estimated number of athletes from all over the Arab world who will reportedly participate in the Pan-Arab Games in Egypt this month. The multi-sport event is taking place in eight governorates from November 11–25. Begun in Alexandria in 1953, the games were planned to be held every four years like the Olympics, but regional instability has caused the event to be cancelled several times over the years. Egypt has hosted the games three times, the last during the 1970s. (BA)

6,000the number of people killed in road accidents in Egypt each year, according to a report issued by the Ministry of Transport. (RP)

3,000the maximum number of students to be admitted into the nation’s medical faculties, beginning in the 2008–09 academic year. A considerable drop from the usual 10,000–12,000 students accepted annually, the move comes after the State Council Administrative Court ruled in favor of Dr. Hamdi El-Sayed’s (head of the People’s Assembly Health Committee and the Doctors’ Syndicate) request arguing that, given the available facilities and resources, the system cannot provide a quality education for such a large number of students. (MH)

18the legal age at which citizens can declare their religion. Al-Azhar has rejected the demand proposed by lawyer and human rights activist Naguib Gibril to raise the legal age to 21 based on laws stipulating that anyone below this age is considered a minor. Al-Azhar refused the proposal, arguing that to do so would be a violation of religious and personal rights. (HO)

SET, the dates for four lawsuits against prominent rights activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim. The Professor of Sociology at AUC and former head of the Ibn Khaldun research center was charged in absentia with harming Egypt’s economy by allegedly calling for cuts in US aid. The four charges each carry sentences of up to three years. Ibrahim came under fire last summer when he spoke with US President George Bush at a convention in Prague. Shortly after, the US House of Representatives decided to withhold $200 million in military aid until Egypt cleaned up its human rights act and curbed weapons smuggling into Gaza.

Earlier last month Egyptian authorities detained 62 students on suspicion of belonging to a militant group planning to assassinate Ibrahim. The students’ lawyer, Montasser El-Zayat, told local press that although the students hold ‘salafist Jihad ideas,’ they do not belong to an organized group and expressed concern at the alleged torture practices and detention conditions faced by militant detainees.

DESERTED Egyptian heavyweight boxers Emad Abdel-Halim and Ahmed Samir shortly after arriving in the United States. The pair were scheduled to take part in the World Boxing Championships in Chicago this month. Egyptian Boxing Association Director Wael Talaat told local media at press time that the EBA is considering permanently suspending the two athletes after their withdrawal without notice from the competition.

ARRESTED Dozens of Muslim Brotherhood members in the Delta city of Salheya in Sharqiyya after clashing with police. The Brothers reportedly insisted on conducting Eid prayers in an empty lot rather than in a government-approved area outside of a mosque. Villagers who witnessed the incident told the press that police did not initiate the violence, and bystanders reported that local authorities tried to convince Brotherhood members to pray in the designated areas. Brotherhood representatives, on the other hand, countered that this was untrue, alleging that the villagers had been forced by the government to give false statements.

DISAPPEARED, Mohammed Hegazi and his pregnant wife, Zeinab. The couple made headlines last month for converting from Islam to Christianity and becoming the first couple to sue the government for refusing to recognize their new religion in their national identification cards. Before their disappearance, the couple had also been campaigning to register their unborn child as a Christian, enabling the child to enroll in Christian religious educational institutes and attend church. Hegazi and his wife have been reported missing since October 15. At press time their lawyer, Ramsis El-Naggar, had declared that reasons for their disappearance were still unclear and that investigations were pending.

CHARGED, 11 cement companies with conspiring to raise prices simultaneously, breaching the recently adjusted anti-monopoly law. After being found guilty of the charges, the companies were slapped with fines ranging from LE 30,000 to LE 10 million. Minister of Trade and Industry Rachid Mohamed Rachid had asked the Egyptian Competition Authority (ECA) for a full investigation of all cement companies in the country 14 months ago. The ECA came to its conclusion of price-fixing after comparing production costs and local market prices in the 15 governorates where cement companies operate.

Rachid was recently honored for his campaign against monopolization by ‘Citizens Against High Prices’ a groupcomposed of 130 members of parliament. Rachid has ordered the ECA to move swiftly to their next investigation, whose target will be the notoriously problematic steel industry.

ARRESTED, Egyptian Shi’a activist Mohamed El-Dereini. The head of the Shiite Aal Al Beit research center in Cairo was taken into custody early last month on charges of publishing false information “aimed at agitating public opinion” about torture through his 2006 book about Egyptian prisons, Hell’s Capital. El-Dereni, who serves as the secretary general of the Supreme Council for the Care of the Prophet’s [PBUH] Descendants, an unlicensed non-governmental organization, also faces another charge of insulting religion. El-Dereini previously spent 15 months in prison in 2004–05 for allegedly belonging to an illegal organization and threatening national security. He was only released after an international campaign led by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, who found the arrest a violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Egypt’s obligations under the charter. et

Newsreel was written by Beige Luciano-Adams, Kate Durham, Ethar El-Katatney, Yasmeen El -Mallah, Riham El Houshi, Ramzy Philip and Nada Mohsen