The Egyptian government press hit back Thursday at Palestinian "ingratitude" for the stand President Hosni Mubarak has taken in light of a wave of deadly clashes in the Palestinian territories.
Al-Gomhuriya newspaper's editor, Samir Ragab, denied what he said were Palestinian charges that Mubarak had pressured Yasser Arafat into attending the summit on October 16-17 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
The summit, headed by Mubarak and US President Bill Clinton, extracted verbal commitments from Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak for a ceasefire, but Arabs viewed the summit result as favoring Israel.
In Gomhuriya's sister English-language daily, the Egyptian Gazette, Ragab published an article under the title: "Palestinians still play same tune of ingratitude."
Ragab, who is close to Mubarak, denounced the "base insults" aimed at the Egyptian leader by Palestinian protestors in Gaza and the West Bank.
He was apparently referring to a protest held Monday in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, in which Palestinians paraded a donkey with an Israeli flag painted on it, along with the names of Mubarak and Barak.
"Unfortunately, the Palestinians usually bite the hand that feeds them, and Egypt is generally tolerant," Ragab said.
He then asked the Palestinian leadership "to announce a clear position" on the attacks against Egypt and its leader.
The editor-in-chief of government daily Al-Ahram, Ibrahim Nafie, also deplored that "Egyptian support for the Palestinians in the last ten years has been ignored or forgotten."
Also on Thursday, Egyptian Information Minister Safwat al-Sherif threatened to pull the plug on the Qatari-based Jazira satellite television channel's operations here unless it stopped attacking Mubarak and his government.
In the past few days, several opposition commentators and Palestinian Islamists appeared on the channel severely criticizing Egypt's role during the Arab summit, which took place Saturday and Sunday in Cairo.
They accused Egypt of helping orchestrate "too moderate" a stand against Israel at the meeting -- CAIRO (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
