Arab infighting at Arab league meeting.

AL-AHRAM WEEKLY 8-14 Jan.'09:"The blame game", by Gamal Essam El-Din

The Israeli attack on Gaza caused division among Arab Pariamentarians on
Sunday[4 Jan.]. During a meeting hosted by the Arab League in Cairo Arab
parliamentarians indulged in attacks andverbal clashes while some states,
such as Syria, refused to send delegates at all.
Jassem El-Sakr, chairman of the Arab Parliament, urged Arab countries to
mend rifts and close ranks in the face of Israeli attacks on Arab
territories, arguing that the Treaty of Mutual Arab Defence, defunct for
more than four decades, should be re- invoked in the face of Israel's
repeated aggression against Arab land.
A statement by the Arab Parliament urged Arab countries to collect more than
$35 million in economic assistance for besieged Palestinians and said an
Arab parliamentary committee would be formed to help reconstruct Gaza. The
statement went on to laud Egyptian efforts to effect a reconciliation
between Hamas and Fatah. "We urge Egypt to continue these efforts because of
its leading role and experience in this respect," said the statement.
Other delegates used the meeting to attack Egypt, accusing Cairo of
collaborating with Israel in imposing an economic blockade on Gaza. Ragab
El-Towair, chairman of the Libyan delegation, deplored that it was in Cairo
that Israel had declared war against Hamas. El-Towair also blamed Egypt for
not opening the Rafah crossing. In response, El-Sakr and Mustafa El-Feki,
chairman of the People's Assembly's Foreign Relations Committee, walked out
of the meeting.
El-Sakr urged parliamentarians not to use the meeting to deepen Arab
divisions while El-Feki insisted all efforts should be concentrated on
facing up to Israel rather than wasting them on mutual recrimination and
blame. El-Feki went so far as to warn that repeated attacks from some Arab
countries on Cairo could force Egypt to withdraw from the Arab League.
El-Sakr strongly defended Egyptian policymakers, pointing out that they
maintained permanent contacts with Hamas and Fatah with a view to closing
ranks and promoting reconciliation.
"Egypt has done its utmost to achieve Palestinian reconciliation and open
the Rafah crossing legally but divisions among Palestinians remain deep,"
said El-Sakr. He urged Fatah and Hamas to respond positively to Cairo's
overtures.
In the consultative upper house of the Shura Council on Sunday members
hurled criticisms at Hamas. Shura Council Chairman and Secretary-General of
the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) Safwat El-Sherif accused Hamas of
toeing the line of radical Arab regimes at the expense of the Palestinian
cause. "Not to mention," said El-Sherif, "that Hamas was forced by these
regimes not to attend the reconciliation dialogue or renew the Egyptian
brokered six-month truce with Israel." As a result, El-Sherif went on, Gaza
has been subjected to barbaric Israeli attacks.
"The leaders of Hamas, who have brought havoc to Gaza, should not blame
Egypt for their mistakes and for what they have cultivated with their own
hands," said El-Sherif. He did, however, reject accusations by appointed
member Nabil Louqa Bibawi that Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal was an agent in
the pay of Iran, insisting that the Shura Council was no place to level
unfounded claims against Palestinian leaders. Not that members were
deterred. Both Mashaal and Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah were roundly
denounced.
"Mashaal is living in a luxurious palace in Damascus instead of going to
Gaza to fight the Israelis there," railed appointed Shura Council member
Ahmed Abdel-Halim. He charged that Hamas leaders lived luxurious life styles
at the expense of their people, cavorting in Damascus's five-star hotels
from where they delivered their stinging criticisms of Egypt. "They are good
fighters in salons and harbour a lot of grudges against Egypt," said
Abdel-Halim, who also attacked Nasrallah, urging him to take action against
Israel from Lebanon rather than spending all his energy making verbal
attacks against Egypt.
Mohamed Ragab, NDP spokesman in the Shura Council, warned that the opening
of the Rafah crossing would be a major security headache.
"Israel and Hamas both try to export the problems of Gaza to Egypt," said
Ragab, who accused the regimes of Iran and Syria of mobilising street
demonstrations in front of Egypt's embassies in Beirut and Damascus.
Minister of Health Hatem El-Gabali accused Hamas of exploiting the Israeli
massacre in Gaza for political ends.
"They did this by making use of some media channels and at the expense of
the suffering of the Palestinians," said El-Gabali, . . . .