State-run daily Al-Ahram dedicates two of its columns to attacks on US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton Wednesday following her visit to Egypt last week.
In “The Prospective Coup,” columnist Ahmed Moussa criticizes the “sudden transformation” of the US in the eyes of the Muslim Brotherhood from the “great Satan,” who they accused of spilling Muslim blood around the world, to “Morsy’s ally.”
Moussa criticizes what he alleges is the failure of the Freedom and Justice Party, the Brotherhood’s political wing, and the media to challenge what he alleges is interference in Egypt’s domestic affairs by Clinton.
Moussa says that the US administration has repeatedly pressured Egypt and threatened it with a military, financial “and perhaps political” blockade, and that the influx of US officials to Egypt was with the goal of the Brotherhood continuing to implement American policy.
“Egyptians must stand up to the conspiracy to withdraw the supplement to the Constitutional Declaration so that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces remains in charge of military matters, in order to protect the Egyptian civil state,” he writes. “The revolutionary people will not accept the continuation of injustice and will stand behind their army so that Egypt does not turn into a Muslim Brotherhood, or American client state.”
Columnist Gamal Zayda meanwhile, considers “the Copts and the Muslim Brotherhood” in light of Clinton’s visit. Zayda extols the “patriotic position” taken by the Egyptian Coptic National Association, headed by political analyst Emad Gad, business tycoon Naguib Sawiris and former MP Georgette Qaleeny, which turned down an invitation to meet with Clinton at the US Embassy in Cairo.
Zayed says that Clinton received one “important message” from residents of Alexandria (some of whom pelted her motorcade with tomatoes) and another one from Egypt’s Copts.
Privately owned Al-Dostour newspaper is also hung up on Hillary. In a break with its recent tradition of dedicating the totality of its front page to a stream-of-consciousness-type invective against the Muslim Brotherhood, today only half of the front page is dedicated to that purpose.
Under the headline “Aftershocks of the Group’s [Muslim Brotherhood] scandal with the Americans,” Al-Dostour writes that American Congressman Frank Wolf has dropped a bombshell by presenting a legal document to Congress proving that President Barack Obama and Clinton bankrolled the Muslim Brotherhood to the tune of US$50 million during the second round of the presidential elections in support of Mohamed Morsy.
“Egypt will not allow the Muslim Brotherhood to secure its borders with Israel at the expense of Sinai and opening Arish to the Gazans,” the paper declares at the bottom, slightly non-sequentially.
State mouthpiece Al-Gomhurriya gives short shrift to the protests by Cleopatra Ceramic workers that erupted in Suez on Tuesday, headlining with “As if we are living in a jungle,” and lamenting how “everyone now uses force and thuggery to get their rights.”
Al-Gomhurriya says that Cleopatra workers broke into the Suez governor’s office, where they “spread fear and terror amongst civil servants, especially the women.”
In contrast, privately owned daily Al-Shorouk opens its coverage of the incident by mentioning that security forces fired teargas at workers, nine of whom were injured during the protests.
Also in Al-Shorouk, columnist Samir Karam alleges that there are signs that the Muslim Brotherhood intends to ignore the upcoming 60th anniversary of the July 1952 revolution led by Gamal Abdel Nasser.
That the Brotherhood might do this is a possibility, Karam writes, because of the group’s deep hatred of Nasser. Karam compares this hatred with the Muslim Brotherhood’s attitude towards the Hosni Mubarak regime, which he says it cooperated with, ignoring Mubarak’s policy of normalization with Israel.
“The Muslim Brotherhood must not ignore this anniversary if they want to make public their loyalty to the Egyptian people after reaching power. They must realize that the Egyptian people make no distinction between the July revolution and its great leader,” he writes.
Egypt’s papers:
Al-Ahram: Daily, state-run, largest distribution in Egypt
Al-Akhbar: Daily, state-run, second to Al-Ahram in institutional size
Al-Gomhurriya: Daily, state-run
Rose al-Youssef: Daily, state-run
Al-Dostour: Daily, privately owned
Al-Shorouk: Daily, privately owned
Al-Watan: Daily, privately owned
Al-Wafd: Daily, published by the liberal Wafd Party
Youm7: Daily, privately owned
Al-Tahrir: Daily, privately owned
Freedom and Justice: Daily, published by the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party
Sawt al-Umma: Weekly, privately owned
Al-Arabi: Weekly, published by the Nasserist Party
Al-Nour: Official paper of the Salafi Nour Party
