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Recalling the Ambassador
By Amira Howeidy
Asking the man in the street
When the official Middle East News Agency (MENA) broke the story of Egypt's decision to recall its ambassador Mohammed Bassyouni at 11:00 AM local time last Tuesday, the news couldn’t have traveled faster. By midday, the general mood was excitement at "Egypt’s brave stance," with questions also being voiced as to whether Israel would "withdraw" its ambassador in return.
Almost two months after thousands of Egyptians went to the streets calling on the government to cut its diplomatic ties with Israel in retaliation to its unprecedented excessive use of force against the Palestinians, it seems that our government is finally taking action. Comments such as "Israel has taken it way too far," seemed to be the justification everyone made for the sudden diplomatic move.
Naturally, President Mubarak's stance received "special coverage" from Tuesday's 9 o'clock news, which also decided to do some field reporting and voice the reaction of "man in the street."
"We thank President Mubarak for this step" said one citizen. Others hailed the decision as the "right one at the right time" arguing that "it was a wise decision because the Palestinians need to know that we support their struggle while the Israelis have to know that we won’t sit back and watch."
Political analysts and experts in the Arab-Israeli conflict argued that by responding this "strongly" to Israel's escalation of violence against the Palestinians, Egypt was only asserting its role as the Arab country with the heaviest political weight.
Regardless of the level of political correctness in the "timing" of this diplomatic move, it's strong impact completely distracted public attention from the outcome of the recently-completed local parliamentary elections.
Ironically, the Intifada, which broke out on the 28th of September, also diverted public attention from the beginning of the month-long elections, resulting in a wave of jokes suggesting that the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) could only benefit from Israel's escalation of violence.
But the shift in the public's attention from the numerous court verdicts annulling the results of many of the constituencies in which the NDP won, is probably natural, considering just how closely the Palestinian issue is being followed in Egypt.
In fact, when it came to Bassyouni's recall, people immediately forgot the complex constitutional crisis created, more or less, by the NDP, and began discussing whether the ambassador was "recalled" or "withdrawn." While some argued that in any case the step was "too little, too late", the consensus was that Mubarak’s decision was a "master stroke."
But if a sense of national pride was generated by this move, partly because it indicated that our government is, after all, an independent one, the question of how to sustain this position still remains open.
Will Egypt indeed escalate the conflict if Israel continues to do the same, as Foreign Minister Amr Moussa so confidently snapped last Tuesday? Or will Bassyouni return to Tel Aviv next week? If the recall seemed to corner Israel at the beginning, the situation was quickly reversed when Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak said that his government would not take the same action.
It's likely that soon, Egypt will be accused of fueling the already enflamed situation in the occupied territories. The US is already publicly pressuring Egypt to return its ambassador to Israel.
I sincerely doubt that our 9 o'clock news will go ask our man in the street how he feels about that.
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