A ‘sea of blood and darkness’ in Gaza

Despite the flare-up in violence in southern Israel and Gaza over the weekend, Syria still occupies the main headlines in the Arab press Monday, closely followed by news from the Egyptian elections.

Al-Jazeera, a news channel based in Qatar, reports clashes between the Syrian army and the opposition Free Syrian Army in Damascus. Activists report the death of some 80 civilians, mostly in the city of Idlib, which was bombarded with artillery.

Liberal London-based daily Al-Hayat leads with a harsh statement by Saudi foreign minister Saud Al-Faysal, who calls on the international community “to immediately and urgently stop the war relentlessly being waged by the Syrian regime against its people.”

As usual, Al-Hayat focuses its reporting on the diplomatic front much more than the developments on the ground. It gives much attention to the meetings of Saud Al-Faisal and German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle and of UN emissary Kofi Annan with Bashar Assad.

In the wake of Kofi Annan’s arrival in Damascus, Al-Hayat columnist Abdullah Iskandar notices an intensification in the Syrian government crackdown.

“This is a message from the leaders of Damascus to the people that ‘nothing will help you and you have nothing to hope for from these visits,'” Iskandar writes on Monday. “‘You will receive nothing but bombing and persecution, until you succumb to the regime. The visit of international Arab envoy Kofi Annan is no exception to this equation.”

Egypt gears up for elections

The run-up for Egypt’s presidential elections is making major headlines in Arab media Monday. Sunday was the first day for presidential candidates to register, and many articles are dedicated to them, mostly written in a lighthearted manner, corresponding with Egypt’s famous sense of humor.

Al-Hayat writes that despite Egyptians’ well-known aversion to standing in line, the queue across from Egypt’s central elections committee was “a nominee for the Guinness Book of World Records.” The long line, notes the daily, consists not of voters but rather of presidential candidates.

Saudi-owned news website Elaph actually downplays the number of candidates, noting that “only” 189 Egyptians nominated themselves on the first day of registration. The site notes that the biggest “heavyweight” candidate is former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq, whereas most candidates are politically insignificant.

Hundreds of Facebook pages have sprouted up, usually called “X is a candidate for the presidency of the Republic.” Bumper stickers carrying candidates’ portraits are also all over Cairo. Elaph focuses on the quirky candidates and their strange promises, such as canceling Valentine’s Day or outlawing bars and card game joints.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian press is taking the elections a bit more seriously, debating the possibility of parliament toppling the current government of Kamal Ganzouri. Ganzouri’s government was harshly criticized by the parliament this week for its mismanagement of the “foreign funding fiasco,” which led to the release of 19 American nationals accused of illegal funding of local NGOs.

An anonymous high-level official in the government tells independent Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Youm that Ganzouri’s government does not intend to resign, because the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), the de facto leaders of Egypt, did not request it to do so.

Gaza gets dramatic coverage

Al-Hayat, usually a dry and businesslike daily, leads with dramatic and emotional coverage of Gaza.

“The Gaza strip has plunged in recent hours into a sea of blood and darkness, turning the lives of over 1.5 million Palestinians into hell,” the daily writes Monday. “Many complain that ‘everyone gave up on Gaza’, leaving people to fend for themselves.”

Al-Hayat reports that Islamic Jihad refuses a ceasefire before Israel halts its military strikes.

Al-Quds Al-Arabi, a daily published in London that focuses on Palestinian news, writes on Monday that it is Hamas which refuses to negotiate a ceasefire before Israel halts its “aggression.” The daily features a photo of a young crying girl held in the arms of her mother, veiled in black. Al-Jazeera features the photo of a screaming child on a Gaza hospital bed.

“We demand you to arm Gaza as well,” cries the headline of an editorial by Abd Al-Bari Atwan, editor-in-chief of Al-Quds Al-Arabi, tying the plight of Gaza residents with that of Syria’s.

“We presume the Arab blood is one,” writes Atwan, “and spilling it is forbidden for all the butchers, and primarily the Israelis.”

From one dictatorship to the next

Al-Hayat columnist Mustafa Zein bemoans the inability of Arabs to free themselves from dictatorial regimes despite the revolutions taken place across the Arab world.

“From Tunisia to Libya to Egypt to Yemen, the Islamic model of rule has begun to formulate. This model changes nothing in the regime except inserting Sharia into the constitutions and acting according to Islamic law in personal status issues,” writes Zein in a column titled “From dictatorship to dictatorship.” “The nations are being guided as though they are under-aged, even by force.”