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This clarifies the grim picture – the Arab world is split by a non-Arab factor, Iran; however, the split is
widening so much that there is not even one Arab country that can compromise between the two camps.
This is why Turkey, another non-Arab country, is stepping into this vacuum to try to mediate between
Hamas, Egypt and Israel.

War between the Camps

Another clear testimony is the Arab League Foreign Ministers conference last Wednesday in Cairo. The
“extremist” camp put a clear demand on the table – to convene an emergency summit of the Arab League
as early as Friday, to call on Israel and the world to stop the war. However, with this sort of divide,
nothing is easy.

First of all, there is the location. The president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, is the reigning president of
the Arab League, but the “moderate” camp is too deeply in crisis with him. If he were to call a summit
these countries would not come, and his inadequacies would be exposed. What can be done? This is
where Qatar comes into the picture. This country, with the T.V station that influences the event most,
Al Jazeera, suggested convening the summit in Doha [Qatar’s capitol], and among its reasons were its
ties with all sides (including Israel and Hamas), and because of the fact that the next summit was
scheduled to convene there. Along the way, Qatar would be able to strengthen its political status.

The problem, as the Egyptians and others saw it, was that this would not be just any summit. The
assumption was that the Hamas delegates, that is to say, the leader of the political branch Khaled
Mashal, would be invited to the gathering and would sit as an equal among the Arab leaders. From this
the Hamas movement would gain legitimacy and political achievement at a problematic time for Egypt.
From here, it is a short journey to dissolve the demand and to make do with passing the hot potato to
the U.N. Security Council – and all this on the eve of the Christian New Year. The same opportunity
could be used to praise Egypt’s role in the crisis, in opposition to the slander by Hamas.

And all of this is happening while the two camps throw fire and brimstone at each other. In the
“extreme” camp, the public was called to go down to the street en masse. Naturally, the largest rallies
were in Syria and Lebanon, as well as in Yemen, Sudan, and even in Amman, Jordan, where the Muslim
Brotherhood tried to establish a voice to call out against the stance of the royal house. In Iran, angry
demonstrations were held outside the Jordanian and Egyptian embassies.

In Egypt, on the other hand, by different reports, the security forces tried to suppress the
demonstrations and rallies as much as possible, and arrested many from among opposition groups. There
were rallies, but as of now, they were minor demonstrations that did not pick up steam. Egyptian Foreign
Minister Ahmad Abu Al-Gheit even added that in relation to this there is not a danger to Egyptian public
order.

The “moderate” camp did not remain indebted or beaten by Hezbollah, Syria and Iran. “Hezbollah is
hiding underground and is not using his weapons,” countered Osama Saraya, editor of the Al-Ahram
newspaper, which is closely affiliated with the Egyptian government. “And as for the Syrians and Assad’s
regime,” he added, “they are at the command of Iran and serve Iran’s interests. They incite against
Egypt and thus serve the Israeli aggression, and that is despite our support of them in their demand to
reclaim their occupied land in accordance with our strategic viewpoint. Their conspiring and their
stubborn will to slander Egypt and make use of the Palestinian issue in its game of broken dialogues with
Israel – this is not a story worth telling at this time, but at a later date, so that the Arab divide will not
deepen at this critical and sensitive time.”