Western-backed Arab governments under pressure as Israel continues Gaza strikes
Ian Black, Middle East editor
guardian.co.uk, Monday 29 December 2008 19.01 GMT
Israel's offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip is putting western-backed Arab governments under pressure from Islamist movements at home and in the region, as well as from Iran, which is racheting up its rhetoric against the US and Israel.
The continuing onslaught today led to the suspension of talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel, as well as those between Syria and Israel, brokered by Turkey.
Little progress had been taking place on either track, but the symbolic blow was clear.
"It is not possible to carry on the negotiations under these conditions," the Turkish foreign minister, Ali Babacan, said.
Egypt – which controlled Gaza until it was conquered by Israel in 1967 – again came under fire because of its relations with Israel, Hamas and the Lebanese Hizbullah movement openly accusing it of colluding with the attacks.
The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's biggest opposition movement, and an ally of the fellow Islamists of Hamas, called on Arabs and Muslims to rise up against "the despicable silence and connivance on the part of most Arab and Islamic governments".
Egypt condemns Israel's Gaza operation, but implies that Hamas is to blame for having failed to renew the shaky six-month ceasefire when it expired 10 days ago.
"If you can't kill the wolf, don't pull its tail," an article in the state-run daily, al-Ahram, said.
The Egyptian foreign minister, Ahmed Abul-Gheit, insisted he had warned his Israeli counterpart, Tzipi Livni, not to attack Gaza.
"Unfortunately, what happened happened," he told reporters after talks with Babacan in Ankara. "The question is, what can we do about it now?"
Abul-Gheit also lashed out at the Hizbullah leader, Hassan Nasrallah – popular across the Middle East for his defiant resistance to Israel in the 2006 war – for calling on Egyptians to demonstrate against Hosni Mubarak's government.
Pro-Palestinian protests were held in Cairo, but the interior ministry declared a state of emergency for its security forces, cancelling all leave.
In Beirut thousands of demonstrators chanting anti-Israeli slogans came out in solidarity with the Palestinians in response to Nasrallah's televised appeal. Israel's actions, Nasrallah warned, were against the entire Palestinian people, not just Hamas.
Syria – which openly backs Hamas and is Iran's only Arab ally – called for an emergency summit meeting of the 22-member Arab League to discuss the crisis.
However, the signs were that Arab governments would again be paralysed by their divisions. League foreign ministers had been due to meet yesterday, but the meeting was postponed until Wednesday. Saudi Arabia has called on the US to intervene.
Buthayna Shaaban, a Syrian government spokeswoman, condemned what was happening in Gaza as "a genocide, a crime against humanity, and a terrorist operation against the defenceless Palestinian people". Comments on Arab news websites vent fury at governments for "betraying" the Palestinians.
Protesters across the region have demanded that Egypt and Jordan sever relations with Israel and that Egypt opens its border with Gaza, ending the blockade imposed for much of the time since Hamas defeated Fatah in Palestinian elections in 2006.
The constellation of Arab forces is similar to that during the 2006 conflict, when Syria backed Hizbullah while the conservative and US-backed authoritarian regimes quietly acquiesced in Israel's actions until pressure mounted for a ceasefire.
Iran, which rejects any dealings with Israel, has reacted furiously to the Gaza crisis – perhaps also seeing a welcome diversion from international focus on its nuclear ambitions.
Thousands of Iranians shouted "Down with USA" and "Down with Israel" in Tehran today, many carrying banners reading "Israel must be wiped off the face of the earth" and "We should all rise and destroy Israel."
Reports from Tehran said a group of Iranian clerics was signing up volunteers to fight in Gaza. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a religious decree to Muslims around the world yesterday, ordering them to defend Palestinians "in any way possible".
Iran's Fars news agency reported that the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had called on the international criminal court to charge Israeli leaders with war crimes.
