Egypt Assails the Lumping of U.S. War With Israel's
"This Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and its provocative, illegitimate acts are the main reason behind the escalation of the Palestinian resistance," President Mubarak said in a nationally televised speech marking May Day.

"This fierce campaign that Israel is launching on the Palestinian people and leadership must end, this campaign that is unjustly based on a comparison between the U.S. war against terrorism in Afghanistan and Israel's war against unarmed Palestinians who are resisting occupation."

In the absence of any concrete plan to help the Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims are likely to doubt the entire American effort, said Mr. Mubarak, traditionally a staunch ally of the United States but increasingly critical in recent weeks.

"What happened is a sudden change in the direction of the war against terrorism which, I am afraid, will shake the people's faith in it and in its credibility in the Arab and Muslim worlds," he said.

Since September, the entire American effort to fight terrorism has encountered a certain skepticism in the Middle East, where the idea that the attacks on the United States were the work of Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden's network, was not fully accepted.

The American failure to get Israel to halt its offensive in the West Bank has deepened regional suspicion that the United States cannot be trusted to help pursue Arab interests. This has been especially true in Egypt and Jordan, whose leaders have been forced to defend maintaining peace treaties with Israel and have resorted to lowering their public profiles.

The fact that the Bush administration managed to broker a deal that appears likely to free Yasir Arafat from Israeli siege in Ramallah shows that its engagement works, Mr. Mubarak said, lamenting a lack of further effort.

"The strong intervention of the U.S. through definite suggestions can bring a real political breakthrough that leads to security and stability in the region," he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/01/international/middleeast/01EGYP.html