Muslim Brotherhood protesters clashing with plainclothes police officers in Cairo on Friday as they demanded more action by Egypt for the Gazans under siege by Israel. (Nasser Nuri/Reuters )From The International Herald Tribune:
CAIRO: A sustained Israeli ground operation in Gaza would sharply increase public pressure on President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt to do more to help the Palestinians of Gaza, despite widespread feelings here that the radical group Hamas provoked the current crisis.
While few criticize Mubarak himself, there is unhappiness with the government's relative silence about Israel's bombing campaign and its Palestinian victims, and the apparent lack of diplomatic pressure from Cairo on Israel and the United States to stop the fighting.
Instead, government officials from Mubarak to Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit have blamed Hamas for abandoning the cease-fire with Israel and seeming to seek Israeli retaliation. On Thursday, for example, Aboul Gheit said that Egypt had warned Hamas of Israel's intentions, but Hamas "served Israel the opportunity on a golden platter to hit Gaza."
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