Arab leaders walk tightrope as protests rage

By Caroline Drees

CAIRO (Reuters): From the Atlantic to the Gulf, Arabs are venting their rage about the scores of Palestinians killed in clashes with Israel, posing a rare challenge to their own governments.

Since the violence erupted, hundreds of thousands of Arab demonstrators have hit the streets in protest against the killing of at least 89 people -- mostly Palestinians and including children -- in 12 days of clashes.

"The situation is disturbing in more than one sense. This is an historical event we are witnessing, and it will be a turning point for the region," said Hussein Amin, a writer on Islamic affairs and former Egyptian ambassador to Algeria.

"This may well prove to be the beginning of an uprising in this country (Egypt) and elsewhere in the region," he said.

Political analysts agree that the unusual and widespread protests pose a rare challenge for Arab countries as diverse as impoverished Sudan and oil-rich Saudi Arabia.

Governments must walk the tightrope of allowing people to vent their outrage over the killings, while ensuring the protests do not become a threat to their own authority or turn into demonstrations against grievances closer to home.

Arab states have condemned the violence and called for an urgent Arab summit to address the crisis. Many have rushed money and medical supplies to the Palestinian territories.

But political analysts say the official reaction falls far short of the visible public outrage.

"The real pulse of the Arab street was highlighted in the past few days in the form of protests, chants and writings. They showed the yawning gap between governments and the people," commentator Habib Youssef el-Sayegh wrote in the United Arab Emirates' leading Arabic-language newspaper, al-Khaleej.

Western diplomatic sources say that while most Arab governments sympathize with the Palestinians and want to build pressure on Israel, many have mixed feelings about the protests.

They say political opposition movements are only too glad to exploit the gap between popular outrage and the official response, depicting governments as soft on Israel or unable to guarantee calm in the streets.

Some Middle East watchers also suspect radical opposition groups are driving the more violent protests.

Conflict is most visible in Jordan, where the government has been forced to deploy riot police and use force to control its own majority Palestinian population, feeding perceptions that it cares more about protecting its cosy relationship with Israel than about supporting the Palestinians.

In Morocco, which also enjoys good relations with Israel, Islamist-led demonstrations against the Jewish state could also be a delicate situation for young King Mohammed. So far the government has sought to lead and control the protests itself.

Hazem Saghiyeh, political commentator of Al-Hayat newspaper, said other frustrations in Arab states at the lack of democracy and economic problems were finding indirect expression in the protests, adding additional complexity to the issue.

The outrage over the bloodshed has also revealed the chasm between different Arab leaders over how to handle the crisis, despite the usual rhetoric about seeking a common Arab stance.

While states such as Egypt and Syria are pushing the idea of an Arab summit, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has derided such a meeting as "useless".

When Yemen's leader Ali Abdallah Saleh said he wished his country had a common border with the West Bank or the Gaza Strip so that it could help Palestinians fight Israel, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak ridiculed his comments, challenging him to bring his army and fight Israel if he wanted.

Mubarak, whose country fought several wars against Israel and was the first Arab state to clinch a peace treaty with the Jewish state, said Saleh's remarks were for local consumption, adding: "We must be serious and logical in our remarks".

Kadry Said, head of military studies at the Al-Ahram Center for Strategic Studies, said Mubarak's comments had managed to calm the escalating rhetoric for now, but he said they highlighted how sensitive the situation was.

"Mubarak's remarks were very risky, because some people argued that they would trigger more demonstrations, including some against him and his government ... But I think his comments may have put a stop to moves in the wrong direction," he said.