Egyptian democracy campaign turns bitter

CAIRO -- Egypt's best-known democracy movement has switched causes and is now focused on demanding an end to the country's peace treaty with Israel.

The campaign by the Kifaya group is a sign of how the war in Lebanon knocked momentum from democracy efforts and left many reform activists deeply resentful of the United States.

Over the past two years, Washington has made promoting democracy a key part of its Middle East policy.

But now reformists accuse Washington of supporting Israel in its offensive against Hezbollah guerrillas, which wreaked widespread destruction in Lebanon.

Edward S. Walker, a former US ambassador to Egypt and Israel, said Kifaya's new campaign showcases Washington's dilemma as the United States strives to sell the values of democracy and freedom in a region galvanized for decades by te Arab-Israeli conflict.

``One of the costs of pressing for democracy in the Middle East is the fact that most democratically based Arab parties . . . will be hostile to Israel," said Walker, now with the Middle East Institute, a Washington-based think tank.

The Kifaya movement has launched a campaign to collect 1 million signatures on a petition calling for the annulment of Egypt's US-sponsored 1979 peace treaty with Israel.

The move is mainly symbolic, but it highlights the extent of resentment felt by Egyptians toward Israel -- and by association, the United States, its main backer.

``The Lebanon war is responsible," said George Ishaq, Kifaya spokesman and founding member. ``The petition is a reaction in part to the [Egyptian] regime's feeble diplomatic handling of the war." He said 100,000 signatures have been collected so far.

The Egyptian-Israeli treaty ended hostilities between the two neighbors, after four wars between 1948 and 1973, and is cited by successive US administrations as a model for peaceful coexistence in the region. But it failed to dent the animosity most Egyptians have for Israel.

The anti-Israel campaign is a major shift for Kifaya, whose name is Arabic for ``Enough" -- as in enough of the 25-year rule of President Hosni Mubarak.

The movement, made up of politicians, intellectuals, and rights activists, burst onto Egypt's political scene two years ago, holding noisy demonstrations aimed at stopping Mubarak from seeking a fifth six-year term in office or allowing his son, Gamal, to succeed him.

Kifaya's actions captured Washington's attention as a movement with the potential to peacefully bring reform.