The Arab League has backed the Suleiman presidency, which given the reality on the ground is a non-starter. According to Tony Badran, "It seems increasingly like the Syrians simply avoided criticism in Cairo by appearing to back the Arab consensus while at the same time winking to their Lebanese allies to create old-new hurdles. It afforded Syria, in their view, a measure of deniability."

Vive tra gli Stati Uniti e l'Egitto. E ogni volta che rientra in patria soffre nel vedere il suo paese soffrire. Khairi Abaza. La sua è la rabbia di un egiziano che lotta contro i regimi totalitari del Medio Oriente e contro un Occidente che non sa capire quel che accade.

In Egypt, the Jews' departure went hand in hand with the ouster of foreigners who had settled years earlier and turned Cairo into a capital of all-night cafes and open-air cinemas, where it was possible to hear people conversing in four or five languages -- French, English, Italian, Greek, Arabic -- in the same breath. According to Khairi Abaza, as many as a million Europeans once called Egypt home, every bit as much as Paris or London or Athens.

The visit's most shameful line was Pelosi saying, "The road to solving Lebanon's problems passes through Damascus." In other words, Lebanon can be fixed only if Syria agrees. Oh, sorry, just sold out Lebanon's independence from Syrian rule and betrayed the aspirations of most Lebanese. As the Lebanese analyst Tony Badran puts it: "This is 'hard-headed realism?' Eating dates, checking out carpets, and taking the official tourist tour with a regime that's killing American soldiers, is a sponsor of every kind of terrorist, stands accused of multiple political assassinations in Lebanon, and is seen as acting like an outlaw by almost every country on earth except Iran?"

The attack, says Tony Badran, may have been a warning to Gemayel. "It may be that the Syrians thought Gemayel was going to Washington to campaign to replace Lahoud as president, and Damascus showed they would literally kill to stop it," says Badran. "It wouldn't be the first time. Remember that in 2004 Asad reportedly threatened Hariri that 'only he appoints the Lebanese president.' If not, as he told Hariri, 'he would break Lebanon over his head."

CLIME Senior Fellow Khairi Abaza comments on Egypt's role in the current Middle East crisis: "The Egyptian-American strategic dialogue - resumed during the visit of Egypt's Foreign Affairs minister - focused on the situation in Lebanon. Generaly speaking, Egypt is an ally of the United States and there is an understanding on foreign policy matters between the two countries; unlike matters related to internal Egyptian politics where the two countries hold different views."