When Mohammed Abu Treika scored a key goal against Sudan in an African Cup match last week, he endeared himself to millions of fans in this soccer-mad country. But it was what he did next that made him a true national hero.
As banks of television cameras zoomed in on him, Mr. Abu Treika celebrated his goal by pulling his red Egyptian national team sweater over his head. Underneath was a plain white T-shirt emblazoned with a simple slogan, written in English and Arabic: “Sympathize with Gaza,” it read.
Mr. Abu Treika's gesture earned him a yellow card for unsportsmanlike conduct, but his picture was on the front page of every Egyptian newspaper the next day. Some preachers dedicated their Friday sermons to the soccer star's public declaration of a sentiment that many Egyptians silently share.
“A courageous Abu Treika did what Arab political leaders could not do: help Gaza while under Israeli siege,” Sheik Abdul Rahman Ahmed told followers at his mosque in the southern Egyptian city of Qena.
The public reaction to Mr. Abu Treika's act underscored an uncomfortable new truth for the government of President Hosni Mubarak: About three decades after Egypt refused an Israeli offer to hand back the troubled coastal territory that was once ruled by Cairo, Egypt is once more embroiled in the Gaza Strip.
Since Jan. 23, when Hamas militants destroyed the iron fence that demarcated Gaza's border with Egypt, Mr. Mubarak's government has been walking a dangerous tightrope. Under pressure from the United States and Israel, which offered to return Gaza to Egypt during negotiation of the 1979 peace treaty between the two countries, Egypt is desperately trying to stem the reported flow of fighters and weapons between Gaza and the Sinai peninsula. But the pro-Palestinian sentiment on the streets of Cairo and other Egyptian cities means Mr. Mubarak can't be seen treating the Gazans harshly.
After a brief calm during which Hamas helped Egyptian forces reseal the border this week, there have been near-daily demonstrations by Palestinians eager to travel to Egypt via the Rafah crossing at the south of the strip. Under a crippling blockade that Israel says was imposed in response to continuing rocket fire by Hamas and other militant groups, Gaza's other land borders have been closed by Israel, which also controls the airspace and coastal waters.
Several of the protests at Rafah have turned violent, and at least two Palestinians have been killed this week by Egyptian fire. Meanwhile, dozens of Palestinians and Egyptian soldiers have been injured. The situation appears to once more be coming to a boil.
Egypt said yesterday that it would deploy extra troops to the border area after Hamas allegedly threatened to kidnap Egyptian soldiers in response to the arrest of 15 Hamas members in Sinai. A Hamas spokesman said no such threat existed.
“[Egypt] cannot kill Palestinians every day to defend Israel,” said Zvi Mazel, a former Israeli ambassador to Egypt. “If it does, it will be condemned by the Arab countries and by its own population.” But if Egypt doesn't take action to close the border, he said, Israel could itself intervene and deploy its military in the south of the Gaza Strip.
Complicating matters even more are the thick links between Hamas and Egypt's own Islamist opposition movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, which Mr. Mubarak's regime views as an existential threat. While Egyptian soldiers have been engaged in tense standoffs with Hamas militants, the Brotherhood has organized dozens of pro-Palestinian protests around the country, drawing tens of thousands of people into the streets. During the crisis, Khaled Meshaal, the Damascus-based political leader of Hamas, and Mohammed Mahdi Akef, the supreme guide of the Brotherhood, have reportedly co-ordinated their actions by telephone.
