Now that the court has issued its verdict in the case known as the 'Hizbullah cell in Egypt,' let's look at the repercussions of the case on the political level--particularly on the future of relations between Hizbullah, the region's most formidable resistance movement, and the Egyptian regime. First, I would like to say that the case was surrounded by too much media hype--especially in light of the fact that the 26 defendants did not actually carry out any of their intended plans to aid the Palestinian resistance or strike Israeli targets. Those plans, therefore, amounted to little more than mere intentions. Nevertheless, the regime and the state-run media officials--whom the public throughout history have rightly perceived as "yes-men"--seized the opportunity to turn an incomplete case into a full-fledged crime, under the pretext of an illusory "national security" that exists only in their heads. Yet these same people were not concerned about safeguarding our vaunted national security from the many Israeli and US excesses over the past 30 years (Mubarak's reign)--including the shooting of Egyptian soldiers on the border and spying on Egypt's nuclear and military secrets--as much as they were concerned over the Hizbullah case that allegedly threatened it. Even if they chose the wrong means, what cell members wanted to do for the besieged Palestinians in Gaza was noble--especially when compared to the continuous Israeli violations of our national security under the umbrella of the infamous Camp David Accord. I also want to say that the defendants' lawyer, Selim el-Awa, succeeded in refuting each and every charge leveled at his clients. Now that it is a political issue, the Egyptian regime should take after the Lebanese government, which is currently holding talks with Hizbullah and Syria after finding no use for Israel and the US--particularly in light of the fact that Israeli and US intelligence stand behind the 2005 assassination of Lebanese PM Rafiq Hariri. Egypt and Saudi Arabia's advocates--Saad Hariri, Jumblatt and their colleagues known as the 14 March movement--all realized the Israeli/US conspiracy against their country, and decided to take the right path by talking to their former foes. Likewise, Egypt should stop pandering to Washington and Tel Aviv by fabricating cases like the Hizbullah cell case. It should turn a new page with Lebanon in general--and not just with Hizbullah--by granting the honorable defendants a presidential pardon. It should open diplomatic channels with Hizbullah, along with the resistance in Iraq and Palestine. And it should invite the leaders of all these resistance movements to Cairo and open the presidential palaces to them, just as it invites Israeli assassins like Barak, Peres and Netanyahu. These honorable resistance leaders represent the real defenders of our national security if we look at them from a logical perspective, rather than from the perspective of the US and Israel. Israel's conspiracies against Egypt over Nile water or the Sinai Peninsula--there have been 45 cases of Israeli espionage on Egypt within the last 25 years--should be enough to make the wise men of the Egyptian regime reconsider who's a friend and who's an enemy. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
