MERIP Media Resource List, May 5, 2005

AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS on the following topics:
- Congress prohibits direct aid to the Palestinian Authority in emergency spending bill
- Iraq's new government
- Egypt's parliament to decide next week on constitutional amendment for multi-party presidential elections

CORINNE WHITLATCH
Corinne Whitlatch has directed the Middle East public policy work of Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP), a Washington-based coalition of 20 Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant denominations and church organizations, since 1986. She said today: "Congress, by adding all kinds of restrictions and obstacles to the provision of aid to the Palestinians in the supplemental, has failed both President Abbas and President Bush as they work to resolve the conflict. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist was in Jerusalem and Ramallah earlier this week and should hold a mandatory teach-in when he returns to the Senate. Frist said President Abbas has 'shown tremendous leadership' and he told reporters that the US must help ensure that Israel's planned withdrawal from Gaza 'does not prejudice the outcome of a two-state solution' to the conflict."

CHRIS TOENSING
Chris Toensing is editor of Middle East Report and executive director of the Middle East Research and Information Project. Commenting on Iraq's new government, he said today: "The new Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari told his countrymen this week that 'this government is your government, from you and for you.' But the new government is not 'from' or 'for' those many Iraqis who want a timetable for ending the US occupation of their country. Along with decayed infrastructure and unemployment, this gap in attitudes toward the occupation will haunt Jaafari's government, just as it did Iyad Allawi's."

MONA EL-GHOBASHY
Mona El-Ghobashy teaches political science at Columbia University. She recently wrote Egypt Looks Ahead to Portentous Year for Middle East Report Online . She said today, "Next week the Egyptian government will announce the conditions determining who can run as a presidential candidate. Two likely proposals are floating around -- either require the support of a certain percentage of municipal council members, who are overwhelmingly ruling party members or hangers-on, or the endorsement of a certain percentage of ordinary citizens, a method equally prone to manipulation in favor of the incumbent Hosni Mubarak. Beyond details, the important thing to watch is how the Egyptian public will respond. Will it be convinced that this is a real step toward democracy and participate accordingly? Or will the election rules amplify the drumbeat of dissatisfaction with the regime's president and policies, typified by the small but growing street protests organized by both the Kifaya (Enough) movement and the Muslim Brothers?"

VICKIE LANGOHR
Vickie Langohr is an associate professor of political science at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA and is on the editorial committee of Middle East Report . She commented today: "The Egyptian parliament will vote in favor of whatever version of a constitutional amendment is favored by President Mubarak, since his National Democratic Party holds 388 of the 444 seats. This NDP dominance of parliament reveals why it will take much more than simply allowing multiple candidates to run for president in order to create a competitive political system. Eliminating the emergency law is essential to make the 2005 presidential elections more fair. Lifting all restrictions on opposition parties and legalizing the Muslim Brotherhood as a party is necessary so that truly competitive elections might become a reality in time for the 2011 presidential contest."

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