Leaving the door ajar

By Dina Ezza

Al-Ahram Weekly has learned that Cairo is pondering the wisdom of receiving the man who, irrespective of his official title, symbolises so much of Israel's denial of the basic rights of the Palestinians -- and this at a time when the Israeli government has failed to ratify, much less implement, the Wye River Memorandum.

Jordanian officials have been telling Cairo that Sharon might not be the worst thing that could happen to the peace process, since he is a strong political figure, capable of encouraging Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to return more land to the Palestinians. Cairo's view is that it does not mind who holds which Israeli cabinet portfolio, as long as the Israeli government honours its peace commitments that it has now been ignoring for almost two years.

"We cannot separate our relations with Israel from what is happening in the peace process," an official said. "Israel needs to start its much-delayed troop withdrawal before it can expect any manifestations of a warmer peace between us and them."

Short of that, it may prove to be very difficult for Cairo to engage in high-level meetings with Israeli officials. "It is not at all that we are being stubborn. We do want to have peaceful relations. We do want peace to prevail. But we cannot ignore this Israeli government's bad record, which is characterised by intransigence and lack of commitment to its peace deals with the Palestinians," the official added.

Cairo is making no secret of its lack of faith in Israel's intentions with regards to the implementation of the Wye River Memorandum. Indeed, every single official who addressed the Wye River deal has repeatedly referred to the central issue of implementation.

Following the signing of the memorandum last month, Netanyahu spoke with President Hosni Mubarak by telephone and suggested a meeting between them. Sources said that Mubarak, who is obviously displeased with Netanyahu's lack of commitment, told the Israeli Prime Minister that he would not mind meeting with him once the second withdrawal was completed. "The president has every right to question Netanyahu's commitment. It has been over two weeks now and the deal has not been ratified. And it has been two years of much talk, many promises and no implementation," said one source.

Moreover, Cairo is not keen on receiving a high-ranking Israeli official who would only repeat shallow promises about peace and nag on about freeing Israeli spy Azzam Azzam, who is currently serving a 15-year term. "The President did say it loud and clear: we are not going to free Azzam in order for the Israelis to implement their troop withdrawal from West Bank territory," an official source said.

But Cairo is leaving the door ajar. During the second half of this month, Uzi Arad, a senior adviser to Netanyahu, is expected to visit Cairo for talks with Presidential Adviser Osama El-Baz. "Okay, we are willing to listen to what they have to say, but we are not prepared to be party to a political campaign that tries to project the false image of an ongoing peace process," said one official. He added: "If Israel wants to act as if all is well, it needs to honour its peace commitments. Otherwise, relations with Egypt, at least on the official front, are unlikely to witness any real progress."

This week, manifestations of mutual exasperation followed Israel's all-but-inappropriate response to remarks made earlier in the week by President Mubarak about Israel's failure to honour its peace commitments. The response suggested that Egypt was not doing Israel justice. "They can say all what they want. They know very well that Egypt is not going to be deterred by any media campaign. We have a certain position on the peace process and we are going to maintain that position," one official commented.

This exchange of verbal criticism came only one week after President Mubarak objected to Israel using the prime minister's office's home page on the Internet to promote a controversial article in a British Sunday newspaper that alleged barbaric persecution of Copts in Egypt.

The Foreign Ministry called in the Israeli ambassador to officially express the government's displeasure with this move. Sources say that the ambassador told Cairo that putting the controversial article on the web site "was done in no bad faith," and that the article was not selected for political purposes, but rather as part of a random sample of regional news stories.

Meanwhile, the Israeli ambassador does not seem to be getting tired of calling upon the government to encourage individuals and businessmen to go to Israel. "We keep telling him over and over that the government is not stopping anyone from going to Israel and that it is the people and the businessmen who refrain from visiting Israel when they see the unfair treatment to which the Palestinian people are subjected," said one official. He added: "But it is inevitable. For the government and the people, in general, peace with Israel can only move forward again when the Palestinian people get their rights."