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Al-Ahram Weekly 2 - 8 March 2000 Issue No. 471 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 2 - 8 March 2000 Issue No. 471
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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"A CHILD FOR A CHILD": Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy meant his brutal threat literally, making life a living nightmare for children like two-year-old Aya Jazzar. For Lebanese civilians wounded in Israeli attacks, Lionel Jospin's description of Hizbullah as terrorists added insult to injury
(photo: AP)
Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Interview Features Focus Heritage Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters The kiss of death?
Israel's parliament gave preliminary backing yesterday to an opposition bill that would make it difficult, if not impossible, to get an Israeli-Syrian peace treaty approved in a referendum.
The vote was a double blow to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak at a time when it appeared he might succeed in bringing Syria back to the negotiations. The Knesset's decision raised questions about the stability of his government, since three of the six parties in his coalition sided with the opposition. It also raised doubts about his ability to deliver on the promises he makes in peace talks and might deter an already jittery Syria from returning to the negotiating table.
Barak quickly tried to minimise the damage. He said he was certain the bill, which requires a treaty to be approved by a majority of eligible voters as opposed to actual voters, would eventually be defeated. Yesterday's vote of 60-53, with one abstention, was the result of a preliminary reading. Three more readings are required.
"No parliamentary trick will stop the people from determining their future by a majority of participants in the referendum," Barak said after the vote.
The bill requires that a referendum on a Golan pullout be passed by more than 50 per cent of all voters listed on official rolls -- rather than a more easily attainable majority of those who actually vote.
Underscoring Barak's precarious position, a bomb planted by Hizbullah guerrillas killed five pro-Israeli militiamen early yesterday in southern Lebanon.
Arab-Israeli relations appear to be going through their coldest frost since Barak was elected prime minister last May. The chill came early last month with the upsurge in fighting in occupied southern Lebanon and Israel's latest assault on Lebanese civilian targets. But the diplomatic tone was set by the increasingly virulent diatribes of Israel's "moderate" Foreign Minister David Levy.
Following his vow to "burn the soil of Lebanon", Levy, on 23 February, told Arab members of the Knesset that, should Hizbullah maintain its successful guerrilla struggle in Lebanon, Israel would respond "blood for blood, person for person and child for child".
Levy's outburst shocked the world -- even the Americans, who found the comments "inappropriate" -- and caused consternation among the more dove-like elements of the coalition. These did not include Barak, however. "I have no special problem with Levy's remarks," Israel's Ma'arev newspaper quoted the Israeli leader as telling "close associates" in the aftermath of Levy's latest eruption.
Levy may have thought that a bit of old-fashioned Israeli machismo would "scare" the Arabs back to the niceties of diplomacy. If so, he was swiftly disappointed.
Amplifying on the solidarity shown by his visit to Lebanon, President Hosni Mubarak told Germany's Der Spiegel magazine that "the [Israeli] soldiers died on Lebanese, not Israeli, soil. Hizbullah is fighting against Israeli occupation and resisting occupation is the legitimate right of all peoples". He added: "The truth is that the resistance will continue as long as Israel continues its occupation of southern Lebanon and the Golan Heights."
Mubarak also reminded his interviewer that "the Palestinian problem is at the core of the conflict in the region and it remains unresolved".
Indeed it does. To nobody's surprise, American peace envoy Dennis Ross ended his latest mission to Israel and the self-rule areas on Monday with nothing in his pockets except his hands. If anything, the "gaps" between the two sides have widened in the wake of the envoy's week-long "mediation" effort.
The Palestinians are insisting that Israel "consult" them again over the latest West Bank redeployment, pledge that September 2000 is indeed the absolute deadline for a peace treaty, and give a firm date for the implementation of the third redeployment as required by Oslo's 1995 interim agreement. Barak's offer is that the Palestinians can "choose" the 6.1 per cent of land slated for the next redeployment from 10 per cent. But the chosen land cannot include Palestinian villages near Jerusalem and must be conditioned on accepting May as a new target date for a Framework Agreement on the final status issues of Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, borders and water. Once these concessions are swallowed, Barak is prepared to talk about the third redeployment. Not surprisingly, Yasser Arafat has rejected the trade as a recipe for "procrastination", which is precisely what it amounts to.
For its part, Cairo is pessimistic about the prospects of regional peace-making because of the Israelis' refusal to respect signed agreements and America's reluctance to interfere.
Ross, who visited Cairo last Thursday, disappointed the Egyptians by attempting to sell the Arabs an Israeli proposal to reduce dramatically the scope of the West Bank redeployment.
In return, President Mubarak sent his political adviser, Osama El-Baz, to inform the Israelis that the Palestinians are unhappy with the Ross proposal and that the two sides need to sit together to agree on clear, firm dates for the framework and final agreements.
Top Saudi officials were in Cairo on Tuesday and Wednesday to convey concern about potential initiatives to get the forthcoming meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Beirut this month to adopt a resolution on an annual organisation of an Arab summit. Visiting Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah suggested the revival of the Damascus Declaration, which brings together the six nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council with Egypt and Syria, as an "initial step" towards building a coherent understanding of what can be expected from the summit, particularly on the Iraq issue. (see p. 2)
Graham Usher in Jerusalem,
Dina Ezzat and Nevine Khalil in Cairo,Wire dispatches
