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Al-Ahram Weekly 16 - 22 March 2000 Issue No. 473 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 16 - 22 March 2000 Issue No. 473
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Special Focus Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles In the big league
By Salama Ahmed Salama
The extraordinary meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Beirut has revived at least a measure of self-confidence in the Arab nation. What remains to be understood is that much of Israel's muscle-flexing and intransigence is a result of Arab weakness and disunity. For the Arabs to agree on a common position, or at least a non-contradictory stance, is sufficient to ensure the Arab body politic's resistance to continued attempts at amputation. At least, this is the impression I had watching the meeting on television.
The Arab League meeting was not called upon to scrutinise the details of agreements or conditions of a peace settlement on the Syrian, Lebanese or any other tracks. What was necessary was to emphasise the Lebanese resistance's right to defend its sovereignty and territory, provide the resistance with financial assistance, and block European and US attempts to label the resistance "terrorist." The ministers also wanted to abort Israel's plan to separate the Syrian and Lebanese tracks by unilaterally withdrawing from south Lebanon without addressing the issue of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. It is Israel, after all, that created and compounded this problem.
In light of Israel's continued bombing of Lebanon and its obstruction of the peace process, the Arab foreign ministers' decision to review normalisation of relations with Tel Aviv, and to observe the decisions taken at the 1996 Arab summit, are steps on the right track. These measures will also curtail some Arab parties' rush to normalise relations with Israel. There is no point in launching multi-lateral talks aimed at intensifying relations with Israel at a time when Israeli fighter planes continue to shell Lebanon, and when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's government still ignores UN Resolution 425, discards the overlap between the Syrian and Lebanese tracks, and refuses to honour its commitments to the Palestinians.
Arab solidarity with Lebanon has achieved an urgent tactical goal, making it clear to the Israelis that withdrawing from Lebanon after physically and morally blitzing the country is not as easy as they thought. At the same time, several questions are still unanswered -- notably, the Arabs' next move if Israel unilaterally withdraws from Lebanon before reaching an agreement with the Syrians.
Unilateral withdrawal puts both sides in a dangerous position, not only because of the 300,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, but because Tel Aviv will have to deal with the unemployed Southern Lebanon Army (SLA) goons and their families. These are the soldiers who allied themselves with Israel more than two decades ago. Israel has refused to take them in as refugees after it withdraws from Lebanon, and it is unlikely that Beirut will accept the presence of a fifth column on its national territory.
At any rate, such questions will no doubt be superseded by events. Less than 36 hours after the conclusion of the Arab League gathering, in what is widely seen as a quick response to the Arab decisions reached at the meeting, Israel is bombing South Lebanon once again.
