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Al-Ahram Weekly 30 March - 5 April 2000 Issue No. 475 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 30 March - 5 April 2000 Issue No. 475
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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 Cartoons Impossible compromise
After meeting his American counterpart on Tuesday, President Hosni Mubarak clearly stated that the Geneva summit's failure to agree on the resumption of talks between Israel and Syria did not mean an end to efforts to overcome differences between the two sides. "The situation concerning the Middle East problem cannot stay as it is now," Mubarak said. Indeed, if the peace process does not move forward, the situation will only deteriorate further, especially with the increasing feeling of frustration among Arab peoples, who can only conclude that nearly a decade of negotiating with Israel has failed to produce any tangible results.
The president has announced that he will meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak shortly after his return to Cairo to discuss problems on the Syrian-Israeli track. As in previous meetings with top Israeli officials, and as he stated during his visit to Washington, Mubarak will most likely tell Barak that Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad cannot compromise on his demand for full Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Golan Heights to the lines of 4 June 1967. The conditions Israel has created are making the situation even more difficult for the Syrian leader. Israel wants to maintain a military presence on what is supposed to be liberated Syrian soil, expects Syria to renounce its right to water from Lake Tiberius and demands that it pressure the Lebanese resistance. Assad's response was clear: he would prefer to wait for generations rather than accept a humiliating deal.
The ball is now in the Israeli prime minister's court, not in Assad's. The role of the US and Egypt at this stage is to look for a formula that will meet both Syria's and Israel's security concerns. The Arabs did not enter the peace process to compromise on their inalienable rights, and there is no reason why Israel should maintain the right to define the conditions for peace alone. Israel's leaders must know that peace is in their interest, and that any peace that is not just will never be permanent.
