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Al-Ahram Weekly 11 - 17 May 2000 Issue No. 481 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 11 - 17 May 2000 Issue No. 481
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Books Features Interview Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters The peace virus
By Salama Ahmed Salama
A little like the infamous I Love You virus, the Israeli peace virus randomly destroys programmes on the various tracks of the Middle East peace settlement. Sending messages headed "Working for peace," the Israelis wait until they are given access by users expecting a message of genuine peace; then the virus attacks, and all is reduced to ruins.
It is clear today that the settlement talks that began with Netanyahu's fall and Barak's accession to power have reached a dead end. The election promises and hopes that made Barak prime minister have collapsed on all tracks. Arab hopes pinned on Barak have been shattered, together with the schedules envisaged as feasible by the beginning of summer at the latest.
Optimism was running so high that Clinton himself had hopes of winning a Nobel prize for his peace efforts, a last face-saving measure before leaving the White House. Syria and Lebanon braced themselves for a new era. Yasser Arafat was ready to declare the creation of the state of Palestine and regain most if not all of the West Bank by September. Preparations began for a new Middle East economic conference, to be held in Cairo and attended by Syria and Lebanon, which was to ready the region for a time of peace. In fact, many optimistic officials were wondering what Egypt's role would be, as compared to that of Israel, in the post-peace Middle East.
Excessive optimism at Barak's election, combined with Clinton's repeated promises to Arab leaders during his meetings with them and with the prime minister of Israel in Washington and Geneva, certainly created an environment in which the Israeli vision for peace could flourish and get past sceptical Arab virus detectors. The shock was great for the Palestinians, Lebanese and Syrians, therefore, when they discovered what the Israeli message really was, and found that Barak was concealing an attachment full of pretexts, allegations and threats.
On the Palestinian track, Israel failed to honour the redeployment schedule agreed upon in Clinton's presence. The month of May is drawing to a close without any progress either in the transitory stage or in the final settlement framework. Barak's government never stopped building new settlements; nor has it released Palestinian prisoners. Instead, it has begun to carve out a new road linking Israeli settlements in the West Bank in order to continue the fragmentation of the proposed Palestinian state into three separate chunks with no common borders.
As for the Syrian track, it was declared at the outset that the differences between Syrian and Israeli positions on withdrawal from the Golan were not vast, and that some of the problems had already been solved. Barak's backtracking and the collapse of the Clinton-Assad meeting in Geneva was a shock all around. Israel then embarked on another plan, attempting to separate the Syrian from the Lebanese tracks, and promising Lebanon unilateral withdrawal from its southern territories. But Israel gave no answers to specific issues like security guarantees for Lebanese border areas, the fate of the Lebanese militias and the problem of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.
Only recently have Israel's true designs for Lebanon come to light. It is evident today that Israel is planning to annex certain parts of Lebanon in the process of altering its borders. In other words, Israel is not planning to withdraw fully from Lebanon.
The Israeli peace virus has created havoc and caused losses which cannot be assessed at this point. The subterfuge to which it has resorted is bound to create problems within the ruling coalition. The US administration does not seem determined to curb the damage caused by Barak. The Arabs will have to wait for another administration because, as always, they are the last to know which way the wind will blow.
