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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 12 - 18 October 2000 Issue No. 503 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 12 - 18 October 2000 Issue No. 503
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Elections Palestine International Economy Opinion Culture Books Interview Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Await not the summit
By Salama Ahmed Salama
The competition now taking place between two possible summit meetings is the key to the current crisis in the Middle East. The first is the Arab summit that President Mubarak has called for -- to be held rapidly as a means of confronting conditions that could degenerate into a war nobody wants. The second is the Sharm Al-Sheikh summit, to be attended by representatives of Palestine, Israel, Jordan, Egypt and the US, and possibly presided over by President Clinton himself.
The latest developments -- reminiscent of the atmosphere in Palestine during the Intifada -- have put paid to the attempt to establish peace through negotiations, and started, instead, a string of attempts to impose peace through violence. The warnings Barak has been levelling at Arafat, Syria and Lebanon mean that the doors to peace through dialogue are shut, and that military power will be the slogan of the next phase, particularly after Israeli planes have started bombarding Lebanon.
The press conference at which Barak issued his warnings was not the first sign of such danger. Rather, America's firm position in the UN Security Council and its staunch rejection of, and refusal to vote on, any decision that might condemn violence in occupied lands -- without even the slightest mention of Israel -- gave the Arabs a signal that America fully plans on supporting Israeli violence to the last -- something that was not, at any rate, unexpected. America has never objected to the bombing of the Palestinians, the use of missiles against them, or the murder of innocent people. At Israel's fully-fledged military attacks on Palestinian towns -- involving troops, tanks and armoured vehicles -- the Americans have never displayed the slightest irritation.
And rather than acting so as to endow America's role with any degree of gravity or objectivity, Albright attempted, at the Paris conference, to force Arafat to sign a security pact while ignoring his demand that Israel's aggression against the Palestinian people be investigated. It was already clear at Camp David that President Clinton had no intention of reaching just and permanent solutions. Rather, his intention was to guarantee Barak's reelection by forcing Arafat to sign an incomplete pact, and to assist Israel in achieving a settlement that suits it, regardless of justice.
Thus the accusations levelled at Arafat have revolved around his refusal to sign even a pact capable of ending the popular uprising that blew up in response to Israel's repeated acts of aggression and humiliation -- in effect, an execution sentence for Arafat from his people's standpoint. Such an act, in other words, might result in a civil war in which Palestinian anger and frustration would be directed at the Palestinian Authority instead of the enemy that occupies Palestinian lands.
It follows that Arafat's options will be very limited: either go along with popular anger, or give in to Israeli conditions. The situation is further compounded by an intentional effort to escalate the crisis on the Lebanese front. The entire Middle East situation could explode if Israeli military operations expand any further -- or if Barak gets drunk enough on the arrogance of power to give in to extremists within Israel.
Compromise and postponement, much less vapid war cries, will no longer do. The real problem is that Barak might not wait for any Arab decisions before he strikes again, reoccupying the West Bank and utterly destroying the newly established Lebanese infrastructure.
Perhaps the Sharm Al-Sheikh summit Clinton is calling for is intended simply as an alternative to the Arab summit, which, if it is held in the light of Israel's current defiance (nurtured by a complex crisis inside Israel) could end the peace process once and for all.
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