Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 19 - 25 October 2000 Issue No. 504
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

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Word on the street

By Dina Ezzat

"I am so glad that all those meetings are taking place in Sharm Al-Sheikh not here in Cairo. I don't understand the point in those meetings so I am glad that at least they are not causing terrible traffic jams here," commented one Cairo taxi driver.

This driver, like other people interviewed by Al-Ahram Weekly on the performance of Egyptian diplomacy in the current crisis in the Middle East, believes that there is a limit to what Egypt should be putting up with in regard to the many manifestations of Israeli "violence," "brutality," "killings," "hostility" and "hatred of Arabs." They argue that Egyptian diplomacy should not act against the will of the people who have been calling for an end "or at least a temporary freeze" of Egypt's relations with Israel. Some even argued that the "soft and mellow talk with Israel" is in fact "encouraging Israel to be more aggressive with all the Arab countries."

"The peace process has all but failed... It has to be saved... but Egypt will not host a summit [on the Middle East to be attended by top Israeli officials] when the Palestinians are being subjected to this aggression," Foreign Minister Amr Moussa said at an earlier stage of the recent wave of Israeli violence against Palestinian demonstrators. And, as Israel was bombarding facilities of the Palestinian Authority, Moussa told reporters: "The situation is very serious... We cannot sit with our hands tied; we have to do something. President Mubarak is thinking of hosting a meeting to be attended by the Palestinian leader, the Israeli prime minister and the US president if the current military actions are stopped."

These statements did not seem to provide answers to questions that were being asked by the man on the street, particularly on the rationale behind the convocation of the Sharm Al-Sheikh summit hosted by President Mubarak and bringing together Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, US President Bill Clinton, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Jordanian King Abdullah II, and Javier Solana, the top foreign policy official in the European Union.

"Why bring Barak here after all he has done?" "Why have those meetings in Sharm Al-Sheikh when we know how the Israelis feel about the peace process?" "Why not advance the convocation of the Arab summit instead of having the Israelis over?" "Why don't we call back our ambassador from Israel and throw their ambassador out of here?" "Why would President Hosni Mubarak and Foreign Minister Moussa, such estimable statesmen, agree to sit with this butcher called Barak?" These were some of the questions raised on the street.

Another question came up: "Why did Egypt agree to host this summit only 24 hours after President Mubarak had said that we would not unless Israel met certain demands? Those demands were not met, right?"

Those questions and more came up at a press conference that Moussa held last Friday when news started to leak about Egypt's intention to reconsider its refusal to host the summit. "What the Palestinian people have been subjected to is unacceptable; we cannot stop at issuing communiqués that denounce these events... The whole issue should be discussed in order to save the Palestinian people. We are dealing with a very serious problem," Moussa told reporters.

Commented a Cairo University student: "I don't understand this. I don't understand it at all. Haven't officials heard about our demonstrations. We go home every night badly beaten by security forces who try to quell our demonstrations because we want the government to throw out the Israeli ambassador and then they do this; they bring Barak over to Egypt? I don't understand why they act against what we ask for?"

As far as Moussa is concerned the answer to this question is very simple: "These demonstrations represented the anger of the people and their concern for the interests of the Palestinian people. This summit is meant to serve the interests of the Palestinian people."

"The interests of the Palestinian people are not served by getting Barak and Clinton to tell Arafat to end the Intifada. The interest of the Palestinian people is in supporting the Intifada," commented one taxi driver.

In the words of a civil servant: "I am very disappointed to hear this from [Egyptian officials] whom we used to take pride in. Why do they keep putting us down? Why do they keep telling us there is nothing we can do but to accept these insults from Barak and those..? I am truly dismayed."

A public bus driver had a more forceful statement to make: "Why are they acting as if we will never go to war again? We will have to go to war again, not because we don't want peace but because the Israelis will not leave us alone. Sooner or later they will come back to us. It is Egypt that they hate and fear most. I know that the president is worried about the economy when he says we should not think about war but I think we should consider war."

Statements made by top state officials on the eve and during the early hours of the summit seemed to give rise to more questions: "What do we think we can get out of this summit? I really don't know?" "What are we doing in Sharm Al-Sheikh? Haven't we learned from the brave men of Hizbullah -- may God save them -- that a long war of attrition is what could make a difference?" "What do we expect? Do we expect the Israeli prime minister to say I am going to be nicer to the Palestinians? What if he said it? Hadn't we heard that before?" "Why allow Barak to behave as a civilised head of government who solves problems through talks when, in fact, he is the head of a gang of killers that calls itself Israel?"

As news of Israeli intransigence was leaking through the media during the preparatory phase of the Sharm Al-Sheikh summit, Egyptian diplomacy seemed to side with the people. Said Moussa: "The whole region is in a state of anger and fury... We are all angry, not only public opinion but also the officials."

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