7 - 13 June 2001
Issue No.537
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 7 - 13 June 2001 Issue No.537 |
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The current Middle East crisis may lead to a more powerful Arab League, writes Dina Ezzat
It has been a very busy week in the Cairo headquarters of the Arab League, with Secretary-General Amr Moussa engaged in numerous consultations, at the regional and international levels, which seek to keep the current Middle East crisis from spiralling further out of control. "All the meetings and the phone calls that he has been conducting since early Saturday morning, hours after the Tel Aviv bombing, have had one objective: restarting the political process," commented one Arab League source. "There is no doubt in anyone's mind that this is as close to impossible as anything could be, but we have to try," he added.
Moussa stressed the need for a political solution on Tuesday, following a meeting with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer. Fischer arrived in Cairo in the wake of an intensive mediating mission in the occupied territories and Israel to encourage a suspension of hostilities.
"The cease-fire is important, but it cannot be sustained without political steps," Moussa said. He argued that any political solution should include the adoption of serious confidence-building measures, including a freeze on settlement construction in the occupied territories and an end to the Israeli-imposed siege on Palestinian towns and villages.
"The Palestinians dream of a place under the sun. They dream of a viable state that has territorial integrity. They want to have what others have and this is only fair," Moussa said. He argued that these dreams could be attained through a political process, which, however, cannot be put in place when Israel insists on its illegal settlement activities and inhuman blockade on Palestinians.
Moussa has made this argument to dozens of diplomats, including US Secretary of State Colin Powell, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and others.
But the Israelis show no signs of accepting this reasoning and are under no pressure to do so from an international community which is grateful for Tel Aviv delaying its reaction to a suicide bombing that killed 20 Israelis. Meanwhile, Palestinians are increasingly concerned. "There is no doubt in our minds that they will hit us and hit us hard and that it is only a matter of time," a Cairo-based Palestinian source told Al-Ahram Weekly.
Indeed, on Tuesday morning Moussa received Palestinian cabinet Minister Yasser Abed-Rabbo, who presented him with Arafat's third message in four days: do something to encourage an international political and diplomatic process that could prevent Israel from retaliating with very heavy-handed military action.
"What we feel is that Israel is nursing very aggressive intentions. The Sharon government is keeping the situation very tense -- it is actually taking it to the point of explosion," Abed-Rabbo said following his meeting with Moussa. He added that Israel is "violating the cease-fire" and is continuing its blockade and "starvation war against the Palestinian people".
According to one diplomatic source, Arafat's principal message to Moussa and many Arab leaders is that he needs their political and financial help at this very critical moment. Hours after Abed-Rabbo left the League, Moussa declared that a bank account has been opened for public donations to support the Palestinian people and their Intifada. "This money will go strictly to its destination: the Palestinian people. It will not come to the League but go straight to the Palestinian people," he emphasised.
As for political support, Moussa was not as affirmative. "There are serious political consultations on how best to provide Palestinians with the needed support," he said.
What was left unsaid is that Moussa is having a very hard time reconciling the different views of Arab capitals on what needs to be done next. Arafat is in a very awkward situation. Some Arab governments have advised him to try everything possible to put the Intifada on hold and resume full-scale security cooperation with the Israelis and Americans. Other Arab regimes advise the Palestinian leader to do exactly the opposite. "It will be helpful if Arafat could get the support of the Arab countries. He is in a very complicated situation and he needs support," Fischer told reporters following his meeting with Moussa.
The current diplomatic moves by the Arab League may not be enough to encourage Arab capitals to take a unified political stance that provides Arafat with the necessary support. But they seem to be serving another purpose: the recovery of the over 50-year-old Arab organisation from a long political slumber that has kept it away from any serious political interference in previous similar crises. "What we are seeing today in terms of intensity of contacts and level of involvement is unprecedented," commented an Arab League source. "Moussa has brought along with him a new style."
This new style is something that Moussa is keen on pursuing. "The time has come for the Arab League to act as a proper regional organisation that has a stake in all the key regional issues," Moussa argued. Obviously the "peace process" -- or the Arab-Israeli conflict, a term which Moussa uses frequently -- is at the top of the list.
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