Al-Ahram Weekly Online 28 March - 3 April 2002 Issue No.579
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Current issue | Previous issue | Site map

Why we did not go

President Mubarak's decision not to go to Beirut shed brutal light on the untenable restrictions that have crippled the Arab leaders' summit. That the lynch-pin in any expression of Arab solidarity stayed away is proof that the meeting had no hope from the first of reaching any meaningful outcome; and by refusing to attend, the president has made it clear to the world why this is so.

Far from showing willingness to take peace-generating measures, Israel has stepped up its military campaign on the occupied territories and made Yasser Arafat a hostage of its political whims. The United States stands by, seemingly incapable of (or uninterested in) placing any pressure on its dangerous ally. Israel, indeed, demanded that the US offer guarantees that could prevent him from returning were "terror attacks" to take place during his absence.

If Israel is Arafat's jailer, furthermore, the US seems to have been cast in the unlikely role of his warden and parole officer. Having lost its credibility as a peace sponsor, or even facilitator, long ago, the US is now reduced to imposing upon the Palestinians the terms of their reoccupation, as dictated by Israel. Should any further evidence of this role prove necessary, US special envoy Anthony Zinni has provided it with his proposals for a settlement -- proposals that allow Israel to pursue its policy of assassinations and maintain its siege on the West Bank and Gaza, while holding out no hope of resumed diplomatic activity.

Arafat's participation by teleconference, far from emphasising the opportunities offered by modern technology, would only have served to underline the shockingly anachronistic nature of the Israeli occupation -- a colonial venture that had no business existing in the 19th century, and still less reason to persist into the 21st. Is it any wonder that President Mubarak, and over half the Arab world's leaders, are refusing to participate in this political tragedy?

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