28 March - 3 April 2002
Issue No.579
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 28 March - 3 April 2002 Issue No.579 |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
New words for the world
There has never been an Arab summit surrounded by as many explanations, analyses and expectations as the one in Beirut. Given current circumstances, it seems a miracle that the summit should materialise at all. If the final resolution takes a strong tone, the US, Israel and their supporters will react negatively. If the tone is mild, public opinion throughout the Arab world will regard that as a sign of weakness. Arab leaders will have a hard time striking the right note.
The best thing, of course, would be for both Arabs and Israelis to calm down, and for the international community to press Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon more insistently to think of peace as a means to security, not the opposite.
Egypt stands where wisdom tells it to. President Hosni Mubarak's most recent interview on Israeli television constituted an attempt to return toward peace and still the spirit of escalation. I hope the Beirut summit will be able to formulate a new language in keeping with the international environment and global political climate. The long shadow of 11 September still falls on the Palestinian question. The Palestinians will pay the highest prices for this unprecedented confusion between terrorism and legitimate resistance to occupation.
* This week's Soapbox speaker is chairman of the foreign affairs committee at the People's Assembly.
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