   
For more than five decades, the Arabs have been engaged in a tug of war, as they negotiate the vagaries of the Palestinian struggle. In the process, scores of meetings have brought Arab parties further apart - rather than closer. The camera has captured some of these crucial moments. Clockwise from top: In 1946 Arab delegations decry the US confusion regarding the humanitarian plight of European Jews which ensued, as a consequence of political Zionism in Palestine; in 1955 Egyptian President Gamal Abdel-Nasser meets with Arab leaders to form the first fedayeen unit in Egypt; in 1979 in Washington, former US President Jimmy Carter presides over a cheerful late President Anwar El-Sadat, and former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, as Egypt and Israel sign the first peace treaty in the history of the Arab-Israeli struggle; in 1991, Arab parties go to Madrid for the international Arab-Israeli conference which established the land-for-peace principle; in 1993, former US President Bill Clinton induces the late Palestinian and Israeli leaders Yasser Arafat and Yitzak Rabin into their much celebrated handshake; in 1996, Arab leaders meeting in Cairo declare peace with Israel to be a strategic choice; last week in Damascus, Hamas leaders Khaled Meshaal and Ismail Haniyah discuss future Palestinian tactics parent page (7 - 13 December 2006, issue #823) |