Aboul Gheit: After Israel shrinks itself each Arab country will decide whether to 'normalize' relations
In an interview with the London-based pan-Arabic daily al-Sharq al-Awswat, Egyptian foreign minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit rejected an Obama administration proposal for Arab countries to begin normalizing relations with Israel immediately by allowing El Al to fly through Arab air space. The idea arose during discussions in Washington last week between Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman and senior White House and State Department officials, including National Security Advisor James Jones and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.Le plus ca change, le plus ca meme chose (or something like that).
In an interview with the Saudi newspaper Asharq Al Awsat, Aboul Gheit said that U.S. officials had asked him what the Arab response would be if Washington pressured Israel to reach a peace agreement. He responded that after the Oslo Accords were signed, some Arab states allowed Israeli offices to open in their territory, but today, the Arab world insists on seeing concrete Israeli action before making any further gestures.
If Israel accedes to international demands, he continued, "the Arab states could accede to gradual normalization, each according to its own considerations."
That implies that Egypt does not see the Arab peace initiative as requiring Arab states to normalize relations with Israel uniformly and simultaneously. Rather, normalization is something each country would institute at a time it deems appropriate.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:09 PM
2 Comments:
In other words, Arabs do not have to accept Israel in the region. Despite 30 years of a formal peace with Egypt, the Egyptians still view Israel as the enemy and nearly all Egyptians hate the Jews. It does little good to whitewash reality and comfort oneself with the delusion that a constantly shrinking Israel will warm up the Arabs towards Israel. It won't happen and Arab countries like Mauritania and Qatar that had diplomatic relations with Israel have broken them off. Peace is not a favor the Arabs owe Israel. It is normal and natural relations between two peoples and the end of all hostility between them. "Normal" doesn't even begin to approach the relations Israel has today with both Egypt and Jordan.
Some "peace" Israel is being offered by the Arab World in exchange for amputating itself to death. Its wouldn't be worth the paper signed and if Israel doesn't learn from the experience with Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinians, she will be in a world of hurt far worse than anything the Jewish State has to put up with today.
Just FYI...the proper spelling is:
"plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose"!
Good try though!
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