An Egyptian Approach to Peace
RUBIN, TRUDY
THE NEED FOR A NEW PROCESS An Egyptian Approach to Peace BY TRUDY RUBIN What follows are the transcribed remarks of a very highly placed, highly regarded official in Egypt's Foreign Ministry....
...We have an interest in building a new Arab world, which means we can say to the Palestinians, "Let's try it, let's not blow it...
...There are lots of petty frictions but no hatreds...
...My greatest fear is that we won't make a peace settlement, that we might have a settlement without peace that leaves out the Palestinians...
...the Arabs will develop their own way...
...People here are very land...
...he got the oil embargo lifted, and he got the Syrians to agree to disengagement...
...It would mean that each side appreciated the other side's differences and conducted communications with each other...
...But the whole process depends on continuous momentum, and that depends on the Palestinians...
...But they continually resisted acknowledging Palestinian nationality, and every government after 1967 dodged the question of returning the territories...
...First, that there is no absolute peace, only a reasonable peace...
...The Israelis could have offered to put the West Bank under United Nations occupation for two years, and to keep their Army out unless there was a foreign threat...
...But Israel could start this process through interaction with the Palestinians...
...When he bargains he knows what he can give, take, deal with...
...This could start with trade, or agreements on allocation of river waters in the Jordan Valley...
...We can't make a deal without the Palestinians, however...
...We can't in the Middle East go back to historical periods, because there is no end to it...
...What would I tell the Israelis...
...It is circular...
...Instead, they gave economic opportunities while looking on the West Bank as occupied land...
...You take these prejudices, added to this place and this time well, you have to find the solution in a new political process...
...But the more contact there is with the Palestinians, the better the chance for peace...
...Nobody likes him...
...Peace-making is a political process...
...What is needed is Israel's willingness to live with a Palestinian state, to create the beginnings of a new peaceful process in which both will have something to preserve...
...Khartoum was a way of reaching Arab agreement after defeat...
...Slow momentum, a refusal to accept the Palestinians, a refusal to see peace as an ongoing process...
...The Israelis have to concede the right of the Palestinians to a national home...
...In the light of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's recently unsuccessful shuttle diplomacy, and the prospect of a resumption of the Geneva Conference, the Egyptian official's views seem especially relevant as an example of the thinking in Cairo about achieving peace in the Middle East...
...With Egypt there could be discussion about navigation of sea passages, and acceptance of Israel's presence in regional organizations of the UN...
...Fanaticism is rarely tolerated...
...The Israelis have very little perception of the everyday life of Egyptians...
...Take a chance...
...The Soviets were worried and the Arabs hopeful...
...Then let them deal for themselves...
...The relationship between Israel and the Palestinians is the key...
...Israel must ease its stand to help the Palestinians accept half a loaf willingly...
...You have to accept a compromise...
...Between 1968-70, if the Israelis had wanted a moderate settlement-which would have meant acceptance of and coexistence with the Arabs-they could have had it...
...The Israelis haven't made the first move to recognize the national rights of the Palestinians...
...Every three feet of digging unearths a new movement...
...You need a new process of viewing each other and the conflict...
...Even a generous settlement might lead to new belligerency...
...Egypt has never tolerated an enemy state in the Levant...
...Then we can have a generation that doesn't trust the Israelis but doesn't see them as mortal enemies...
...Egypt has been called a Soviet client state, but Egypt has not refused any American peace initiative since 1967...
...Instead, some Israelis talk about new settlements on the West Bank based on Jewish historical claims...
...There are many possible formulas for such contact: a canton arrangement, a binational state like Lebanon, or an Israeli state, a Palestinian state beside it, and perhaps rights for Palestinians inside Israel to hold Palestinian citizenship...
...We have a vested interest in having spillover money from the Gulf come here rather than go into arms...
...You can't obliterate Israel by force because the world won't allow it...
...There are no total guarantees...
...Sadat has made Yes stronger than No in the Arab world...
...Again, you will have to take a chance...
...Third, on the danger of future war: Sadat could not have acted on his own if the people were not ready to end the fighting...
...Sadat has more power than Nasser even had, and with no resistance-only a few pockets of grumbling...
...The Palestinians have to come to Geneva...
...The first aim of Egyptian policy is to preserve our security and territory...
...He lives off his wits...
...A dynamic peace would mean forces working for peace from within-Palestinians, Egyptians and Israelis...
...It's true that Sadat said his generation could not have diplomatic relations with Israel...
...But in the American view, the international power balance favored nonsettlement...
...The Israelis could have helped to get an agreement between the Palestinians and the Jordanians...
...And during this time had they allowed the Palestinians any significant control on the West Bank, they could have had leadership they could deal with...
...Even if Sadat goes to war again, it wouldn't be for the ultimate destruction of Israel...
...After the 1967 defeat, Nasser publicly declared that he would agree to negotiations on Sinai, and the Palestinians could make their own settlement...
...Let them and the Israelis fight over the moon if the Palestinians ask for it...
...With Nasser's death the Western bogeyman was gone...
...And most important, we proved secure boundaries are those that exist between peoples who don't feel inclined to fight...
...If Israel and the Palestinians get along well, I don't think the rest of the Arab world will have a battle to fight...
...They were made last summer during a background interview that-in accordance with normal journalistic practice-precluded direct attribution...
...Finally, I would say to the American Jews, you are not going to live in Israel so why don't you think about the best way to guarantee the future of those who are...
...Fourth, you have misread the Egyptians...
...The only way to make this palatable is to make it the start of a larger process...
...The two dreams don't have to be contrary...
...We made it clear that we were not out to destroy a non-expanding Israel...
...If Israel can have a degree of security, the Palestinians a half a loaf of justice, and the Palestinians in Israel the right to travel freely, the result will be an emphasis on self-development...
...Now look at the October War...
...Israel will develop her own way...
...Essentially the Palestine region is the Achilles heel of Egypt, and Egypt has always tried to see that a friendly combination of nations existed there...
...It is easy to work up the Jews by quoting the triple No [of the '67 Arab summit meeting in Khartoum that rejected negotiations with Israel], yet [Security Council Resolution] 242, recognizing the sovereignty of all states in the area, is never quoted...
...The Palestinian is the modern Jew...
...Then changes occurred...
...The October War has proven that a final settlement based on war is out for a long time...
...People here are sympathetic to them...
...This created a contradiction: It is difficult to develop genuine national leadership under occupation...
...You won't get destroyed...
...In the past, many opportunities were missed...
...The Americans weren't serious about peace negotiations...
...we were out to regain our lost territory...
...If the Israelis condemn Ma'alot the Palestinians will argue that the Israelis did the same thing at Dir Yassin...
...the ink of Khartoum wasn't dry before Egypt accepted 242...
...A nice deal where each side gives up something is only palliative...
...But how can the Palestinians and Israelis live together...
...It was designed to end the Holocaust philosophy, the mentality which believes all the world is out to destroy every Jew...
...Yet Egypt won't tolerate an enemy on its border who splits the Arab world geographically...
...The Israelis have to tell the Palestinians that they have rights, within the limits of recognition of Israeli national rights...
...Sadat knows how to limit himself...
...Second, that God is not wrathful...
...He wants the world to be unsettled until he is settled...
...The Israelis should say to the Palestinians, "Within these limits, tell us what you want...
...What roadblocks do I see...
...We stabilized the area, especially the Persian Gulf...
...The majority of the Palestinians on the West Bank want a state...
Vol. 58 • April 1975 • No. 8
