With Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit heading to Tel Aviv, Magda El-Ghitany assesses the overall effect of Egypt's Palestinian-Israeli mediation efforts Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman was in Israel yesterday to prepare for a 21 June bilateral summit that will bring together Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The two leaders met for the first time at a summit in Sharm El-Sheikh in February. Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit is also scheduled to meet Sharon this Sunday, a day after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Rice's tour -- which mainly aims at strengthening the Palestinian-Israeli peace process -- will also include stops in Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. Suleiman's and Abul-Gheit's visits are in the context of Egypt's continuing mediation efforts to revive peace talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis. In an opening address to the UN Information Seminar on Peace in the Middle East -- held in Cairo last week -- Egypt's foreign minister described Egypt's efforts as enhancing the peace process by "strengthening confidence building measures and calm between [Palestinians and Israelis], as well as attaining inter Palestinian unity". Recent developments, however, have placed roadblocks in the way of these efforts. Last week's Israeli air strike on the Gaza Strip, its missile attack on a car carrying members of Hamas, the 3500 newly-built housing units in the Maale Adumim settlement, as well as Israeli extremists' threats to storm Al-Aqsa Mosque, have all combined to rankle the process. As a result, 13 Palestinian factions announced their decision not to stand by and "watch [Palestinians] being slaughtered by Israeli forces every day," according to leading Islamic Jihad member Mohammed Al-Hindi. These complications have called the success of Egypt's mediation role into question. Mohamed El-Sayed Said, deputy director of Al-Ahram's Centre of Political and Strategic Studies, said "there is no Egyptian mediation role as such, as far as the Palestinian question is concerned." There are ongoing Egyptian- Palestinian and Egyptian-Israeli negotiations on certain issues, such as enhancing Palestinian-Israeli partnerships and securing Egyptian-Palestinian borders, Said explained, yet "other issues are not in Egypt's hands, but rather in the hands of the American or the Israeli sides." Diplomats, meanwhile, pointed to conditions prior to and after last February's Sharm El-Sheikh Summit as evidence that despite the current hiccups, Egyptian mediation has made a difference. A year ago, noted one diplomat who spoke to Al-Ahram Weekly on condition of anonymity, the occupied territories were in chaos. Israeli officials were refusing to recognise Palestinian leaders as full partners, and serious intra-Palestinian conflicts were beginning to surface. Egypt also provided Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas with much-needed avenues for international support, they argue. For one thing, the four-way summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, the diplomat said, "helped reinstate the Palestinian side as a full partner with the Israel in the peace process." On the intra-Palestinian front, meanwhile, Egypt's efforts have helped the Palestinians maintain their internal unity. A 17 March meeting hosted by Egypt brought 13 Palestinian factions together; high-level Egyptian security delegations have also helped to contain conflicts between Hamas and Fatah that surfaced after the recent Palestinian parliamentary elections. Palestinian and Israeli officials concurred. "Egypt's mediation efforts managed to create a solid truce that led to the establishment of an overall national Palestinian agreement," Amin Al-Hindi, adviser to the president of the Palestinian National Authority, told the Weekly. Egypt, Al-Hindi said, has also been working on mobilising international and regional efforts to boost Palestinian economic conditions, which has "resulted in many European states' supporting the Palestinian case". Former Labour Party Knesset member Yossi Katz, attending last week's UN seminar, told the Weekly that "because [the Palestinians and the Israelis] failed to reach a comprehensive settlement on their own, it is essential to have a third mediating party help them reach [that] end." Egypt, Katz said, has played that role. Katz pointed to the upcoming Israeli disengagement plan as an example of a "turning point" that will meet both Israeli and Palestinian needs. "Both goals could not even have been talked about without Egypt's efforts in the whole process," he added. Observers said the delays in implementing some of the Sharm El-Sheikh Understandings, and the violation of the agreed upon truce, did not reflect a failure of Egypt's mediator role. "Assessing the entire picture [since the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat], Egypt has been doing a very good job," said Mohamed Qadri Said of Al-Ahram's Centre for Political and Strategic Studies. The release of Palestinian prisoners, the relative calm in the occupied territories, and the upcoming Israeli withdrawal from Gaza are all the result of Egypt's effort to revive the peace process, Said said. Egypt is always urging the Israeli side to release more prisoners, to link its disengagement plan to the internationally recognised roadmap, and to remove barriers and check points so that Palestinians can move more easily from one place to the other. At the same time, Egypt urges the Palestinians, as well the Israelis, to avoid actions that may halt the truce. At his meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister, Abul-Gheit is expected to discuss the Israeli disengagement plan, the release of more Palestinian prisoners, and the removal of barriers and check points. The major challenge for Abul-Gheit, however, will be bridging Israeli and Palestinian expectations and demands. It takes time to achieve these goals, Said said. As such, expectations of a short-term miracle should not be too high. "Achieving peace is a cumulative process, like building a home. You lay one brick at a time, so that the whole house is ready at the end of the day," he said. "Egypt is taking small steps on its way to the ultimate goal of long-term peace. It just takes time."
