The Arabs are focusing on the 'positive' elements of Bush's statement on the Middle East. Dina Ezzat reports The official response from the Arab world to the harsh language that US President George W Bush used in his Monday speech against the Palestinian leadership and other Arab regimes was highly restrained. In fact, Arab countries have been virtually silent about Bush's verbal attack. The Palestinian Authority (PA) completely ignored the US president's accusations that the Palestinian leadership is corrupt and supports terrorism. Bush's implicit call on the Palestinian people to topple Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and "elect a new leadership" if they want to have a Palestinian state, was met with the very mild official Palestinian response that "Arafat is the democratically elected leader of the Palestinian people." Such a muted reply is striking in light of the fact that more than half of Bush's nearly 2000-word speech was dedicated to attacking the PA, and it effectively declared Arafat politically dead. But the subdued character of Arafat's response was not its only startling feature; the PA issued its statement within less than 30 minutes of the completion of Bush's speech and it welcomed what it called "Bush's ideas", describing them as a positive contribution to efforts aiming to bring peace to the Middle East. This careful reaction was not limited to the Palestinians. Other Arab states also responded cautiously to Bush's overt threats of "either you are with us or against us". Syria and Iraq, both named by the US president as supporters of terrorism, did not officially reject these accusations. Bush's insinuation that the Arab media incites terrorism were ignored by all Arab capitals, some of whom, through state-owned media outlets, actually expressed satisfaction with what they described as Bush's constructive ideas in relation to the establishment of the Palestinian state. Criticism of Bush's comments against the PA and other Arab regimes came exclusively from Arab intellectuals and commentators who tossed barbs at the US president ranging from "unobjective" to "cross-eyed". "What did you expect the Arab countries to say. Did you expect them to come out and tell the US president that he is far too biased? We all know that. Did you expect them to hold an urgent Arab summit and to agree on a coordinated reaction in face of these unfair accusations? Any summit is almost out of the question," commented one Arab diplomat. He added that it was highly unlikely that any Arab capital would explicitly object to Bush's statement. "Instead, they will try to search for some positive elements in the speech that was even described by some Israeli commentators as being specifically tailored to serve Israel's political agenda." Arab diplomats who spoke to Al-Ahram Weekly said they had no problem in reconciling the very positive Israeli response to the Bush statement with the Arab statements suggesting that there were some positive elements to the speech. For them, the Arab response did not signify defeat, but was rather an attempt to see the glass as half-full rather than half-empty. "Nobody really expected the US president to offer a vision that is identical or even close to the Arab vision. It is true that the speech may go too far in accommodating Israeli views, but it does have some good points that we have to work on with the Americans," commented an Arab source. Arab diplomatic sources describe the "positive" aspects of Bush's speech as being "substantial" since they deal with matters related to Palestinian statehood, Jerusalem, the refugees, an expected time frame for a final settlement of the Israeli- Palestinian conflict and the need for a comprehensive settlement that takes into account both Syria and Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that he was "very pleased" by Bush's speech. However, as one Arab diplomat was quick to point out, Sharon "cannot be too pleased with the fact that Bush is talking about a final settlement within three years, and not a 10-15-year temporary arrangement". And, according to another diplomatic source, "In his speech, Bush explicitly recognised that Arab lands seized by Israel in 1967 are occupied land and that this occupation must be ended. I am sure that this is not what Sharon was hoping to hear, given that he has repeatedly said that it would be detrimental for Israel to return to the 1967 borders." Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said on Tuesday that Bush's speech "is fairly balanced. We are waiting for US Secretary of State Colin Powell's visit to the region to obtain an explanation of how this speech will be implemented". A similar approach was adopted by another of the US's close Arab allies. Jordan said on Tuesday that it considers the Bush speech "the beginning of the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict". Bush's remarks came against a backdrop of Israel's escalation of its military offensive against the Palestinian territories. And only hours after the speech, a White House source described Israel's actions as the exercise of its right to defend itself to which the US president had referred. The speech also came within the context of mounting signs of an Arab failure to react in a constructive manner to the threats posed by Israel. On Monday evening, an Arab foreign ministers' meeting, which was held alongside a foreign ministers' gathering for the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, failed to produce a consensus for a collective Arab reaction to the speech. "The speech is being carefully examined," commented Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa. Meanwhile, Arab foreign ministers who are members of a summit follow-up committee are still unable to agree on a date for a meeting that is expected to address the situation in the occupied territories and the increasing Israeli threats against Lebanon and Syria. "At a time when Israel is stepping up its offensive, we cannot even agree on a meeting, let alone on what might come out of such a gathering," commented Mohamed Sobeih, Palestinian permanent representative to the Arab League. Moreover, an Arab information ministers' meeting that took place in Cairo last week debated for two days ways to implement an Arab media plan of action that was adopted last August, but was never given a budget for implementation. Even an organisation to monitor and respond to anti-Arab campaigns in Europe and the US -- the so-called Arab Media Watch -- that Arab states agreed to set up during last week's meeting, is still awaiting financing. According to Syrian Minister of Information Adnan Omran, "The fact of the matter is that we have to settle our financial difficulties. We also have to agree on the pace at which to move, but the outlook is not all bleak." Like many other Arab officials, however, Omran remained enigmatic about the reasons for his lack of pessimism.
