Doaa El-Bey follows a sudden gas shortage in Egypt and Palestinian and Syrian reaction to Israel's latest threats Palestinian factions reacted differently to the decision by Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to visit Israel to attend the annual Herzliya conference, Israel's most famous gathering that discusses Israeli policies and strategies. Tariq Al-Homayed hailed Fayyad as a brave man who chose to go to Israel and make them hear what he wanted to say. He did not go there to take pictures, but to put an end to the Israeli claims that there is no Palestinian party to sit with on the negotiating table and no Palestinian party willing to talk peace. He went there, Al-Homayed added, and told them that the establishment of a Palestinian state already started two years ago, would be declared in 2011 and would not need Israeli recognition. Fayyad also told them that if they wanted to cooperate, they have to withdraw from Palestinian lands and start serious negotiations. He argued there is no Israeli security without Palestinian security, that settlement construction has to stop and that East Jerusalem is part and parcel of the Palestinian state. His words were more effective than those of Hamas. And it reached Israel and the international community. As a result Shimon Peres called Fayyad "the Palestinian Ben-Gurion". Ben-Gurion built the state of Israel decades before it was declared and that is what Fayyad is doing now, Al-Homayed explained in the London-based political daily Asharq Al-Awsat . Abdel-Bari Atwan disagreed with Al-Homayed in regarding Fayyad brave. He asked what sort of bravado was needed for a visit by a Palestinian prime minister to a Zionist conference that discusses the strategic issues that keep Israel strong and supreme among Arab and Islamic states. Atwan added it was simplistic and naive to expect that Israeli officials like Peres and Netanyahu do no know the position of the Palestinians after negotiating and discussing all the issues with them for over 17 years; and they need Fayyad to tell them about it? "We witness an attempt to get round the conditions stipulated by the Palestinian Authority that it will not return to the negotiating table unless Israel freezes all settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. But Fayyad went to the conference at a time when meetings and negotiations with Israel are supposed to stop," Atwan wrote in the London-based independent political daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi. Meanwhile, Atwan added, the PA is trying to find ways to return to the negotiations, the last of which was engaging in indirect talks through which the Palestinians and Israelis would sit in different rooms and a US mediator would keep moving from one room to the other. The problem was never in the shape of the negotiations, as Atwan explained, but in the reasons that led to stopping it, namely Israeli settlement building, considering Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Israel and their rejection to even discuss the right of return of Palestinian refugees. He regarded the Palestinian return to talks without a total settlement freeze as a joke that is not funny. At a time when Israel is claiming that it seeks peace, it is not only building more settlements, but issuing statements that carry threatening language against some Arab states, of which Syria was the latest. Ezzeddin Darwish wrote that Israeli rulers talk much about negotiations with Syria but use the same bellicosity they normally reserve for other parties. Meanwhile, other officials resort to soft spoken language to give the impression that they only want peace talks. However, Darwish confirmed that Syria understands Israeli tricks and manoeuvres and will always deal with the Israelis as their enemies. In light of that understanding, Syria is on alert to Israeli officials whether they threaten or otherwise. "Peace to Syria means regaining all occupied lands first. This is not a precondition but its right. As soon as the land is regained, security could automatically follow. And this is the only way to reach genuine peace," Darwish wrote in the Syrian political daily Tishreen. Maamoun Fendi wrote that the Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's statement against Syria showed the true face of Israel and its real intention to escape from its commitments to peace by pushing the region towards war. No matter how deep inter-Arab differences are, Fendi added, Arabs should send a unanimous message to Israel denouncing these statements. This message should clearly state that these statements represent ill intentions to the leaders and peoples of all Arab states. He underlined that Israel would be mistaken if it thought the Arabs are divided between moderates and hardliners and that they would not be united if there was a real threat to Syria. He added that Lieberman would be mistaken if he thinks that a single Arab citizen would accept his threats against Syria or its leaders even if he is a political prisoner in Syria. It is high time for him to realise that inter-Arab differences are not a tool that he can use against them. "The Israelis should realise that the extremist language used by officials like Lieberman is not acceptable even to the most moderate and peace loving Arab," Fendi summed up in the Palestinian daily Al-Quds. The Qatari political daily Al-Raya predicted that the Middle East would witness a hot summer as a result of the Israeli threats against Syria, Lebanon and Gaza which represent a real danger to the region and put the world on the threshold of a frightening situation given that a number of parties possess highly destructive weapons. The newspaper's editorial pointed out that the Israeli escalation is not in the interest of the US which is trying under Barack Obama to improve its image in the Middle East. But its support for any Israeli aggression is likely to tarnish its image in the region and open a new page of hatred of the West. Thus, the edit called on US diplomacy to control Israeli military intransigence and its attempts to spread tension in the region. Constructive dialogue and effective diplomacy should substitute the use of power in order to resolve the region's problems. Peace and security are in the interest of all the parties in the region, the edit concluded.
