For the first time since becoming president of Egypt almost three decades ago, President Hosni Mubarak has written an article and published it in The Wall Street Journal under the title "How to Achieve Israeli-Palestinian Peace". According to experts and politicians, this is a response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech and a way to spur the Obama administration to translate the speech in Cairo into real deeds. Mubarak says in his article that Egypt has always been at the forefront of confronting the challenges facing the Arabs, starting with the regional conflicts and the "swelling tide of extremism and radicalism." He also affirms that Egypt has been the first to extend its hand for peace to Israel, face the threat of terrorism, and start the process of reforms which still has a long way to go. President Mubarak lays out what can be considered Egypt's view for a peace plan. This plan starts by settling the issue of permanent borders of a territorially contiguous Palestinian state based on the 1967 lines, halting the expansion of settlements in preparation for the adoption of a two-state solution and, finally, reaching a full normalization with Israel resulting from settlements on the Syrian, Lebanese and Palestinian tracks.
Mubarak describes Obama's speech in Cairo as a turning point in the relations between America and the Muslim world. He also says he looks forward to working with the U.S. President to heal the division between America on the one hand and the Arabs and Muslims on the other.
The Wall Street Journal dealt with the President's article in the same way as he deals with the public personalities it asks to write for it. It says before the article "By Hosni Mubarak" and reads at the end of it "Mr. Mubarak is president of Egypt." Wahid Abdel Maguid, Vice-President of Al-Ahram Center for Strategic Studies, commented on Mubarak's first article saying he is trying to correct the impression, which may take root in the West, that the Arabs refuse peace given their angry reactions at Netanyahu's speech. Amr El-Shobki, expert at the same center, said it is normal for presidents to write in major newspapers and gave the example of French President Nicolas Sarkozy's articles in Le Monde.
According to Dr. Amr Rabie Hashem, the fact that the President talks about full normalization indicates that he has enough safeguards from the Arabs in this regard.
