|
Saturday, October 25, 1997
Cairo, Egypt - in his 16 years as president of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak has been known as a charming, workmanlike and intelligent Leader. But in a remarkable interview in the Egyptian presidential palace here, he revealed qualities of passion and prophecy not usually associated with his reign. " We in Egypt don't want to see one Israeli child killed, " he began, as we sat on gilded chairs in beautiful pink and gold sitting rooms, "peace was happening - but since Netanyahu came, he has a completely different concept that will lead only to continued violence in this part of the world, and it will, never come to an end. " This man is only going to lead us to disaster, though the whole world is silent, but Netanyahu is deepening the hatred, yet the Israeli people are like any other - they want to feel part of the area" The peace process Egypt gave birth to is, in his eyes, breaking down further every day, and mostly because of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a man he no longer even believes he can trust. "I have no problem with Netanyahu on the phone," he went on, " he speaks good words. He tells me, I'm going to implement this ... , when I met him here with Yasser Arafat, he was going to solve all the problems with the Palestinians. But two weeks after the visit, not a single thing was solved. With ( the late Prime minister Yitzhak ) Rabin, there were problems, but when he gave his word, he kept it. "Watch his words, " he went on, referring again to " Bibi" Netanyahu. " He is saying no Palestinian state! That means all the land of Palestine belongs to Israel. Yet that is committing a sin against the people of Israel because, if you insist upon keeping all the land, there will never be peace. " President Mubarak, who took over the presidency upon the tragic assassination of president Anwar Sadat in1981, is enjoying one of the best periods of his reign. While there are still Occasional Islamic fundamentalist murders, they are diminishing. Despite large pockets of poverty the economy has finally taken off . Cairo is booming. Yet he pleaded with two of the major players to do more to restore the gravely faltering peace process. "Without the United States, the whole peace process is useless, "he continued." People keep asking why the Americans don't do something, And if things collapse, America will be blamed", He also issued a plea to the American Jewish people-and in particular the main Lobby for Israel in the United States, AIPAC or the American Israel Public Affairs committee to stop support any Israeli government, no matter what its policies. " I'm asking the Jewish people to be logical, " he said " The Jewish lobby is making a big mistake. What they are doing will only lead to more hatred of the Jews, If they want to coexist, they should convince Israel to change. " It is obvious today, as never before, that Mubarak wants a just and lasting solution to the whole Arab - Israeli problem. It is also clear he believes that there is little more that Egypt can do at this point, because he fears that Netanyahu wants to impose an eternal stalemate for his own purposes, Without ever seriously implementing his many promises. It has, importantly, been 20 years this fall since president Sadat broke the climate of fear and hatred that had for so long imprisoned the entire Middle East when he made his historic trip to Jerusalem. " In those 20 years, we have started building our economy, and we are in better shape than ever before, "he summed up. "I am working for the economy and for my people, and not spending money for arms and for killing. " At the last Arab League summit in June 1996, for the first time the Arab nations agreed to peace with consensus, to peace as a strategy. "Then he paused and ended by saying , "Mr. Netanyahu, please respond! " |
|
||||||||
Print this page 
Mail this page 