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Arabs won't abandon peace amid Mideast violence

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October 22, 2000 

CAIRO (AP) - An Arab summit held amid outrage at violence that has killed scores of Palestinians stopped short of calling for breaking ties with Israel, according to Libyan delegates who walked out of the meeting Saturday because they wanted strong action against Israel.

The walkout showed moderates like Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak were prevailing at the summit. Mubarak earlier Saturday blamed Israel for bringing the peace process to a standstill, but said Arabs would not abandon the path of negotiations.

"The summit does not include a clear condemnation of Israel, or at least propose cutting diplomatic relations, which is the minimum that can be done at such a focal point," the Libyan delegation said in a statement.

"While our Palestinian brethren are still dying everyday, and Arab public opinion is still enraged by the Israeli activities, the Arab leadership is passive and quiet," it said.

With that statement, it was clear the main work of the two-day summit, a final declaration, had been completed and agreed upon by most of the delegations.

Mubarak opened the summit a day after efforts to bring calm were shattered by one of the worst days of violence in the West Bank since fighting erupted there three weeks ago.

In response to Friday's violence, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said he would call an open-ended "timeout" after the Arab summit to rethink Israeli policy concerning the peace talks. Israel was watching the summit closely for signs of how the Palestinians might precede once they receive the backing of fellow Arabs.

Arab leaders gathered for the first time in four years needed to strike a balance between keeping the peace process alive and assuaging an angry Arab public demanding strong measures against Israel. The summit drew 15 heads of state from among the Arab League's 22 members.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said his people were facing "the worst kinds of mass killings, shelling, in addition to severe siege." Still, he said, "Our choice is the choice of permanent, just and comprehensive peace."

A grave-looking Mubarak called on Israel to prove that it, too, wanted peace.

Mubarak warned that Israel was showing a trend "toward provocation" by closing off the Palestinian territories, "terrorizing innocent civilians and killing defenseless children and letting loose extremists settlers armed with guns."

"We insist on guarantees that this not be repeated under any circumstances," he said.

It was one of the most important speeches of Mubarak's career, following the collapse of a cease-fire he and U.S. President Bill Clinton helped broker this week at Egypt's Sharm el-Sheik resort. Friday saw some of the heaviest fighting in an already bloody month. Palestinian militiamen fired on Israeli soldiers, drawing massive return fire that left nine Palestinians dead and 103 wounded. Clashes continued Saturday, as funerals were held for Friday's dead.

Egypt in 1979 became the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel. It has since tried to mediate peace negotiations between the Jewish state and Syria and the Palestinians.

But in the wake of the violence, Arab leaders are under great pressure to justify even the lowest level of contacts with Israel.

Drafts of the summit's final declaration, reports say, call for a return to the days of boycott against Israel and for Arab countries with trade offices in Tel Aviv to recall their representatives and for Egypt and Jordan, the only countries with diplomatic relations, to halt already faltering steps to encourage business and cultural exchanges.

"All kinds of cooperation with Israel should be stopped and the boycott should be reactivated," Syrian President Bashar Assad said, repeating the hard-line stance of his late father, whom he succeeded earlier this year.

On the streets, ordinary Arabs were calling for much more.

"The only way to liberate Jerusalem is through holy war," crowds chanted in San'a, Yemen Saturday during an anti-summit, anti-Israel and anti-American protest that drew thousands.

In demonstrations across the region, Arabs initially directed their anger at Israel, their emotions fueled by satellite television images of young Palestinian protesters gunned down by the Israeli army. Recently, the anger has also been directed at Arab governments seen as too soft on Israel.

Mubarak acknowledged that "we are all angry" but warned against "surrendering to our emotions."

"We must as people who have rights continue on the long road toward our legitimate rights and let no passing provocation sway us from it, because right in the end is what triumphs," he said.

At the summit, the Libyans were among a minority calling for strong action against Israel. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, in a speech read by his deputy Izzat Ibrahim, called Saturday for liberating Palestinians from Israel "through holy war."

It takes a crisis to bring Arab leaders together, and crises inevitably reveal the hollowness of Arab pledges to take unified stances.

The last Arab League summit in 1996 struggled to forge a united stand on peace with Israel. The previous summit, in 1990, saw the Arabs split over one league member's invasion of another - Iraq's move into Kuwait.

Since then, Kuwait and other Gulf states have refused to sit down with Iraq, derailing attempts to hold more regular summits.

Mubarak, who has repeatedly called for healing rifts within the Arab League, met early Saturday with the head of the Iraqi delegation. Saddam did not attend, sending Ibrahim. Kuwait's deputy prime minister, Sheik Sabah al Ahmed al Sabah, attended.