Israel-Egypt: Just an absence of war

Jerusalem Post ^ | Mar. 29, 2004 | SHLOMO AVINERI

[yonif]

Exactly a quarter of a century ago – in March 1979 – Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty which put an end to decades of war between the two nations. When President Anwar Sadat and Prime Minister Menachem Begin attached their names to the peace document on the White House lawn, with president Jimmy Carter as witness and facilitator, there was hope for a new dawn in the Middle East.

It was not to be.

Twenty-five years later, there is still no regional peace. Israel and Syria have failed, despite numerous attempts, to reach an equivalent agreement. And with the failure, at Camp David in 2000, of the US-sponsored negotiations between prime minister Ehud Barak and PA chairman Yasser Arafat, the hopes of an Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation receded even further, with escalating violence embittering both sides more than ever before.

But even the promise of normal relations between Israel and Egypt has proved to be a chimera. Israelis were ready to give up all the Egyptian territory they had captured in 1967 because it appeared they would finally be accepted by the largest and strongest Arab state.

Yet today relations between Israel and Egypt are bitter, and Israelis speak of a cold peace. Egypt has withdrawn its ambassador from Israel, President Mubarak pointedly refuses to visit Israel, and commerce between the two countries is minimal.

The Egyptian press, mainly under government control, is scathing in its depiction not only of Israel and Zionism, but also of Jews in general, with state TV presenting vitriolic anti-Semitic programs; Egyptian academics, artists and sport teams refuse to visit Israel; no Israeli has ever been invited to an Egyptian university; and Egyptian schoolbooks continue to present Israel in the same way as when the two countries were at war.

When Egyptian officials are asked about this they maintain that so long as Israel continues to occupy the Palestinians, normalization cannot take place. This claim is totally false.

IN 1980 I was a member of the Israeli delegation which negotiated the Cultural, Scientific and Educational Agreement between the two countries. Taking a leaf out of the book of Franco-German reconciliation after World War II, we suggested setting up a joint school commission to revise textbooks in both countries, so as to eliminate hate, misrepresentation and stereotyping.

If the Germans and French could do this after centuries of enmity, why not Egyptians and Israelis?

We were dumbfounded by the vehemence of the Egyptian response. The Egyptian deputy minister, who headed their delegation, almost went through the roof: "This is out of the question. You want to dictate to us what will be taught in our schools? This is part of our sovereignty!"

We did not pursue the point: What did school textbooks matter with no war, and nobody killed on the border?

We were wrong. It now appears that the Egyptian strategy has been, from the very beginning, not to move toward reconciliation and rapprochement.

The current Palestinian intifada is a mere excuse. In signing the treaty Egypt wanted – legitimately – to get back its territory, but in return it never aimed at anything save a cold peace.

A cold peace is better than a hot war. Yet it falls short of what everyone had in mind when the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Sadat and Begin. Peace is not just an absence of war. It is a state of mind, a moral disposition, an ethical commitment. This is not what the Egyptians were seeking.

The cold peace Egypt offered Israel should be kept. One can only wish something similar could be achieved with the Palestinians. Yet, in marking the 25th anniversary of this agreement, one should realize what it is – and what the Egyptians chose it should not be.

The author is professor of political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and was director-general of Israel's Foreign Ministry under Yitzhak Rabin.

[yonif]

Ping.

[glorgau]

Hey, the Egyptians (at least the ones in power) are Muslims. What else can be expected from the "religion of peace"?

[Cicero]

America is still paying Egypt $2 billion a year to teach their kids to hate Americans and Jews.

In the past, the worst Arab nationalists and theorists of terrorist ideology, virulent mixtures of Islamism and Communism, have emerged from Egypt. There's no reason to think it won't continue that way as long as little kids are taught to hate us.

[E Rocc]

Interesting spin. He points out that Israel and Syria have not reached an agreement, but doesn't mention at all the peace treaty (and good relations) between Israel and Jordan.

-Eric

[aegiscg47]

I find it interesting that Egypt still ships arms to the Palestinians and turns a blind eye to smugglers in the Suez Canal. If Mubarak dies, within an hour the new leader will have his army ready to invade Israel(or try to...). Mubarak is barely holding that thing together and he knows that Egypt needs to bide it's time, but his replacement will need to give in to the radical Islamists.

[yonif]

Good relations?

Jordan has a law on its books explicitly prohibiting any Jew from becoming a citizen, or any Jordanian from selling land to a Jew

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1065455551092

And Jordan, like Egypt, does not have an ambassador in Israel either, removing it in 2000.

http://www.jordanembassyus.org/10082000001.htm

[American in Israel]

...but doesn't mention at all the peace treaty (and good relations) between Israel and Jordan.

There is a treaty, and there has been absence of war, but relations are very strained. Half of Jordan has been taken over by Palestinians (with the bottomless aid from the world funding the Jihad) so that the King of Jordan and his family had to move to Aquaba from Amman Jordan the Capitol for safety.

Moab is effectively split from Edom as in ancient times with the Philistines in control of Moab and the Hashimites in control of Edom. The lower part of Jordan, Edom is now named an American "Economic Zone". Read, We no longer have to report aid to Congress zone, and has been been unbelievably rebuilt. The Kings highway has been plowed up, the ancient stones removed and an American style super highway put in. It is so open, American can enter without a visa, but to go to Amman Jordan is another story. There you take your life in your hands just to visit. Do NOT wear a USA t-shirt...

Prophecy comes true in our time. Interesting.

As a further sign of the strange two headed nature of Jordan, to get to Petra from Jerusalem, instead of heading over the Allenby bridge directly into Jordan and traveling south to petra you have to drive all the way south to the tip of Israel, cross there and then drive back half way north to Petra. It is just too dangerous to go into Moab for the short jaunt to Petra, so Israel closed the border to all non Muslim traffic on the Moab end.

Bad for the image of "Peace in our time" to have tourists regularly slaughtered at the Israeli border with Jordan.