The middle-aged man at the neighborhood coffee shop waxed indignant when asked if Egypt was regaining its role as leader of the Arab world.
“Egypt is not the leader,” he said as dozens of heads around him nodded approval. “Egypt is the mother of the Arab nation.”
In a way, he said it all — the ambiguity of Egypt’s relations with its sister Arab countries.
On the one hand, there is the firm leadership by President Hosni Mubarak of the country that persists in being the only Arab state at peace with Israel as it continues to celebrate the allied victory over Saddam Hussein.
On the other hand, despite their obvious dislike of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s leadership, both Egyptian officials and Egyptian people on the street insist that the PLO is the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinians.
“When will Israel realize that the Palestinian issue is the core of the Middle East conflict?” asked Abdul Satar Tawila, the deputy editor of the popular weekly Rose el-Yussuf.
The Israeli government greets U.S. Secretary of State James Baker with new settlements, said Tawila. “Is this the way to seek peace?”
Everywhere one goes in Cairo, no matter whom one talks to, one finds a personal antipathy for Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir.
Hedayat Abdel-Nabi, the presidential correspondent of Al Ahram, Egypt’s leading daily, in terviewed Prime Minister Menachem Begin in 1982, shortly before Israel completed its withdrawal from Sinai. She was impressed at the time by Begin’s determination to stick to his commitments.
“But I have no interest whatsoever to interview Shamir,” she said. “There is nothing I expect of him.”
Tawila of Rose el-Yussuf agreed. “As long as Shamir is in power, there will be no peace,” he said.
AN EYE ON ARAB LEAGUE MEETING
After a dozen years of peace, the Egyptians are still trying to balance their relations with Israel and their ties to the other Arab states.
They are keen on maintaining a dialogue with Israel. But they insist on calling long distance, and they do not always like the voices at the other end of the line.
Such is the atmosphere in which Mubarak will play host Monday to both U.S. Secretary of State James Baker and Soviet Foreign Minister Alexander Bessmertnykh.
The Egyptian government is determined to spare no efforts to push the peace process forward. Any such movement will make it easier for Egypt to win back leadership of the Arab world.
On Tuesday, the League of Arab States is scheduled to meet in Cairo and elect Egyptian Foreign Minister Esmat Abdel-Meguid its secretary-general.
It will be the first time an Egyptian has headed the Arab League since 1978, when Cairo was ostracized for signing a peace treaty with Israel.
What a nice dowry Abdel-Meguid could take with him to the league’s headquarters if he came with a breakthrough in the peace process dated Cairo, May 13.
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