Mubarak Tells Jewish Leaders That Egypt is Trying to Save Its Peace Treaty with Israel

President Hosni Mubarak told a group of more than 30 American Jewish leaders that Egypt has slowed its normalization of relations with Israel and recalled its ambassador in order to save the peace treaty, not to harm it.

Mubarak’s remarks were made Friday during more than a half-hour meeting at the residence of Egyptian Ambassador Ashraf Ghorbal with the group led by Edgar Bronfman, president of the World Jewish Congress, and Julius Berman, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

Bronfman and Berman told reporters that the Jewish leaders voiced concern over the slow-down in normalization and the recall of Egypt’s Ambassador. They particularly deplored the anti-Semitic articles that have been appearing in the Egyptian press. Berman said it was stressed that it was important to continue the normalization process not only for government-to-government relations but to “solidify relations” between the Egyptian and Israeli people.

“We are all reassured in terms of President Mubarak’s commitment to the peace process,” Berman said. “We are also reassured that in the long-run there will be good solid relations between Egypt and Israel.” But Berman said that even when the normalization process is resumed, the anti-Semitic articles in the Egyptian press may have created a harmful effect among the Egyptian people.

NEED TO ASSUAGE EGYPTIAN PUBLIC OPINION

Bronfman said that Mubarak maintained that the normalization had to be slowed down to “assuage” Egyptian public opinion after Israel’s invasion of Lebanon and that the ambassador had to be recalled after the massacres in Beirut last September. Mubarak denied that he acted to appease opinion in other Arab countries, saying he was only acting to meet the problems of Egyptian public opinion.

Berman said Mubarak stressed that the “peace process might have been jeopardized” if he had not acted. The Egyptian President told the Jewish group that he feels “with that gesture he has turn the corner the other way”, Berman said. “He now feels more solidly than ever that the peace process, in terms of the public opinion within Egypt, is so ingrained as never to be able to be called off.”

Both Bronfman and Berman reported that Mubarak agreed with the concerns of the Jewish leaders about the anti-Semitic articles in the Egyptian press. The Egyptian President said he called in representatives of the Egyptian press and asked them not to attack Jews as Jews or Israeli officials but only Israeli policies, Berman said.

The Jewish leaders rejected Mubarak’s charge that the Israeli settlements on the West Bank are a “barrier to peace”, Berman said. “The problem is that the Arab confrontation nations are not coming to the (negotiating) table without pre-conditions.

The Jewish leaders also criticized Mubarak’s urging U.S. pressure on Israel to move its forces out of Lebanon. Mubarak replied that he had urged pressure on all sides. He said he knows “you cannot pressure Israel” but believes that “you can convince them with appropriate arguments.”

Bronfman said that Mubarak did not go into details about his meeting with President Reagan Thursday. But he did say he told Reagan he had been urging the PLO and the Palestinians to join Jordan in a delegation to the autonomy talks.

CITES DISASTER FOR U.S. POLICY

In an interview yesterday with David Brinkley in New York, and telecast today on the ABC-TV “This Week” program, Mubarak said that unless the U.S. can “persuade” Israel to leave Lebanon and the West Bank, it will be a “disaster” for American policy in the Mideast. “The U.S. has so many friends in the Middle East, not only Israel”, he said.

Mubarak said that unless the U.S. is able to persuade Israel, its “friends will lose confidence in the U.S. This will lead to much more complicated problems in the future.” He reiterated his position that all foreign forces must leave Lebanon to give President Amin Gemayel a “full hand in his country.” He said that if the PLO, Israel and Syria remain in Lebanon, it would be a “disaster”. He also repeated his call to Israel to freeze settlement activity on the West Bank.