Rabbi Alexander Schindler, president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, has called on President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt to repudiate a statement attributed to him by King Hassan of Morocco that “For Egypt, Camp David is dead. This is so because it has obtained all its fruits. Egypt has recovered its occupied territories. It recovered its petroleum. Because of this, the substance of Camp David has been drained.”
Schindler cabled Mubarak urging him to disavow this statement. “If not, your statement deals a serious blow to the painful struggle for peace in the Middle East and betrays the ideals for which your noble predecessor, Anwar el-Sadat, was martyred.”
The Reform leader also noted that Mubarak’s senior foreign policy adviser, Osama el-Baz, announced in Cairo on Friday, a day after the Islamic Conference decided to invite Egypt to resume its membership in the organization from which it was suspended after signing a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, that Egypt planned to meet with Jordan and the Palestine Liberation Organization to work out a new approach on negotiations with Israel on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Schindler, in his cable, asked Mubarak: “Do you really expect Israel to accept you as an honest broker in such negotiations? Should Israel take still further risks for peace when your words make a mockery of Egyptian promises?”
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