The Middle East peace process has been nudged forward, but whether it gets anywhere seems to depend on Israel’s willingness to overlook reservations attached by all of the parties.
The “yes, but” scenario became apparent Wednesday when Washington announced that Egypt had accepted Secretary of State James Baker’s five-point proposal for launching an Israeli-Palestinian dialogue.
Egypt’s conditional acceptance of Baker’s plan reflected Cairo’s inability to get the Palestine Liberation Organization to abandon certain positions.
Israel, which also attached a list of conditions when it agreed to the Baker plan last month, must now decide whether the “yeses” outweigh the “buts” sufficiently to go ahead.
Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and Foreign Minister Moshe Arens held consultations Thursday to formulate Israel’s position.
According to reports reaching here, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt introduced some last-minute changes in his reply to suit American purposes, which include keeping Israel in the process.
At the same time, Washington applied some pressure on Israel by describing the Egyptian response as “positive” and a “step forward,” in the words of State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler.
That outlook was echoed by the Labor component of the Israeli government. Vice Premier Shimon Peres called it a chance not to be missed.
Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin hailed the Egyptian response as “a great step forward,” adding that “one should not bother with the details.”
There was no official government reaction to Washington’s announcement, since the Israelis, though told the contents of the Egyptian document, have yet to see it in writing.
Moreover, the Americans relayed to them only the part which responds favorably to the Baker plan.
The part containing guarantees asked by the PLO was withheld for the time being, apparently to avoid complications.
According to reports here, Egypt managed to convince the PLO not to insist that its demand for direct negotiations with the Israelis be included in the Egyptian response to the Baker plan.
To have done so would have ruined the entire scenario. Shamir has repeatedly stated that Israel would never negotiate with the PLO, directly or indirectly.
He made that clear again to John Kelly, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern and South Asian affairs, who was in Jerusalem on Monday. Kelly informed him that Washington was well aware of Israel’s position.
Nevertheless, the crux of the problem remains the PLO’s involvement in the process.
Observers here believe that progress can be facilitated by a meeting of the Israeli and Egyptian foreign ministers with Baker in Washington.
Such a meeting was in fact the fifth of Baker’s five points. It is considered an inevitable preliminary to any dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians.
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