Arab Acceptance of Israel Is Old Dream

The historic show of solidarity at Wednesday’s “Summit of the Peacemakers” marked the symbolic culmination of a half-century-old dream of Israel’s pioneers: to be accepted as a regular Middle Eastern nation.

But in a historic irony, the agent that turned the Zionist vision into reality was Hamas, the Islamic extremist organization dedicated to Israel’s destruction.

To be sure, some of the Arab leaders at the antiterrorism summit are still uncomfortable sharing a stage with an Israeli prime minister. And in the days leading up to the Sharm el Sheik meeting, the Arab press grumbled that the summit should have been held when a Jewish extremist shot and killed worshipers at a mosque in the West Bank town of Hebron in 1994.

But the sheer horror of four Hamas suicide bombings in less than two weeks galvanized the world community, leaving most Arab states little choice but to participate when Washington called the meeting.

“This summit is unprecedented in the history of the Middle East,” President Clinton said in a speech at opening ceremonies. “It would have been inconceivable just a few short years ago.”

Actually, it would have been inconceivable three weeks ago, before a Hamas terrorist blew himself up on a crowded Jerusalem bus. After three more deadly blasts, it was clear that Israel’s Arab neighbors would endorse the Jewish state’s right to exist in the volatile region.

U.S. and Israeli officials expressed optimism that Israel’s gradual integration into the region’s political life is now irreversible.

“Each step makes it easier and easier for the Arab states to accept Israel,” a senior U.S. official said.

“Many of the barriers that separated Israel from its neighbors are gone,” Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres said. “It will be a new Middle East.”

But without the Hamas outrages, a senior official said, it would have taken “a lot longer” to reach the step that was taken Wednesday in the scuba-diving resort that Israeli troops occupied in 1967 and returned to Egypt in 1982 as a consequence of a 1979 peace agreement.

“A lot of those [Arab] countries that are on the stage today had thought they would not appear with Israel until Israel made peace with Syria,” the official said.

As a token of Israel’s new status among its Arab neighbors, Peres was pulled aside for private talks by President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, King Hussein of Jordan, King Hassan II of Morocco and Crown Prince Hamed ibn Salman Khalifa of Bahrain. The unscheduled chats with Arab leaders made Peres late to a meeting with Clinton and contributed to the confusion that delayed by an hour the start of the formal meeting.

The primary holdout from the new Arab attitude was Syria. President Hafez Assad stuck by his long-standing position that Israel and Syria must make a formal peace before enjoying its trappings.

But Assad’s decision, backed only by longtime satellite Lebanon, left Damascus isolated.

Although Secretary of State Warren Christopher and other world leaders had pleaded with Assad to attend, Clinton suggested that Syria’s absence should not detract from the summit’s impact.

“I wouldn’t over-read their absence here,” Clinton said. “It’s part of a general pattern of going their own way.

“You can focus on what didn’t happen, but if you do, it will blind you to what did happen.”