Arabs Warn Israel Not to Retreat on Peace

Arab leaders hinted Sunday at a break in relations with Israel if its new conservative government retreats from the negotiating principle of “land for peace.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired back that their “one-sided demands” would be harmful to the peace process.

The exchange that followed the first pan-Arab summit in six years showed that Arabs and Israelis remain far apart in their perceptions. Arab leaders said they thought they had been moderate in their final statement, but Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy said their style could be “interpreted as a threat.”

“Throughout the whole statement there are dictated terms, there are conditions which . . . transform negotiations into something superfluous,” Levy said. “Peace is not attained by dictated terms.”

The summit rejected calls from Syria, Tunisia and Lebanon for an immediate halt to normalization of ties with Israel.

“This was the minimum,” Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said in defense of the summit communique.

But the document’s tone rankled the Israeli government sworn in last week. It will be left to U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher, scheduled to visit the region Tuesday and Wednesday, to explore the prospects for putting the peace process back on track.

The Arab leaders asked Israel to demonstrate without delay that it intends to negotiate in good faith on the principle of exchanging land for peace that was agreed upon at the 1991 Madrid peace conference and to adhere strictly to agreements signed by the previous Labor Party governments.

If Israel “retreats,” “deviates” or “procrastinates,” it will lead to “a setback of the peace process, with all the dangers that entails, taking the region backward to a whirlpool of tension,” the statement said.

“It will compel all the Arab states to reconsider steps taken in the context of the peace process vis-a-vis Israel. The Israeli government will bear sole and full responsibility for this situation.”

The statement did not specify what actions the Arabs might take, but one of the most punishing strategies would be to cut off emerging economic ties between Israel and the Arab world.

Netanyahu’s response, in a written statement Sunday night, was curt. “One-sided demands which harm security do not go together with talks for peace,” he said. “For the process to continue successfully and fruitfully, such statements must be stopped.”

He later said the Arab side should lift its conditions. “We will not dictate to them, nor will they dictate to us,” Netanyahu declared.

*

Arab diplomats said they considered their statement a compromise--warning that the peace process could be in danger but asserting their wish to make the negotiations succeed if Netanyahu is willing to bargain.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Amir Moussa said the deeds of the new Israeli government will remain under scrutiny in upcoming months so that the Arabs can decide their next moves.

The summit communique clearly restated Arab demands in the peace negotiations: the return of the Golan Heights to Syria; withdrawal from occupied southern Lebanon; and an end to Jewish settlements and the establishment of an independent state for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The previous Israeli government of Prime Minister Shimon Peres had indicated willingness to withdraw from the Golan Heights and to discuss the possibility of a Palestinian state.

But Netanyahu won his office by campaigning against those positions. His government also supports strengthening Jewish settlements in the West Bank and says Jerusalem will remain Israel’s undivided capital. It has not confirmed whether it will carry out Peres’ agreement to pull most Israeli troops out of the West Bank town of Hebron.

Such positions have fueled concern across the Arab world and spurred the gathering in Cairo, which attracted 21 of the 22 Arab League members. Only Iraq was uninvited because of lingering anger over Saddam Hussein’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

In the wake of Netanyahu’s election, many commentators in the Arab world had spoken of the need to reconstitute a united front among Arabs to face the challenge posed by a tougher Israeli leadership. Arabs want peace, but “we only make peace with those who make peace with us,” Mubarak said in his speech closing the summit.

At a news conference, Moussa rejected suggestions by journalists from Arab countries that the leaders should have been harsher on the Israeli government. He said the communique’s language is “sufficient” and also chastised one reporter who referred to Netanyahu as a “terrorist.”

But reflecting Arab skepticism about the intentions of the new Israeli leader, Moussa said, “I don’t think anybody is encouraged by Mr. Netanyahu’s statements.”

*

The summit communique also dealt with a number of other Arab concerns:

* The leaders called on Iran to respect the sovereignty of Bahrain. Bahrain’s ruling dynasty has accused Tehran of being behind civil unrest in the Persian Gulf island nation. The summit also supported the United Arab Emirates in a territorial dispute with Iran.

* The final statement voiced mild concern over a military cooperation agreement between Turkey and Israel signed earlier this year. Syria sees the agreement as the beginning of a military alliance directed against its security and had wanted tougher condemnation, summit sources said.

* Jordan won its demand for a summit plank condemning terrorism. But Syria succeeded in watering down the wording by including a clause that said some legitimate liberation movements are wrongly labeled “terrorist.”