Arabs Hope to Prompt Israeli Reconsideration

A move by the 22 members of the Arab League to freeze relations with Israel and reactivate an economic boycott of the Jewish state was a message to Israelis that they should reconsider a government that is leading the region into danger, Arab diplomats said Monday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted sharply to the Arab League resolution adopted at a two-day meeting in Cairo. He called it “a step backward from peace” and said it is absurd for Arab countries to try to reimpose an economic quarantine on Israel.

“It didn’t work then and it won’t work now,” Netanyahu said in Jerusalem, according to news services.

But Arab League Secretary-General Ahmad Esmat Abdel Meguid said it is Netanyahu who was absurd to underestimate the reaction of Arab countries to his plans for a new Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem.

“I am telling you, Mr. Netanyahu, you have miscalculated. You are playing with fire, and you will be the first to be burned. I leave it to the Israeli people, and I am sure there are many Israeli people who are tired of war,” Abdel Meguid said.

The Arab League resolution had two main points:

* A call to halt normalization of relations with Israel, including the closing of the trade missions and representative offices that Israel has been allowed to open in a few Arab countries.

* An end to multilateral talks involving Israel under the peace process and a renewal of the strict adherence to the Arab ban on doing business directly with Israel--an economic boycott measure that was allowed to lapse by some Arab countries in the past few years.

With the influential countries of Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia backing the resolution, it sailed through the meeting without difficulty in an unusual display of Arab unity.

However, apparently at the request of more moderate countries, it was framed as a “recommendation” rather than a “decision,” a formulation that gives each country more leeway in how to interpret and implement it.

The two Arab countries with peace treaties with Israel--Egypt and Jordan--were not asked to abrogate them. Nor were the Palestinians, who have entered into a number of agreements with Israel since 1993, expected to withdraw from those accords.

It is the more distant countries of the Arab world--Qatar, Oman, Morocco, Mauritania and Tunisia--that will be expected to take concrete steps to cut off their fledgling ties with Israel in coming weeks. Most already have cooled their relations anyway.

Nevertheless, the specter of a renewed Arab boycott of Israel was unsettling, and the U.S. government, the chief sponsor and guarantor of the Arab-Israeli peace process, signaled its displeasure.

“Our view is quite clear,” said State Department spokesman John Dinger in Washington. “Sustaining a regional environment supportive of peacemaking is an essential part of promoting peace. . . . We hope the Arab League recognizes it has a responsibility to shape such an environment.”

Lebanese Foreign Minister Faris Bouez said he hopes that the resolution will spur Washington into taking a more evenhanded approach in the region.

The United States needs to “go back to its original role as the driving force and honest broker” in the peace process, he said.