Israeli Election Results Give Arabs Cautious Optimism

That rarest of commodities in the Middle East--optimism--was cautiously resurgent in the Arab world Tuesday as politicians and ordinary citizens digested the news of Ehud Barak’s landslide victory in the race for Israeli prime minister.

Among Arabs, the humiliation that voters handed Benjamin Netanyahu was seen as proof that his divisive policies had led to a three-year dead end for Israelis and Palestinians alike. “It was the defeat of stupid extremism,” wrote one Lebanese editor.

The election of Barak led to hopes among Arabs that the clock could, in a way, be turned back to late 1995, when a comprehensive peace between Israelis and Arabs last appeared to be on track.

But many voices also warned that Arab countries should not be too quick to resume normalizing ties with Israel, at least not until Barak demonstrates that he is serious about achieving peace.

Several commentators also expressed anxiety at some of the tough positions Barak had taken during his election campaign, especially his pledge that Jerusalem would remain undivided and under Israeli sovereignty.

Egypt’s often-combative foreign minister, Amr Moussa, was the warmest in extending a welcome to Barak, promising to work with him “to revive the peace process and to change the general atmosphere . . . which was extremely poisoned over the last three years.”

Arab League Secretary-General Ahmad Esmat Abdel Meguid concluded that the Israeli public has opted for peace. In a statement, he urged Barak’s incoming government to “seize the occasion and be quick to revive the peace process.”

Negotiating with Barak will be difficult, said one Egyptian commentator, but with Netanyahu it was impossible.

Barak “is a better edition of an Israeli general, one with whom we can do business,” said Emad Eldin Adib, editor in chief of the Al Alam Al Youm newspaper in Cairo. “At least if you reach an agreement with this man it will be respected.”

The Jordanian government also was cautiously optimistic. “Hopefully, we will witness a serious move on the peace process, on the Palestinian-Israeli track and on the Syrian-Israeli and Lebanese tracks,” said Ayman Majali, Jordan’s deputy prime minister.

But at the other end of the political spectrum, an official Iraqi newspaper, Al Iraq, predicted that Barak would prove a “mirage and an illusion” for Arab states hoping for progress. The records of both Barak’s Labor Party and Netanyahu’s Likud “are filled with crimes and plots against the Arabs,” the newspaper said.

The military exploits that won Barak support among Israelis were a mark against him with many Arabs.

Recalling Barak’s role in a commando raid in April 1973 that killed three Palestinian leaders, Al Hayat columnist Gihad El Khazen last week wrote that he viewed the Israeli race as a choice “between a man who killed peace, and a man who killed my friends.” Khazen came down on the side of Barak but said the choice was “sour.”

Mohammed Khair al Wadi, editor of Syria’s state-run Tishreen daily, said his country hopes Barak will act on his campaign pledges to pull Israeli forces out of southern Lebanon during his first year in office and to resume negotiations with Syria over the Golan Heights.

“This is positive, but for it to be very positive, it must be translated into deeds,” Khair al Wadi told the Mideast Mirror monitoring service in London.