The Sharm el-Sheikh Summit: A Short-acting analgesic
By Khalid Amayreh, Palestine Information Center

After more than four years of bloodshed in Palestine, mainly as a result of Israel's efforts to perpetuate its occupation of the Palestinian homeland, Zionist Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas have agreed to end the violence.

The unwritten agreement, which looks more as a tacit understanding and les as a solemn and clear commitment, stipulates a mutual cessation of hostilities, including resistance attacks by Palestinian fighters against Israelis and military incursions into Palestinian towns and villages by the Israeli occupation army.

Sharon has also promised a set of largely undefined and often vague "good-will measures" which conceivably will alleviate the plight of more than 3.5 million Palestinians, thoroughly tormented and nearly decimated by more than four years of brutal Israeli repression.

Hence, the Sharm el Sheikh summit, regardless of the intentions of both sides, especially Israeli Prime Minister Sharon, can be viewed as a badly-needed "time-out" for the two exhausted societies- for the Palestinians to restore a semblance of normal life and modicum of freedom of movement, and for the Israelis, to revive their economy, hard-hit by the near destruction of the vital tourism industry.

Apart from that, the Sharm el sheikh summit, which was almost exclusively devoted to security matters, promises no further horizons.

According to Palestinian commentator Hani al Masri, who writes a regular column in the Ramallah-based daily, al Ayyam, the outcome of the summit has only "temporary importance."

"The summit may have succeeded in stopping the bloodshed for the time being, but it has by no means removed the causes and factors that would make the resumption of violence inevitable."

Masri describes the summit outcome as an agreement to travel ten miles in a thousand-mile journey.

"They agreed to travel only ten miles in a thousand-miles journey. This gives us some optimism corresponding to this small distance, while uncertainty continues to hover over the remaining 990 miles which both sides have to travel before there can be peace."

Besides, the summit utterly failed to deal with one of the most pressing issues, generating a lot of discontent among Palestinians, namely the prisoners' plight.

The Israeli government last week promised that it would free "hundreds" of prisoners, out of the estimated 9000 Palestinians languishing In Israeli jails and detention camps, many without charge or trial.

Palestinians described the unilateral Israeli proposal as "insulting," arguing that they didn't want Israeli magnanimity but rather a commitment to release all the prisoners in accordance with international law.

However, Israel which never heeded the rule of international law in its long conflict with the Palestinians, is unlikely to free significant numbers of Palestinian prisoners who are effectively kept as political hostages, or bargaining chips, to be used to extract political concessions from the Palestinians during any prospective final status talks between the two sides.

This issue, more than any other issue, say Palestinian and Israeli observers alike, is a perfect prescription for the resumption of violence, as it is likely to exasperate the Palestinian public and eventually lead to the weakening of Mahmoud Abbas in the eyes of his people.

Non the less, the ultimate test of the success (or failure) of the Sharm el Sheikh summit eventually depends on Israel's willingness to take a strategic decision to give up the spoils of the 1967 war.

However, given Sharon's brief speech at Sharm el Sheikh yesterday, it is amply clear that Israel is still as far away as ever from taking such a decision.

Which makes the Sharm el Sheikh conference no more than a mere analgesic, even a short-acting one.