[MER - Over and Over again the regime of Hosni Mubarak comes to Washington pleading its case like a beggar, making one excuse after another, refusing to accept responsibility for all those years of letting the Israelis do much the same as they are doing today after beginning their own "peace process" with Israel back in 1978 at Camp David.

It was at Camp David, after all, that Anwar Sadat's friend of 40 years, and Foreign Minister, resigned, predicting what was to come. It was at the time of Camp David that the American and Egyptian Presidents said to the world that the Israelis had agreed to freeze all "settlements"; only to be 'corrected' by the Israelis a few days later that they had been mistaken, that the promise was only to "freeze" settlements for but 90 days!

Over and over again Washington smiles to the Arab regimes, hands out a few trinkets, and returns to the firm grip of the Israeli/Jewish lobby when the Arab "leaders" depart. This time it's "Jerusalem" and "Har Homa". But even if Har Homa had never been mentioned, and even if it should be reversed, the overall situation of Israeli domination and Palestinian dispossession would remain.

After decades of coming to cry on Washington's shoulders and everything just getting worse and worse, nobody really takes the Egyptians very seriously...not even themselves.

And, let it be said in fairness to the Israelis, having gotten away for some 30 years now since 1967 with their expansionist policies designed to disenfranchise and demoralize and subjugate the Palestinians -- with one crisis after another, one U.N. condemnation after another, one American aid package after another -- why should they now believe anyone is really serious about stopping them?]

"WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD FOR AN ACTIVE ROLE TO BE PLAYED BY THE UNITED STATES AND WE ARE READY TO DO THE SAME... THE ROLE OF THE UNITED STATES AS AN HONEST BROKER SHOULD BE PROMOTED, SHOULD BE PRESERVED, BECAUSE THE ROLE OF THE U.S...IS VERY MUCH A MUST."
Amr Moussa - Foreign Minister of Egypt - 3/8/97