AJC Presses New Egyptian Foreign Minister To Return Envoy to Israel, Curb Hatred In Media

American Jewish Committee
Thursday, 21 June 2001

American Jewish Committee leaders told Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher El-Sayed at an AJC-sponsored breakfast today that they look to Egypt to set a new tone in the Arab world in which Arab-Israeli peace and cooperation may flourish.

AJC, which maintains regular dialogue with Egyptian officials, urged the foreign minister to return Egypt's ambassador to Israel, Mohammed Bassiouny, who was recalled to Cairo in November. High-level contact between the two governments is essential to fostering regional peace, the AJC leadership delegation said.

E. Robert Goodkind, chairman of AJC's Board of Governors, who led the delegation, pressed Minister Maher on the urgency of Egypt curbing the virulent anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial, and hatred of Israel that is featured frequently in the government-sanctioned Egyptian press and other popular media. Such expressions of hatred toward the Jewish people and Israel assure perpetual resistance among the Egyptian public and others in the Arab world to pursuing peace with the Jewish state, argued the AJC leaders.

Mr. Maher, appointed foreign minister last month, and making his first official visit to Washington since he completed his service as Egypt's ambassador to the United States in 1999, told the AJC-sponsored gathering that Egypt favors an early resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. He said that his country considers compliance with the current cease-fire, while incomplete, sufficient to bypass a "cooling off period" and bring the parties back to the bargaining table.

Disagreeing with the minister's view that the Palestinians had set aside their nine-month campaign of violence, the AJC leaders pointed out the grave Palestinian violations of cease-fire terms in just the previous 24 hours, including the use of new and deadlier mortar against Israelis and the public refusal by a leader of Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction to halt armed attacks.

The Egyptian minister urged continued and accelerated U.S. involvement in the quest for Israeli-Palestinian peace, and pledged continued openness to the American Jewish community. After his breakfast with AJC, Mr. Maher conducted meetings on Capitol Hill and met at the State Department with Secretary Colin Powell.

The 30-member Jewish leadership group assembled by AJC included representatives of other Jewish organizations and prominent members of the Washington Jewish community.

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