Maitan Archive | Trotskyist Writers Index | ETOL Main Page
From International Viewpoint, No. 14, 4 October 1982, p. 4.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
The decisions of the Arab summit in Fez were presented by a large part of the international press as a major event. Le Monde entitled its September 11 editorial: “A decisive step.”
One could remember that certain of the “principles” of the Fez text had already been advanced in the past, albeit in a less explicit and systematic fashion. One could denounce the Fez summit as an operation of the Arab governments to make us forget, by a stunning diplomatic initiative, their complicit passivity during the bloody weeks of Israeli aggression in Lebanon. It was, for example, the first reaction of the Palestinian mayor of Nablus, who spoke of the “abandonment” of the PLO by the Arab regimes, and added:
“We hope that the Fez resolutions will not have the same fate as those of the last summit, which, in not being followed up in any way, was of great benefit to our enemies.”
It is nevertheless undeniable that something new was produced at Fez. It is enough to remember that the Fahd plan whose almost exact similarity to the Fez resolution is evident had been rejected less than a year ago by part of the Arab leaders, by the Syrians and, despite the opinion of Yassar Arafat, by the leadership of the PLO itself. Today, the same “principles” are unanimously adopted, with the exception of Libya, voluntarily absent from the summit, arid of Egypt, excluded from all meetings of the Arab League since the Camp David Agreement.
Nevertheless it remains the case that point 7 implies recognition of the state of Israel and that, we repeat, unanimity was reached by the different currents represented by these regimes on this point also. This is not a secondary point.
In other words, after having passively accepted, even favoured, the dismantling of the most important military positions of the PLO and the dispersion of its forces, the Arab governments, the majority of whom are hit or threatened by grave social and political crises, are putting forward more clearly than ever their moderate solution to the Palestinian problem. This solution entails the creation of a Palestinian mini-state, within the framework of the recognition of Israel, and with the perspective of being able to control this mini-state thanks to the economic hold that they will have over it. North American imperialism directly and/or by means of international institutions could endorse the operation by calling to order the leadership of the Zionist state.
But here is the stumbling block: Begin, as could be expected, has totally rejected the Fez “principles”. After all, why should he accept today, after having dealt a heavy blow to the PLO and having proved once more the powerlessness of the Arab governments, what he has never accepted in the past, the creation of an independent Palestinian state? Neither is he prepared to yield on autonomy a real autonomy of the occupied territories. He continues to oppose it, as he did during Camp David and after. This is shown most clearly by his refusal of the Reagan proposals, which outline an intermediate solution, excluding the creation of a Palestinian state, but proposing an autonomy for the occupied territories “in association” with Jordan.
This is why the impasse has not been overcome, even on the diplomatic terrain. The opposition to the Fez plan on the part of the Israeli Labour Party confirms, moreover, that the attitude of Menachem Begin does not flow from extreme fanaticism or political blindness. It flows from the very logic of Zionism and from the dynamic of a state that was founded and is maintained on the negation of the right of the Palestinians to have a homeland, and that considers that even an embryo of Palestinian independence constitutes a threat to its existence and to its ideological and political foundations.
Maitan Archive | Trotskyist Writers Index | ETOL Main Page
Last updated: 22 January 2020