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What Egypt's President Has Forgotten

(Ha'aretz) Alan Baker - In his interview with the New York Times on the eve of his first visit as Egypt's president to the U.S., Mohammed Morsi conditioned the continued implementation of the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty on the fulfillment of commitments by the U.S. and Israel regarding Palestinian self-rule. One wonders whether President Morsi is deliberately mixing the terms of the Camp David Accords with the terms of the bilateral Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty. The 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty was devoted solely to terminating the state of belligerency that had existed between the two countries, and to the establishment of peace and neighborly relations between them. Article VI, paragraph 2 of the peace treaty states: "The Parties undertake to fulfill in good faith their obligations under this Treaty, without regard to action or inaction of any other party and independently of any instrument external to this Treaty." This commitment stands alone, and subjecting fulfillment of Egypt's peace treaty obligations to the settlement of the Palestinian issue would appear to be a violation of the spirit and integrity of the treaty. The author, former legal adviser to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Israel's ambassador to Canada, directs the Institute for Contemporary Affairs at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
2012-10-25 00:00:00
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