Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will be in Washington the week of March 27 for a state visit. Israeli-Arab negotiations will certainly be the centerpiece of his discussions with President Clinton and Administration officials.

Egyptian Centrality in Arab-Israeli Peace

Egypt, under the courageous leadership of President Anwar Sadat, changed the course of Middle East history by becoming the first Arab nation to make peace with the State of Israel. In his nearly two decades in power, President Mubarak has continued the policy of Sadat and has maintained peaceful relations with Israel. President Mubarak has also worked over the years to encourage other Arab leaders to enter negotiations with Israel and has been an important behind-the-scenes facilitator of Israeli negotiations with the Palestinians, Jordan, Syria and others.

At the same time, however, twenty-one years into this historic peace, relations between Israel and Egypt have never developed beyond proper cordiality. President Mubarak has done little to warm up the "cold peace," and to encourage people-to-people exchanges and interactions between Israelis and Egyptians. Symbolically, unlike his predecessor, President Mubarak has never gone on a state visit to Israel, always claiming that the timing is not appropriate. (He did attend the funeral of the late Prime Minister Rabin in Jerusalem.)

As in other Arab countries, while the leadership may be engaged in relations with Israel, Egypt’s grassroots and intelligentsia are opposed to any contact with Israel and Jews. Professionals in Egypt are discouraged from interacting with Israeli colleagues. Israelis are barred from participating in "international" book and film festivals in Egypt.

The cold peace between Israel and Egypt is most apparent in the Egyptian media where all too often Jews and Israelis are depicted in a derogatory and incendiary manner. Anti-Semitic stereotypes are prevalent in caricatures and articles, with Jews portrayed as stooped, hook-nosed and money-hungry, fighting for world domination. Israeli leaders are regularly depicted as Nazis, while other articles deny or diminish the Holocaust. The articles and caricatures can be found in opposition newspapers as well as in the government-backed press, including the largest dailies, Al-Ahram, Al-Goumhuriyya and the popular magazine October.

While President Mubarak has on occasion denounced these anti-Jewish depictions and conspiracy theories, claims of "International Zionist" conspiracies continue to dominate the media, as do depictions of Jews as Nazis, and Holocaust denial.