CAIRO -- For Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, peace remains a "strategic option." At the latest Arab summit, he and other Arab rulers, rhetorically militant but deeply moderate in substance, did not give a passing thought to military coordination. They know that Arab armies are in no condition to match Israel's military might. But it is becoming less what the rulers want that counts; instead, what really matters might be thrust upon them by those they rule. As the conflict in Palestine escalates, the possibility of regional war is once again casting its shadow over the Middle East. In no Arab country does that provoke more anxious debate than Egypt, which, as the dominant Arab military power, would bear the brunt of any conflagration.
Since the latest Palestinian intifada began, Egypt has undergone what veteran analyst Tahseen Bashir calls an "emotional earthquake." The outward manifestation of it is the demonstrations that swept the country almost daily for four weeks, urging aid for the Palestinians.
Under President Anwar Sadat, Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel. But the very idea that Israel could ever win acceptance among ordinary Egyptians is now seen to be all but dead.