By Tim Thompson

Staff Writer

A spotlight on the Palestinian/Israeli conflict set the stage for this week's Arab League summit in Beirut, which officially began on Wednesday. The ongoing diplomatic struggle to reach a cease-fire in occupied Palestine continues to demonstrate an observation that journalist Rami Khouri articulated at Calvin College on Monday during a lecture titled ``A Peace-Making Perspective from the Arab World.''

As Khouri stated, ``The reason that we haven't achieved a successful Middle East peace is that the starting assumption has always been that Israelis have more rights than Palestians.''

The Israeli government's strict limits on Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasir Arafat's freedom of movement and Israeli President Ariel Sharon's statement Tuesday that ``the conditions are not yet ripe for Chairman Arafat's departure for Beirut'' drew resistance from Palestinian officials and from Arafat, who, resisting the assertion of Israel's right of primacy in dictating his decisions, decided not to attend the summit.

Palestinian Information Minister Yasir Abed Rabbo, as quoted by the Israeli daily paper Ha'aretz, stated that ``President Arafat has consulted with his leadership and has studied that issue carefully. He has decided not to allow Israel to pressure the Palestinian negotiators into submitting to Israeli conditions, and so he decided not to go to the summit.''

Arafat's decision was made after Ariel Sharon announced two conditions for allowing Arafat's departure: first, that the Palestinian leader make an authoritative pronouncement to his community, in Arab, proclaiming an end to the current Intifada and enforcing the new cease-fire currently being negotiated by the United States' Anthony Zinni, and second, that the United States insure Israel's right to bar Arafat from returning to the West Bank should further acts of violence take place during his absence.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, apparently reacting to Israel's refusal to allow Arafat's departure and insure his return, also announced that he would not attend the summit. Egypt's Prime Minister Atef Obeid is attending in Mubarak's stead. Late last week, Mubarak expressed his anger at Israeli policies and refusal to address the ongoing problem of Palestinian refugees. The Egyptian Al-Ahram Weekly quoted Mubarak as stating to an Israeli news source that ``any attempt by you to expel Palestinians will create an existential threat to Israel.''

Rami Khouri, in his lecture at Calvin, also described the Palestinian/Israeli conflict in terms of ``existential [war].'' ``Neither side is going to defeat the other. ... These are both tough people,'' Khouri said.

Khouri also described a paradoxical situation taking shape among the people of both Israel and Palestine. Both peoples, he argued, are displaying both a desperate readiness for peace and, at the same time, continued support of violent measures to bring the conflict to a resolution. Khouri's assertion finds at least partial support in an Al-Ahram Weekly article that cites recent opinion polls in the West Bank and Gaza Strip which claim that more than 80 percent of Palestinians want to maintain the current Intifada, and over 60 percent maintain qualified support of suicide bombings as a means of resistance.

Such statistics, Arab critics note, call into question the primacy of Israel's self-assumed right to dictate the decisions of Arafat and the Palestinian Authority and the reiterated demands made by the U.S. government that Arafat himself bring an effectual end to terror in the region.

Representatives at the Arab League summit hope to send a direct message to the Israeli populace, regardless of the policies of the Sharon government. Reflecting on the summit's consideration of Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah's peace initiative, Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher, as quoted in a CNN source, stated, ``We are telling the whole Israeli people we are ready for peace.''