LaRouche on Arab Peace Plan - "Don't Lose Optimism in a Crisis"

May 5 (EIRNS)--Egyptian Foreign Minister Aboul Gheit said the Israeli government is too weak to move on the Arab peace initiative because of the ongoing Israeli government crisis, and the calls for the resignation of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. "Do you think that the Israelis are in a position to receive anybody? Of course not," Aboul Gheit is quoted by Associated Press. Gheit was speaking following a meeting on May 4, held on the sidelines of the Cairo Iraq Stabilization Conference with the Quartet of Middle East mediators, including U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, and EU External Affairs Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, as well as many Arab ministers.

Lyndon LaRouche, briefed on Foreign Minister Gheit's pessimistic statement, said it was "too general to say that they can't act because of the crisis in Israel." He pointed out that although that entire section of the world is not functioning right now, "it is often in such a crisis that people will do things that they would never do under normal circumstances. Even the US is now trying to find a way out from under the consequences of its own mistakes. The factor of uncertainty can be decisive in making things happen. I maintain my optimism in such a crisis."