THE ISRAELI Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, flies to Egypt today for what is likely to he a strained meeting with President Hosni Mubarak his first talks with an Arab head of state since taking office last month.
Mr Mubarak, President of the first Arab nation to make peace with Israel, enjoyed a genuine friendship with the assassinated prime minister, Mar Yitzhak Rabin, but is sceptical, to say the least, about Mr Netanyahu's commitment to improving relations between Israel and the Arab world.
Last month, the Egyptian President hosted the first Arab summit in six years and, in defiance of pressure from the US, sanctioned a firmly worded concluding summit communique that warned Israel to stand by the land for peace formula at the heart of the peace process.
His ambassador in Israel, Mr Muhammad Bassiouny, reiterated the point yesterday, telling a Tel Aviv peace symposium that "any deviation" would undermine Israeli Arab ties, and warning Mr Netanyahu not to delay resuming peace talks.
"You can maintain the status quo by force", the ambassador noted, "but it will not bring peace and it will not bring security."
On Tuesday evening, in a meeting apparently designed to prepare the ground for today's talks, the Jordanian Prime Minister, Mr Abdul Karim Kabariti, flew to see Mr Netanyahu in Tel Aviv.
Fresh from his own meeting in Cairo with Mr Mubarak and the Syrian Foreign Minister, Mr Farouq a Sharaa. Mr Kabariti is understood to have presented the Israeli Prime Minister with the four questions uppermost in the minds of the Arab leadership.
Is Mr Netanyahu ready to resume talks with Syria and the Palestinians right away?
. Is he prepaid to hold talks with the Palestinians on the final status of the West Bank and Gaza?
. Is he willing to negotiate with Syria and Lebanon on the basis of land for peace?
. And is he agreed in principle to withdrawing from all occupied territory?
While the answer to the first two questions is an unqualified yes, Mr Netanyahu would doubtless respond to the last two by reiterating his demand for negotiations with no preconditions. His government, like its predecessor, has no territorial aspirations in Lebanon, and would withdraw if calm could he guaranteed for Israel's northern border.
By the same token, just like the last government, he will not sanction a full withdrawal from the entire West Bank.
The real difference between Mr Netanyahu and his Labour predecessors lies in his determination to block Palestinian statehood and his opposition to major territorial compromise on the Golan Heights.
The US ambassador in Jerusalem, Mr Martin Indyk said yesterday that Syria is prepared to normalise ties with Israel in return for the Golan.
Labour's unsuccessful experience with Syria suggests that this is not the case but even if it is, Mr Netanyahu, unlike Mr Rabin and Mr Peres, is simply not interested in such a deal.
. The Israeli Foreign Minister, Mr David Levy, said yesterday he hoped to hold a first meeting with Mr Yasser Arafat within days. Earlier this week, the Palestinian leader refused to hold talks with a political aide to Mr Netanvahu insisting on talks at high ministerial level.