Masses of demonstrators continue their protest against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Masses of demonstrators continue their protest against Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak.

Our correspondent looks at whether events in
Egypt have any effect on the Middle East peace process involving
Israelis and Palestinians.

Just days after being inaugurated
president of the United States on January 20, 2009, Barack Obama named
former Senator George Mitchell as U.S. special envoy to the Middle
East. Mitchell’s negotiating skills were well documented, as he helped
mediate the 1998 Good Friday Accord in Northern Ireland. His
appointment by Mr. Obama was seen as a strong signal that the United
States was committed to getting negotiations started again between
Israelis and Palestinians.

But more than two years after Mitchell’s appointment, analysts say the peace process is going nowhere.

Fawaz Gerges is with the London School of Economics:

"There
is no peace process. The peace process is dead, and we know why the
peace process is dead," Gerges said. "Let us be blunt about it.
President Barack Obama invested considerable political capital in
trying to nudge the Palestinians and the Israelis into a comprehensive
peace settlement, trying to broker a settlement between the
Palestinians and the Israelis. Let us not fudge the issue. The issue
is the Israeli side is unwilling to basically freeze settlements on the
West Bank and East Jerusalem - even partial settlements."

The
Palestinian Authority, led by Mahmoud Abbas, has made it clear it will
not negotiate with Israel so long as it continues to build settlements
in occupied territory.

Former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft says both sides are intransigent.

"On
the Israeli side, they are clearly not prepared to stop building
settlements, which are a threat to a two-state solution," Scowcroft
said. "On the Arab side, there is increasing agitation to abandon a
two-state solution, which will be a catastrophe for Israel."

Many analysts say the current upheaval in Egypt has nothing to do with the stalled Middle East peace process.

Daniel Kurtzer was a former U.S. ambassador to both Egypt and Israel.

"The
peace process has been in some crisis anyway before this outbreak in
Egypt," Kurtzer said. "The administration has been trying for two years
to get some traction for negotiations and has not really succeeded. So
at the moment, I think the events in Egypt simply exacerbate the
problem that the peace process is facing. And certainly they do not
make it easier to envisage negotiations in the short term."

Former
senior State Department official Aaron David Miller, who is now with
the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, says events in
Egypt present a sort of silver lining for President Obama.

"In a
way, in an odd way, the administration has been saved by developments
in Egypt because at least for the short term, they do not have to think
about a strategy toward the peace process," Miller said. "It is stuck -
and there is very little that the Obama administration right now is
able or willing to do about it."

Looking at Israeli-Egyptian
relations, experts such as Fawaz Gerges say one cause for concern,
especially for Israel, is what kind of government will emerge in Egypt
to replace President Hosni Mubarak? And will it abide by the 1979
peace treaty signed between the two countries?

"If I were to
look at it from an Israeli point of view, one of the major lessons that
emerges, so far, out of the Egyptian drama, is that as long as there is
no peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians, between Israel
and its Arab neighbors, Israel will never feel secure," Gerges said.
"That is - by relying on one man, that is Mubarak, or one man, the late
President Anwar Sadat, Israel’s security is more of short term as
opposed to the long term."

In the final analysis, many experts
believe whatever government comes out of the upheaval in Egypt will
abide by the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace accord.

Adharbat in Egypt,
Atsamt in Egypt,
casualties in Egypt, the demonstrations in Egypt, anger rage
, demonstrations, protests, the police, the people, the Egyptian,
anti, fighter, fighting,
rioting,. Egypt,
Tunisia,
Jordan,
Libya,
Omar Suleiman, is
not the solution, Mohammed
Hosni Mubarak, Mohammed
Hosni Mubarak's dismissal
, isolate, Mohammed Hosni Mubarak, Mohammed Hosni
Mubarak step down, removal of the President of Egypt, President Mubarak isolate

» Profile: Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak
» Reuters) - The United States said on Wednesday Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak must take concrete steps toward democratic elections at once but stopped short of calling on him to step down immediately. The White House repeated President Barack Obama's c
» Pro-Mubarak demonstrators attack journalists
» Gunfire pounds anti-Mubarak protest camp in Cairo
» Egyptian army disperses Mubarak supporters