Netanyahu and Mubarak:Tension After Bar Ilan Speech?

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak criticized Binyamin Netanyahu's speech saying that, "the call to recognize Israel as a Jewish state complicates things further and scuttles the possibilities for peace."

In an attempt to alleviate possible Egyptian-Israeli tension, Yediot Acharonoth's Smadar Peri and Itamar Eichner report, Binyamin Netanyahu called Hosni Mubarak last night:

Mubarak was one of the few figures in the Arab world to publicly attack Prime Minister Netanyahu for the speech delivered at Bar Ilan University. He said that "the demand for recognition of Israel as a Jewish state complicates matters and will negatively affect peace efforts."

In the course of their conversation Netanyahu attempted to clarify to Mubarak the main tenets of his plan and they agreed to meet sometime soon. Already yesterday Director of the National Security Staff in the Prime Minister's Office Uzi Arad left for a secret meeting in Cairo.

Arad is expected to ask the Egyptians to pressure Abu Mazen into entering peace negotiations with Israel without preconditions. Netanyahu also plans to dispatch envoys to Jordan and other Arab states.

Despite reservations from Egypt concerning Netanyahu's speech, the political establishment there decided to issue a fairly moderate response. "We do not want to turn Netanyahu into the national hero of the Israel right wing," said a senior advisor in Cairo yesterday.

 Another official in Cairo told Yedioth Ahronoth that Egypt was attempting to show restraint. "We are passing the ball to the White House's court," he said. "President Obama spoke of a Palestinian state, and I wonder, following Netanyahu's speech, a Palestinian state for who?

Where is the right of return? What about the status of Jerusalem? What is to be of the Arab peace initiative after Netanyahu tossed the plan into the gutter."