لم يزر عبد الرحمن المهدي ولا الصديق المهدي اسرائيل في الخمسينات ؛ وإنما غالباً محمد أحمد عمر !

Quote: , Following are all mentionigs of the Umma Party leader in Sharett's diary. My added explanations are eclosed in [ ]. 1. 29.1.1955: I met with Josh Palmon [adviser on Arab affairs to the P.M.] who has returned from Istanbul and heard his report about the continued negotiations with the leader of the Sudani Umma Party and about his meeting with David Horowitz [director of Bank of Israel] who happened to be in that city on the occasion of the World Bank conference. Additional possibilities of help by us to those who strive for a complete separation of Sudan from Egypt and development of commercial ties between us & them, became clear. All their aim is disconnecting Sudan from any eco. dependence on Egypt, and presumably we could be of much help to them un strengthening their national econmy. It is not yet clear to me what concrete actions we could take in this direction, but certainly this is an interesting initiative which justifys further development so we can see what fruits it would bring. 2. 5.10.1955: Met at my [P.M.] office with Josh Palmon and clarified our ties with the Al-Umma man from Sudan, whom we promised a sum of money for purchasing a printing machine and sending a man for the purpose of clarifying the possibilty of opening a bank in Khartum. According to Josh the man highly impressed David Horowitz when they conversed in Istanbul. 3. 12.3.1956: Met with Ziama Divon [adviser on Arab affairs to the now Foreign Minister Sharett] concerning Sudani matters. I am afraid we became entangled. We started off with our colleagues of Sudan with minor matters and entered into a deal of great proportions. Now we are asked to arrange for a big credit for cotton raising by El Mahdi, which is to involve Israel's Government with the assuring of guarantees in case of losses. Clearly we could not give such a guarantee & our refusal would cause frustration. 12.6.1956: Real prospects for cooperation with the Umma Party of Sudan, one of the leaders of which will soon visit Israel for more serious conversaations, became more clarified. 4. 28.6.1956: [By now M. Sharett has already been ousted from the Cabinet] We know that a country like Sudan is not politically made of one body. There is a strong body there which finds it inevitable to be somewhat deopendent on Egypt, but hopes that by jopinigt the Arab League it can prevent being too dependent on her. But there is there another body, not dominant, but participating in power, which pursues a diffrent orientation - full independence and not any dependence on Egypt. And there is there a trend for disconnecting Sudan from eco. ties with Egypt.They aim at connection with black Africa, with countries there which are on the verge of indepepndence. 5. 5.7.1956: Consultation regardig Sudan. 6. 23.8.1956: The Arab with whom we developed ties through Josh, and made quite an effort to bring him over to our country during the days of my Premiership, is now in Israel. He has just arrived & already met with [P.M.] Ben Gurion and [Foreign Minister] Golda [Meir], who became enthusiastic about him as is typical with novices. Gideon Rafael [an adviser to Meir] invited me for a dinner with him at his home. I thought that it would be more appropriate for me to offer dinner to that Nilote fellow at my place, but I did not want to look too much cocrned with niceties, so I accepted. However, suddenly I was summoned to an important meeting & could not participate in the scheduled dinner, thus frustrating Gideon, but gaining an opportunity to invite the guest for a dinner at my home on Saturday. [It seems Sharett's plan was not materialized for some reason] 6. 26.8.1956: At the "Dan" Hotel, in a special room, dinner with Omar the Sudani together with Josh & Zalman. The guest is dark brown, not fully black, about forty, cultured. Speaks English fluently, generally correct but not too polished. The conversation was illuminating. I capitalized of my non-Stately position and refrained from any parctical dealing with the problems on his agenda. Instead, I devoted the conversation to the clarifying of the basic problems of Sudan by poising a series of questions. * Moshe Sharett's diary was published in an abridged Arabic edition by the "Istitute For Palestine Studies", POBox 11-7164, Beirut, Lebanon, 1996, 674 pp.

(عدل بواسطة Abdel Aati on 03-16-2008, 08:46 PM)