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Israel Seen as Fighting Peace
CAIRO - Israel's rejection of the Arab peace initiative, which was reiterated at last month's Arab Summit, drew emphatic criticism from Egyptian commentators. Although Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert later called for peace talks with "moderate" Arab heads of state, most local political observers say Tel Aviv wants to have its cake and eat it too."Olmert's response was an attempt to normalise relations without responding to the initiative's demands," Mohamed Basyouni, former Egyptian ambassador to Israel and head of the committee for Arab affairs in the Shura Council (the upper consultative house of the Egyptian parliament) told IPS. "It was a totally unacceptable manoeuvre that puts the carriage before the horse."
The Saudi-backed peace plan, first tabled at the 2002 Arab Summit in Beirut, offers across-the-board Arab recognition of Israel in exchange for core Palestinian demands.
According to the proposal's terms, Arab capitals would extend full diplomatic relations to the Jewish state in exchange for total Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967. The plan seeks a "just solution" to the Palestinian refugee issue on the basis of UN resolutions, and the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Currently, Egypt, Jordan and Qatar are the only Arab countries that maintain overt diplomatic relations with Israel.
Although it was rejected five years ago by then Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, the offer was put back on the table at last month's Arab Summit in Riyadh. According to a joint declaration issued at the summit's closing session on Mar. 29, Arab States "reconfirmed their adherence to the Arab peace initiative as it was offered at the 2002 Beirut summit along with all of its elements."
The statement went on to urge the Israeli government and citizens of Israel to accept the offer "and seize the opportunity to restart the negotiation process."
Prior to the summit, the Arab side was subject to a degree of U.S. pressure to make concessions on certain key points.
On Mar. 24, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited the upper Egyptian city of Aswan, where she met with representatives of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which collectively have been dubbed the "Arab Quartet". Rice also met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, as well as intelligence chiefs from the four countries.
According to reports in the local press, the objective of Rice's regional tour -- her seventh within the last two months -- was to urge the Arab side to moderate its demands, especially those pertaining to the phrases "right of return" and "total withdrawal". Rice, who has stated a "personal commitment" to enhancing the prospects for peaceful settlement, reportedly urged Arab states to "reach out" to Israel.
Despite U.S. prodding, however, Arab representatives refused to make any changes to the main thrust of the initiative.
"Egypt is committed to the Arab initiative as is," Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul-Gheit said in a Mar. 25 joint press conference with Rice. "We hope the Israeli side will deal with it positively and restart peace talks based on the offer."
But like his predecessor Sharon, Olmert ultimately rejected the offer, telling the Israeli press Mar. 30 that the return of Palestinian refugees to Israel was "out of the question". He went on to call for a summit with heads of "moderate" Arab countries, in reference to Egypt, Jordan and some states of the Gulf such as Saudi Arabia.
Rice praised Olmert's suggestion, saying his call for a regional conference represented a "positive" step.
Local commentators, however, described the Israeli PM's response as a delaying tactic intended to prevent progress on key issues.
"Olmert's call for a peace conference was just a distraction; an attempt to play for time," Gemal Kemal, political analyst and deputy editor-in-chief of official daily al-Misaa told IPS. "The Israelis refused to even discuss the refugee problem."
Abdel-Halim Kandil, editor-in-chief of opposition weekly al-Karama, agreed. He said that Olmert's call for direct talks with Arab leaders was an attempt to encourage the trend towards diplomatic normalisation without offering anything in return.
"They want to take steps towards normalisation without actually discussing the rights of Palestinians as mentioned in the initiative," Kandil told IPS. He went on to attribute the Israeli PM's intransigence to "Israel's loss of prestige in the wake of the Lebanon war and to Olmert's consequent weak domestic standing."
Egyptian observers were no less critical of Rice's reported efforts to water down the initiative's core demands in advance of the Riyadh summit.
"In short, Rice tried to get the Arabs to recognise Israel through normalisation without a quid pro quo," wrote prominent columnist Salama Ahmed Salama in flagship government daily al-Ahram.
Kandil suggested that the goal of the Rice visit was to "mobilise the moderate Arab countries" against Iran's purportedly rising influence in the region. "This was indicated by the fact that Rice also met with security and intelligence chiefs, confirming that the Arab states have become mere instruments for the execution of U.S. policy," said Kandil.
According to Kemal, however, Cairo still has cards to play.
"If Israel remains steadfast in its refusal of the offer, the Arab countries can try to embarrass it in front of the UN," he said. "What's more, a decision by Cairo to halt steps towards normalisation with Tel Aviv would not be difficult and would enjoy broad popular support."
Kemal added: "Israel fears this step, as it would be a difficult one to reverse."
According to Basyouni, an Arab foreign ministerial meeting is scheduled for Apr. 18, when 11 Arab foreign ministers will convene a follow-up meeting on the initiative's prospects at the Arab League's Cairo headquarters.
"There's a plan to activate the Arab initiative," Basyouni said. "After this, we expect a response from Israel. But we won't wait forever."
Copyright © 2007 IPS-Inter Press Service.
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Show AllThis is a difficult thing. My dear late mother was a firm believer that the Jews, and Israel, were truly "God's Chosen People," and she used to say, "Woe to us, the day we, as a nation, turn our back on them. God shall have His wrath on us!"
Over-simplifying the matter, of course, it's asinine that both of these groups keep killing each other over a piece of land. That they would insist the land was of greater value than the blood of their people.
Yes, I've read the assertations that certain arabs (A) deny the valid existence of Israel, and (B) that others vent they want to wipe them off of the earth.
I am not saying that Israel is not without it's problems.
And I am certainly not saying they should not be supported in them.
I do say, however, that it's about time for the WORLD to tell ALL of them to GROW UP and QUIT FIGHTING OVER LAND.
Yes, yes, I know, our history is full of the same, but those events were hardly any better - to shed blood over land.
Look at what war is - two or more countries disagree. So, they send their best, healthiest, young men out, and have them fight to the death, and whomever comes out of it most alive is the winner.
How can we say we've grown up, as a world wide society, from the days of the Roman Empire having gladiator fights, and feeding people to lions, when there is such similarity?
One finaly note - stopping Hitler was a big difference from what we're doing now.
Israel is and has always been a rogue state which has no intention to give back to Palestinians all the territories stolen from them since 1967. And as they have the bull backing of Bush and other American politicians, they don't feel compelled to respect the international laws. When the Arab countries try to bring peace in a devastate region where only guns can speak, Israel dismisses their call because they know that their US friends will back them in any case, even when they are fully wrong as was the case in their unjustified aggression against Lebanon.
This dwarf country has always pretended it represents the western values while its army shoots civilians and children labelling them as terrorists. Who would think that Israel is a peaceful country? This country spends US $ millions in US media and in lobby organisations to convince the American people that they are the Good ones while the others, the Palestinians, are terrorists. And to that purpose they get the huge help of their friends and organizations no to mention the media like Fox news which spread their propaganda all over the states.
Next year, Israel will celebrate the 60th anniversary of its birth as well as sixty years of war against its neighbours. Where on earth is there a country which has been at war with its neighbours for that long?
Humans, like all other living things, need habitat to survive. Humans, however, are gifted with extraordinary ability to adapt to a wide range of places and circumstances. Most of the earth has too much water to be habitable (oceans), but there are possibly ways of engineering seaworthy habitats. Much of the remaining land is desert due to nature or human wasting of the land.
Thus, people fight over the remaining arable land and water rights. The obvious solution is to find creative solutions that allow the world's population to live on a broader range of locations, to stop global warming (which is a big threat to habitability) and to limit population growth.
People say that limiting population growth is the hard one-- not at all. Population growth will always hit a limit. Usually the limits are famine, disease, and war. The hard thing is to choose to voluntarily limit population growth so as to avoid the other limits.
All that is just to say: It's oversimplistic to suppose that land and blood are separate things-- our very lives depend on land, at least some land.
Right on, jconsult.
Israel is the tail that's wagging the US dog. The most serious existential threat to the planet is rooted in the conflict in the Middle East; and the main source of that conflict is Israel's consistently illegal behavior, enabled and made more terrible by the US. One of the two major reasons why the thieves in the White House are planning to nuke Iran is because Israel wants it, the other being, of course, oil.
The irony here is devastating. The US has stood for international law and orderly relations with other nations since the Founders wrote in the Declaration of Independence about having "...a decent respect for the opinions of mankind". Now, the US, at the behest of Israel, has become a rogue nation, and is the chief source of worldwide lawlessness.
And this lawlessness may just wreck the planet--and that could come any time with a strike on Iran.
Right on, alamac
Sometimes ago, Ariel Sharon or someone in his government pretended that it was in Israel that the US foreign policy was decided. The Israeli puppeteer would pull all the strings of the Secretary of State. More recently, some rumours hinted that Israeli aircrafts were supposed to hit first the Iranian nuclear infrastructure. And even better, all the present crisis over the Iranian nuclear bomb pursuit would have originated in Israel which cannot accept a counter power in the region able to halt the military terror imposed by Israel for so many years.
In other words, if the US goes to war against Iran, it would be to please its great friends in Israel, or better because they have told to do so. We must not forget that in 2003, when Bush Junior started the war against Iraq, he got a very precious push and help from his friend Ariel Sharon, his secret services feeding "rare information proving that Iraq was harbouring WMD's ". We all know now, even Fox News, that there was not a pound of WMDs in the country but too late, the objective had been reached.
Let's say a little prayer for the American taxpayer who had voted full power to the "president" and who is still paying for this war invented by Israel and its friends at the Pentagon.
Okay all of you Israel bashers, consider these facts. Since Israel's rebirth, Israel has had to deal with countries and organizations that are committed to its destruction. Hamas and Iran are but 2 examples. I equate Israel today with that of Finland during the second world war. Finland sided with Germany because it was attacked by the USSR. Finland didn't take part in the holocaust. Today Israel looks to the USA because it is one of the few nations that won't tolorate Israel's destruction. It is chic to praise the Palestinians, even in calling for Israel's destruction. The Palestinians have only themselves to blame for this. Leave Israel alone. Oh yes, the argument that the Palestinians were here first, bogus. The Jews were. THey were expelled during the Roman rule. The Arabs later conquered the area. Quit white-washing the Palestinians.
Ken:
If all the people of, say, Irish descent decided to return to their "homeland" and force the current residents, at gunpoint, to leave, what would it be like?
Suppose that all the Italians, or Germans, here in the U.S. one day opened some ancient book, and in it read that God had granted to them the right to return to their ancient homeland, evict the current inhabitants, and make it their own.
What would these new "homelands" be like? They'd be just like Israel - reviled, resented, attacked, and vulnerable.
The notion of the existence of God's "chosen ones" - of any ilk - who have a special dispensation to seize whatever they happen to want, is a fairy tale. It's a fantasy that probably can't succeed in the world as it has become.
Recently, that fairy tale has become very expensive, and we're the ones paying for it.
As each year goes by, Israel must become more brutal, and more extreme in its supression of the Palestinians. It's a losing battle. Every year the U.S. stays associated with that kind of philosophy, we dig a deeper hole for ourselves, just like with Guantanamo.
It's time for Israel to cut a deal, and it's time for the U.S. to move on. We have more important problems of our own to solve.
Israel is, thanks to U.S. dollars - an extension of the biggest bully nation on the planet. They are the primary obstacles to world peace. They talk about "fighting terrorism", but the truth is that they are the biggest terrorists in the world. Thanks to Bush and Sharon - the entire Moslem world, as well as all the peace loving people in the world have been terrorised and in a very real sense, tortured by their barbaric actions.
Ariel Sharon is a war criminal. Not only for his involvement in Lebanon in the early 80's, but up to the day he could no longer carry out his job. And now there is Olhmert trying to look tough.
I understand the plight that Israel is in. I grew up in a Jewish neighborhood. I think they are a funny, intelligent people. And they could laugh at themselves.
What I don't like is the government's that Israel has had. Nor do I like the unqualified backing of the USA to veto any measure of censureship of Israel.
Israel has created many of it's own problems. The Palestinians certainly do have a right to return to their land of birth. What if we had given New York City to the Jews for their nation? How do you think any people would react to losing their land and cultural history? I know I'd be angry.
Former President Carter had the courage to write the truth about what is happening in Israel. We need more voices like his.
I agree with the last Post! Israel is a creation from the United States no doubt about it!! I am Hispanic and have been often confused with being of Middle Eastern decent, and I am Proud to say thanks for the compliment ! Most folks drop thier Jaws and walk on.. I come from a diverse background, and Enbrace diversity ! The World would be a Much better world to live in if we each respected everyone's Cultures and backgrounds no matter where we Live,! Unfortunately George Bush decided to Play God and wreck Havoc in the Middle East, destroying innocent lives, and He will have to answer to a Higher Authority, as will the Puppets/ Zionists In Israel.. I have a Lot of good Jewish friends who are appalled at thier government, as well... I will continue to fight for Peace in behalf of My children and grands.. Myrna
Israel has only to turn on CNN to look at it's future. In Iraq the US military, with all the money and arms it can muster, is headed towards ultimate defeat. At it's core is the refusal of the US leadership to acknowledge the basic rights and humanity of the Iraqi people.
Israel, with US weapons and the same tactics used in Iraq was unable to make headway in Lebanon last summer. They too fail to recognize the rights, humanity and intelligence of Islamic peoples. When the US leaves Iraq in ruins the people of the regoin will rightly see Israel as a willing accomplice to the crime.
The leadership of Israel would do well to sue for peace and give more than they have to now. After the US has been sent home defeated that may not be an option.