Israel Continues to IgnoreArab Peace Offer
Israel is failing to grasp the changes sweeping the Arab world, and in so doing, risks its own security by ignoring the renewed Arab Peace Initiative, Daoud Kuttab writes.
Something strange happened during the last Arab League summit meeting, held in March in the Qatari capital, Doha. The final announcement, which typically presents the points of agreement reached to by the participating heads of state, was possibly the longest communiqué drafted by an Arab summit. It went on and on, detailing the position of the leaders on almost every issue affecting Arab League members.
Squeezed in among the tens of thousands of words was a reiteration of support for the Arab Peace Initiative approved at the 2002 summit in Beirut. The plan has also been approved by the Organization of Islamic Countries. Thus, all in all, 57 Arab and Islamic states have been on the record for more than ten years in support of a peace plan that guarantees normalization with Israel in return for its withdrawal to the 1967 borders and an agreement to a just resolution to the Palestinian refugee problem.
By reaffirming the Arab Peace Initiative, Arab leaders — including at least four emerging from Arab Spring rebellions, plus the representative of the Syrian coalition —have agreed to one of the most far-reaching offers of peace by the Arab and Islamic worlds to a country occupying Arab lands in Palestine and Syria.
Armed with this most recent approval, US Secretary of State John Kerry headed to Israel on April 7 with the hope of convincing the newly assembled administration of Benjamin Netanyahu of the need to respond positively. Since militarily conquering Palestinian and other Arab lands in 1967, Israeli leaders have never ceased saying that they are anxiously waiting to make peace with the Arabs, but that "the other side" is not interested. The Israel claim that the other side does not want peace began with the rather desperate public invitation for a "phone call" from any Arab leader.
