Arab Peace Initiative
In fall 2002, the Bush administration strenuously tried to push a temporary cease-fire in the intifada to give breathing room for the Beirut summit but failed to achieve an agreement.
In light of the above, and with your backing and that of the Almighty, I propose that the Arab summit put forward a clear and unanimous initiative addressed to the United Nations security council based on two basic issues: normal relations and security for Israel in exchange for full withdrawal from all occupied Arab territories, recognition of an independent Palestinian state with al-Quds al-Sharif as its capital, and the return of refugees.
[21] The Palestinian Authority condemned the attack and Arafat personally ordered the arrests of militants associated with Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades as a response.
[27] During the summit, King Abdullah denounced the United States-led occupation of Iraq; his comments may have been in response to a statement by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asking the Arab world to "begin reaching out to Israel".
"[27] European Union foreign policy leader Javier Solana observed the proceedings and expressed the EU's support for the decision, saying that "[f]ailure to rise to today's challenges will put the Middle East risk of missing the train of human and economic development".
According to Bush's spokesperson Ari Fleischer "the president praised the crown prince's ideas regarding the full Arab-Israeli normalization once a comprehensive peace agreement has been reached.
Stop the further shedding of blood, enabling the Arab countries and Israel to live in peace and good neighborliness, and provide future generations with security, stability and prosperity.'
[20] American-Israeli journalist Caroline B. Glick, editor of the English-language Jerusalem Post said in March 2007 that "there is no chance whatsoever that the Saudi initiative will bring peace" and labeled it "a recipe for Israel's destruction".
"[36] In a recent study by Joshua Teitelbaum, for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, he calls on Israel to reject the plan based on its "all or nothing" attitude, emphasizing that true peace will come with negotiations.
[38][39][51] The Arab Peace Plan has received the full support of Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority, which even took the unprecedented step of placing advertisements in Israeli newspapers on November 20, 2008, to promote it.
[57] Hamas' spokesman Ismail Abu Shanab told The San Francisco Chronicle in April 2002 that the organization would accept it, saying "That would be satisfactory for all Palestinian military groups to stop and build our state, to be busy in our own affairs, and have good neighborhood with Israelis.
[6] Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said in October 2006 that the "problem with the Arab peace initiative is that it includes recognition of the state of Israel, the thing that the Palestinian government rejects" and dismissed it.
[citation needed] Turki al-Faisal, Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs, wrote in The Washington Post in support shortly after Barack Obama's 2008 election victory.
"[68] Mohammad Raad, head of Hezbollah's bloc in the Lebanese parliament, condemned the peace plan, saying that "[t]his option cannot be promoted in the Arab and Islamic worlds anymore".
[70] Outside of the Middle East, the Arab Peace Initiative has received praise of chiefs of state throughout the world, international organisations, and a large number of political commentators specializing in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
[72]The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Gordon Brown also voiced support for the Initiative during a press conference that was held on December 15, 2008, at the London Business Forum on Trade and Investment with Palestine, Downing Street.
In a speech delivered on that day in Abu Dhabi at the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research, he said that: [W]hen the Arab Peace Initiative was launched in 2002 it was simply not given the attention it deserved.
My belief is that the time has come to build on this initiative and ensure Arab leaders are part of a renewed comprehensive peace process – active participants with interests and responsibilities, not substituting for Israeli and Palestinian negotiators, but not passive spectators either.
[77]Shortly before the Beirut Declaration was to be readopted by the Arab League in 2007, Thomas Friedman wrote in The New York Times that: What the moribund Israeli-Palestinian talks need most today is an emotional breakthrough.
If King Abdullah wants to lead – and he has the integrity and credibility to do so – he needs to fly from the Riyadh summit to Jerusalem and deliver the offer personally to the Israeli people.
[78]On November 21, 2008, Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote in an article in The Washington Post that they also supported key parts of the Initiative, while adding conditions that until now have been rejected by the Arab states that sponsored it when they said: The major elements of an agreement are well known.
[80]Ian Black, The Guardian's Middle East Editor, wrote on October 18, 2008, that: It was common ground that part of the problem is that the Arab initiative was overshadowed by the worst incident of the second intifada – when a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 30 Israelis at their Passover meal on the eve of the Beirut summit – and Israel reoccupied most of the West Bank.
Ehud Olmert, Israel's outgoing prime minister, misrepresented the Arab initiative as a take-it-or-leave-it diktat, claiming it required the return of millions of Palestinian refugees – a red line for the any Israeli government – when it in fact talks sensibly of reaching "a just solution".
Not only has the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said warm words about the initiative, but the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has gone out of his way publicly to stress that it has "positive elements".
Having visited Jerusalem and Ramallah four times in the past four months, she has spoken openly about the need for the Palestinians – in return for guaranteeing Israel's security – to have a "political horizon".
[83]The Oxford Research Group organised a meeting in October 2008 that was attended by senior policy makers and analysts in order to discuss the Arab Peace Initiative.
A report was published in November 2008 in order to summarize the meeting's findings, which included the following: [T]he API [is] a remarkable and historic document, effectively reversing the three "noes" of the 1967 Khartoum Arab Summit (no peace, no recognition, no negotiation with Israel).
It is the only regional peace proposal on offer and is widely regarded as the "only show in town" that encompasses the three sets of bilateral negotiations (with Palestinians, Syria, Lebanon) within a comprehensive multilateral framework.
Participants agreed that there is no alternative framework that does or can effectively guarantee the future of a Jewish democratic state on 78% of mandate Palestine within a context of regional recognition and cooperation.
[94]In November 2008, The Sunday Times reported that U.S. president-elect Barack Obama is going to support the plan, saying to Mahmoud Abbas during his July 2008 visit to the Middle East that "The Israelis would be crazy not to accept this initiative.
