Palestinians Quit Summit as Arafat Speech Blocked

Both are afraid of a muslime styled gangland hit This cannot possibly be true: don't you know that the only problem in the Middle East is Israel?

Were Israel to disappear morrow (G-d forbid), the Arab world would live in eternal peace.

Here's an update on this story:

Arab Summit in Disarray as Palestinians Walk Out

Last Updated: March 27, 2002 10:44 AM ET

By Ashraf Fouad

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia asked Arab leaders to back its Middle East peace plan Wednesday, but a Palestinian walkout in protest of Lebanon's failure to air Yasser Arafat's summit speech plunged the meeting into disarray.

Farouq al-Kaddoumi, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization's political department, told Qatar's al-Jazeera television the Palestinian delegation had quit because Lebanese President Emile Lahoud had blocked the broadcast of Arafat's speech from his West Bank office.

"This is an Arab summit, not a Lebanon summit," Kaddoumi added. "The summit is for all the Arabs and for the (Palestinian) Intifada and he (Lahoud) has no right not to listen to the Palestinian speech."

Delegates said the United Arab Emirates had downgraded its delegation in solidarity with the Palestinian walkout.

Lebanese Culture Minister Ghassan Salameh told a news conference there had been a "misunderstanding" over Arafat's speech, saying it could be aired to the summit in the afternoon.

But Palestinian Planning Minister Nabil Shaath told Reuters Lahoud had shown contempt for the whole summit.

"Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, with all his mean and impertinent ways, prevented President Arafat from attending the summit physically," Shaath said. "The head of the summit prevented his image and voice from being present."

The row over the Palestinian leader's address, eventually broadcast on al-Jazeera, overshadowed the impact of the land-for-peace proposal made by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah.

The prince asked the summit to back his plan for "normal ties" with Israel in return for an Israeli withdrawal from all occupied Arab land and creation of a Palestinian state.

But Syrian President Bashar al-Assad countered with a call for Arab states to back the Palestinian uprising by severing any ties with Israel -- a dig at Egypt and Jordan, the only Arab countries to sign peace treaties with the Jewish state.

CALL FOR PEACE

Prince Abdullah, who praised the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation, urged the summit to submit a "clear and unanimous" peace initiative to the U.N. Security Council.

It should be based on "normal relations and security for Israel in exchange for full withdrawal from all occupied territories, recognition of an independent Palestinian state with al-Quds al-Sharif (East Jerusalem) as its capital and the return of (Palestinian) refugees."

The Saudi leader appealed to the world to support "this noble humanitarian proposal which seeks to remove the danger of destructive wars and the establishment of peace for all the inhabitants of the region, without exception."

Arafat immediately welcomed the Saudi plan.

"The Palestinian leadership confirms that it welcomes the enlightened, brave initiative launched by ... Crown Prince Abdullah," he said in his speech. "This initiative, God willing, will turn into an Arab initiative at this summit for the peace of the brave between us and the Israeli and Jewish people."

Prince Abdullah, detailing a plan he floated last month, asked the summit in Beirut to let him address the Israeli people with a message that "the use of violence for more than 50 years has only resulted in more violence and destruction and that they are as far from security and peace as they have ever been.

"I would further say to the Israeli people that, if their government abandons the policy of force and oppression and embraces true peace, we will not hesitate to accept the right of the Israeli people to live in security with the people of the region," Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler declared.

SYRIAN CONDITIONS

Syrian President Assad, while acknowledging the Saudi plan enshrined long-held Arab positions, stressed that Israel must commit itself to returning all occupied Arab lands.

"For us, if there are no clear guarantees to recover the land completely to (the borders of) 1967...let's not waste our time, there won't be any negotiation," Assad said, demanding that Israel make such a pledge in an official, public document.

He then asked Arab countries to take a stand in support of the Palestinian uprising. "The issue of cutting ties is one of sovereignty and we understand that every country has its own special circumstances. We ask countries that have relations with Israel to tell us when these ties can be cut," he said.

"Now is the time for action to save the Palestinian people from the massacres, from the new Holocaust, that they are being subjected to," the Syrian leader declared. Several Arab leaders earlier praised the much-anticipated Saudi land-for-peace proposal, but poor attendance at the summit that opened Wednesday threatened to weaken their message.

Sharon stopped Arafat from going to Beirut from his West Bank headquarters. He stayed away after Sharon said he might block his return if attacks on Israel continued.

It was not clear if Assad's position had any bearing on the last-minute decision of key U.S. allies King Abdullah of Jordan and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to stay away.

Military helicopters prowled rainy skies as the summit got under way at a luxury seafront hotel in Beirut in the absence of 12 heads of state from the Arab League's 22 members.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the summit to unite behind the prince's plan and told them to come to terms "once and for all" with Israel's right to exist in peace and security.

Delegates, who held late-night consultations on the eve of the summit, said Arab leaders were set to endorse the Saudi peace plan, but had found no way to bridge an Iraq-Kuwait dispute that has festered since the 1990-91 Gulf crisis.

Original article here.

I particularly like the "mean and impertinent" Sharon. When you're surrounded by people who teach their children that God will love them for killing "your kind," I'd think you'd really want your leaders mean and impertinent.

Note that the "right of return" is one of the non-negotiables, which means that there is nothing new here - it's an invitation to Israel to commit suicide. Call it, as one poster did the other day, the Saudi Auschwitz Plan.

But posters here all know this, they just disagree on whether destroying Israel would be a good thing or not. The more interesting thing is the apparent collapse of this summit into chaos.

Boy Assad apparently wants a unilateral Israeli commitment in writing to give back the Golan Heights (he doesn't give a hang about the Palestinians) before negotiations can start. Fat chance. He wants to join the "Peace Plan" to "action" in support of the Intifada and pressure Jordan and Egypt (whose leaders pointedly did not attend) to break ties with Israel. That'd make a real convincing "Peace Plan."

Meanwhile, even the unspeakable Koffi Annan has framed the issue in terms of Arabs coming to terms with Israel's existence, not I suspect what the Burnoose Boys were hoping for.

And the Palestinians have their noses seriously out of joint because Lebanon dissed them. Don't think there isn't a whole lot of nasty history behind this spat.

To wrap it all up, they can't resolve the Iraq/Quwait dispute, which is going to weaken any united Arab opposition to an action against Saddam. They aren't going to be able to welcome Uncle Saddam back into the family, come home, all is forgiven.

Did the Bush Administration guess that if the US and Israel just said, "Why, we just adore any proposal for peace," the Arabs would have no one to shriek against together and would fall apart among themselves? Just when I think I've found something to really be mad at the Administration for, and prove I'm not a "Bush-bot" (which I believe is the state of the art insult these days), something like this happens.

Do a google search for MEMRI and see what google has to say about the site:

Lady, if I were you I would not be saying such things aloud: one has to be really embarassed to hold google as a criterion of anything.

From your previous posts we know that you are poorly informed and have difficulties in maintaining a thought for the duration of the post. No need to show us from where the depth of your wisdom comes.

Just because they all call wear rags on their heads and are all Muslims (Islam -- "the religion of peace" /sarcasm) doesn't mean they like each other. Allah be praised at the demise of their meeting of hate.

You know, if the members of the Arab summit attempted to design a state-of-the-art camel, like them it would have it's head up its a$$. Then they would blame it on Israel.

An Arafat speech would have been as welcome as one by Castro.

In Cuba they pass out catheders as you enter the hall.

You know, if the members of the Arab summit attempted to design a state-of-the-art camel, like them it would have it's head up its a$$. Then they would blame it on Israel.

My nominee for "Quote of the Day!"

Hahahahahaha the stupid petulant brats. Arafat is hated in Syria and Lebanon both.

But how can it be a free society when it's occupied by foreign troops?

Gotta love that mid-east double standard, encouraged by oh-so-neutral Reuters.

Palestinians will be incapable of sustaining a free society for a generation after Arafat is hung.

It'll take them at least a generation to figure out exactly what he did with all the international aid money.

Just iamgine: Arafat's face on a big-screen TV! That would even make the Arabs puke!