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Posted on 03/22/2005 7:52:08 AM PST by SmithL
ALGIERS, Algeria - The head of the Arab League told Israel on Tuesday not to expect nations in the region to normalize ties without giving them something in return.
Arab leaders gathered for a summit in the Algerian capital rejected a Jordanian proposal that they offer Israel diplomatic ties without Israel's first returning occupied lands - a proposal that would be a dramatic change in the Arabs' peace strategy.
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said Israel expects "the Arabs will make concessions and even normalize without anything real in return."
"This shouldn't be," the Egyptian diplomat said. "It should be commitment for commitment. Then we can reach a balanced peace and close the issues of the conflict in order to establish relations in parallel with the withdrawal and the establishment of a Palestinian state."
Only 13 heads of state from the league's 22 member nations attended the summit. The other leaders stayed away either for health reasons or because of disputes, sending lower-level officials in their place.
With a thin agenda, the summit is sidestepping the glaring issues that have shaken the Arab world in recent months: increased pressure for democratic reform, new optimism in the peace process, huge demonstrations in Lebanon and the announced withdrawal of Syrian troops from there.
Instead, the leaders are likely to pay lip service to Syria's concerns about U.S. pressure and consider reform of the Arab League itself.
Jordan's King Abdullah II shook up the preparations for the summit with his peace initiative - and now that it was rejected, he is not attending. Jordan had argued that if Arab nations go ahead with normalization, it would prompt Israel to make major peace concessions.
Moussa did not mention the Jordanian proposal but dismissed the idea of normalization.
"Israel is pressing to gain concessions without anything in return. It imagines that our rights will be forgotten and that the support and immunity it enjoys will allow it to continue in building settlements and erecting the imperialist wall and keeping the occupied territories - or most of them," he said.
Moussa has taken a hard line in the preparations to the summit, insisting that Arab nations will not "move a millimeter" from the position that ties with Israel can come only after the Jewish state hands over land.
Syria, Lebanon, Sudan and Yemen led the fight to reject the Jordanian proposal.
The summit is expected to endorse a text reaffirming a Saudi peace initiative approved in 2002. That initiative said Arab states were prepared to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel in exchange for its full withdrawal from occupied Arab territory, the creation of a Palestinian state and settlement of the Palestinian refugee issue.
The summit's host, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, said it was crucially important that Palestinians get a state with Jerusalem as its capital and that they and other Arabs get back lands occupied by Israel.
"Rousing the Arab world from its slumber depends on these two conditions," he said.
Moussa called for "different and daring collective action," saying, "This century has started with us in an unenviable defensive situation."
He added that Arab nations should support Iraqi stability and back Sudan in trying to end the Darfur crisis.
"Finally, there is Lebanon, to which our hearts go out during this critical stage it's going through, and it's hoping for sincere and active Arab support," he said.
Syria has pulled back its troops in Lebanon eastward toward its border, and Egypt and Saudi Arabia have pressed it to remove its forces completely. The United States and United Nations have increased pressure on Syria to withdraw its troops and intelligence services from its neighbor, and the country has been shaken by giant demonstrations opposing and supporting Syria's presence in Lebanon.
Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said leaders were expected to express support for Syria "in the face of American pressures."
But Syria's troop withdrawal was not on the summit agenda.
Members of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's parliamentary bloc also appealed to Arab leaders for their support, sending a telegram demanding the formation of an international commission to investigate the Feb. 14 bombing in Beirut that killed Hariri and 17 others, and triggered anti-Syrian protests in Lebanon.
Despite pressure from Washington for democratic reform, the summit largely will avoid the issue. Instead, the leaders are focusing on reforming the Arab League by endorsing a plan to set up an "Arab parliament" - an unelected consultative body for the league.
S,
Good start.
And no reason Israel can't ask for concessions, like, "Stop trying to exterminate Jews".
The islamonutjobs are at it again.
"Give something in return" why?
Why should a sovereign nation "give" anything to a consortium of killers? The same group which has attacked Israel five times and has been humiliated and defeated all five times?
Winners make the rules and can make demands.
Losers and the inept can be delusional, but all they generate is disdain and dismissal...
Oh, geez! The old Arafat technique; the "floating precondition" negotiating posture. Arafat would agree to negotiations but then decide that a concession on a specific issue was necessary before those negotiations could take place. Once he got that concession, a new one would be necessary before negotiations could begin. Arafat used this approach brilliantly with Willie and almost had his Palestinian state. Ah, Willie and Yasser! They don't make them like that anymore!
I assure you, if they ever need to pay for it again with her children's blood, it won't be!
Have there been any killings via the Golan Heights lately?
Sharon has sold them out...
Now the sharks gather for even more Israeli blood...
When predators sense the prey is weak it makes them even
more bold...
imo
Memo from Virginia to the Arab League:
You Arab League scalawags can go kiss my Dixie tailpipe!
Fine, let them Arabs have a taste of Jewish neutrons. I cannot stand these a$$holes anymore.
Ever since 1967, (and probably earlier,) Israel has made repeated concessions upon Arab demands. What has Israel ever gotten in return? One step closer to a foot in the Med. Time to make the Arabs shut up and go away. The neutron treatment sounds like a pretty good idea.
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Both sides would benefit by having normal relations. Tell em to go pound sand.
"Ever since 1967, (and probably earlier,) Israel has made repeated concessions upon Arab demands. What has Israel ever gotten in return? One step closer to a foot in the Med. Time to make the Arabs shut up and go away. The neutron treatment sounds like a pretty good idea."
Give them the finger and ask them if they really want to go to war.
That would be my answer...
Sounds good to me, the one-fingered salute!
If they still want more,drive all the pali scum out to the east of the Jordan River.
To quote the former king of Jordan," Jordan is palestine,palestine is Jordan."
What concessions will the Arab world make to achieve peace in the Middle East?
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