Arabs Endorse, Israelis Reject Mideast Peace Plan

Reuters ^

[RCW2001]

Arabs Endorse, Israelis Reject Mideast Peace Plan
Last Updated: March 28, 2002 10:24 AM ET
By Samia Nakhoul BEIRUT (Reuters) - Arab leaders unanimously agreed on a far-reaching Saudi proposal for peace with Israel on Thursday and closed ranks against any U.S.-led attack on Iraq. But Israel promptly rejected the Arab peace plan as a "non-starter" that implied destruction of the Jewish state. In the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Palestinians were bracing for fierce Israeli reprisals after Wednesday's suicide bombing that killed 20 people in the coastal city of Netanya. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat from Beirut to try to head off a new wave of violence. "I urge the leadership of both peoples to stay the course and continue the quest for peace," he said in a statement. "The essential first step is an immediate cease-fire." A Beirut Declaration issued at the end of an often stormy two-day summit in the Lebanese capital endorsed a Saudi plan offering Israel peace and normal ties if it returns all occupied Arab land and agrees to live alongside a Palestinian state. It said Israel must also agree to a "just solution" to the Palestinian refugee problem in line with a 1948 U.N. resolution that calls for them to be repatriated or compensated. In return the Arab countries would "consider the Arab-Israeli conflict ended and enter into a peace agreement with Israel (and) establish normal relations with Israel in the context of this comprehensive peace," the document said. REGIONAL TENSIONS Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah proposed the plan in a bid to halt 18 months of worsening Israeli-Palestinian violence and calm regional tensions that have soared since the September 11 attacks on the United States by Arab suicide hijackers. He piloted it through the summit despite Syrian reservations and in the absence of several key Arab leaders. Israel kept Arafat bottled up in the West Bank, saying he had failed to halt attacks by militants. Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak and King Abdullah of Jordan decided at the last minute to stay at home for reasons yet to be fully explained. The Arab peace terms break little new ground, but do stress the Arab world's readiness to accept Israel in the region -- something which the conservative Islamic theocracy of Saudi Arabia had previously found particularly distasteful. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nachshon said his country could not accept the return of Palestinian refugees to the homeland they lost when Israel was created in 1948. "The Saudi initiative as it was presented by the summit of the Arab League represents a non-starter," he told Reuters. "We cannot accept on the one hand to have negotiations for the creation of a Palestinian state, an independent Palestinian state, and on the other hand have all the Palestinians come into Israel," Nachshon said. "This means the destruction of the state of Israel and obviously we cannot agree." Arafat gave his blessing to the Saudi plan in a televised speech originally intended for the summit. Lebanon's refusal to air his address by video link prompted a furious Palestinian walkout on Wednesday, but delegates later rejoined the summit. Apart from setting terms for ending more than half a century of conflict with Israel, Arab leaders soothed disputes festering between Iraq and Kuwait since the 1990-91 Gulf crisis. Iraq, keen to secure Arab support against a declared U.S. intention to topple President Saddam Hussein, came near to promising not to repeat its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. OLD ENEMIES EMBRACE Arab leaders, who clapped when the heads of the Saudi and Iraqi delegations embraced before them, called for the definitive lifting of U.N. sanctions imposed for the Iraqi invasion, as well as for U.N. resolutions to be respected. "We stress our total rejection of any attack on Iraq," they said in the Beirut Declaration read at the close of the summit. Kuwaiti Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah told Reuters he had even shaken hands with Iraqi presidential envoy Izzat Ibrahim during a closed summit session. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are close U.S. allies and their support would be important if the United States decided to extend its war on terror to Iraq, lumped by President Bush into an "axis of evil" with Iran and North Korea. The Beirut Declaration "welcomed Iraq's confirmation to respect the independence, sovereignty and security of the state of Kuwait and guarantee its safety and unity to avoid anything that might cause a repetition of what happened in 1990." U.S.-led coalition forces drove Iraqi troops from Kuwait in the 1991 Gulf War, ending a seven-month occupation.

[veronica]

If the Saudi plan was genuine and offered in good faith, would the Israeli lobby in the US endorse it or reject it out of hand?

The 'plan' is flawed. Whether it is offered in good faith or not.

Hitler's Final Solution was 'genuine'. He meant it in other words. If someone 'honestly' wants to screw you...does that means you should accept the offer? Why should Israel accept indefensible borders? What if Israel retreats to the 67 borders and Hamas etc., do not stop? Why should Israel give back land won in wars Arabs started? Why does the US want Israel to sanction a terrorist state on it's borders? Why is Arafat, the Marxist trained by the KGB, the man behind Black September, afforded legitimacy? How is he different from Osama Bin Laden? Inquiring minds want to know.

[justshutupandtakeit]

What a pant's load.

Arafattie's killer won't stop killing Jews.

Sharon did not start this latest wave of murders. Barak is a fool and as a Clintonoid can never do anything righteous.

Followers of Islame love death and kill hundreds of thousands across the globe yearly.

No agreement with the PLA is worth a shiite.

There will have to be massive deaths dealt out to the terrorists before any progress will come. It can only come when the large numbers of murderers have been killed. Their power comes from their murdering methods and will collapse when they cannot kill with impugnity.

Israel must start an all out offensive against all terrorist elements and groups.

The U.S. must stop all criticism of Israel's necessary actions to defend its people.

[pgkdan]

The Israeli counterproposal:

1. Syria, Lebanon Jordan Egypt and Saudi Arabia all share in taking in the "palestinian" "victims".
2. Lebanon, Syrya, Jordan and Egypt all donate a 50 mile empty defense zone adjacent to Israel, where no one is allowed to live or travel, and which is heavily and continuously mined.
3. Oil producing states will contribute $1 million to every victim of terrorist bombers for the last 18 months.
4. No roads leading to and from Israel, ever.
5. Contribution of half of the city of Mecca and half of Medina as a show of good faith and tolerance, where Synagogues and Christian cathedrals can be built with no restrictions.
If these demands are not met, macho muslim Arab dogs... Prepare and start training your Jannisaries!! (since you can't fight your own battles)

Now!!! There's a peace proposal I can get behind!

[pgkdan]

But, the offer of general Arab recognition of Israel, normalizing of relations and the announcement of an official end to the Arab/Israeli conflict if Israel withdraws to its pre-'67 borders is truly unprecedented.

Please. Normal relations between muslims and Israeli's means that the muslims continue to kill Israeli civilians as "normal". Mohammed built the paradigm and Abdullah ain't about to change it.

[wwjdn]

Isn't it funny how the papers take such a trivial thing as ripping the heart out of Israel to give land to terrorist cowards and say that it is a peace plan that should be adopted... Perhaps Saudi should give ALL their land to Palestine so that there will be peace at last.

[tm22721]

Arabs do not understand peace and perceive it as weakness. That's why Israel might as well escalate now to the ultimate conflict : Armageddon.

Get it over with !!

BUMP

[CyberSpartacus]

Notice how the Islamofacists mention the 1967 border. How about the pre 1948 border which included the "occupied territories". How much history must we relive before we all realize that the followers of Mohammad must be destroyed.

[CyberSpartacus]

Why don't we just shoot the Jews, and be done with it. Would you let several million criminals and their sympathisers in your back yard? If you spent five minutes finding out about the history of Jerusalem. You would know that the Arabs only justification for any of this land. Is their violent usurpation during the bloody and sickening Arab/Moslem conquests from the 7th to the 17th centuries. Not one shred of ground occupied by Moslems was Moslem. Every bit was taken by rape, murder, and pillage. I feel the only reason you belive the Arabs. Is because of your feelings about Jews.

[luvzhottea]

Barak's "offer" during Camp David 2000 was a deceitful sham:

Deadly myths blind us in peace process

Myth of Israel’s ‘generous offer’ damages truth, peace

[veronica]

Too bad you don't listen to Conservatives, only Lefties.

Rush Limbaugh has been reading this morning from a fabulous piece on the Camp David Peace plan. Blows your Leftie articles out of the water...

[JMS]

I've been following the thread with great interest and while I disagree with your position I have to complement you on your arguments. First, the ancient Hebrew claim to the land can only be disputed by the people who they conquered. As these tribes, Caananites, Philistines etc. no longer exist the Hebrews and their descendents have the best historical claim to the land.

In fact, Orthodox Christians, descendents of the Byzantines have a stronger historic claim to the area than the Palestinians who are the descendents of Arab conquerors.

While I don't advocate ethnically cleansing the Palestinians I would remind you that NATO ethnically cleansed hundreds of thousands of Serbs from their land but supporting groups such as the KLA in Kosovo, the Bosnian Muslims and the Croatians. These are lands to which the Serbs have a documented historic claim.

I would also point out that Palestine has never been a state and the Palestinians do not have a distinct Palestinian culture. They have not been invited to become citizens of countries such as Jordan because they are used as a club to bash Israel.

[luvzhottea]

Too bad you don't listen to Conservatives, only Lefties. That is a flat out LIE. You said this on another thread and I told you there that you are LYING. You do this whenever information is posted that threatens the agenda. You, yourself, post frequently from "leftist" sources when it suits you, The New Republic and some British papers as I recall. Let those read who wish to read what I have posted and they can decide for themselves.
Just don't LIE about me anymore. It is not quite a conservative principle.

[veronica]

Conn Helligan is Berkeley Leftwinger::

Journalism lecturer unbowed by things like truth and fact:

Conn Hallinan, journalism lecturer and provost at the University of California, Santa Cruz, writes in The San Francisco Examiner about Middle East "myths." You know, that "myth" that Arafat was offered the whole hog and turned it down in 2000 to start war instead. Just a myth. Oh, and the myth that the U.S. is neutral. Just a myth because we supply lots of aid and sell weapons to Israel. (Conn ignores that we have done the same, extensively, for the Palestinian Authority).

"No one in Europe believes the Camp David proposal was fair. If there is to be any progress in future talks, Americans are going to have to put that fairy tale aside and recognize that both sides have legitimate demands, and that military strength will solve nothing." Conn's base point, aside from throwing away facts, is that there can be no Jew living on territory that will make up a Palestinian state. Nothing like some good old myth-busting, eh?'

And calling Rush Limbaugh a 'neo-Con' is a pretty bold lie IMO.

[happygrl]

Bump for your plan !

[philosofy123]

"There will have to be massive deaths dealt out to the terrorists before any progress will come. It can only come when the large numbers of murderers have been killed. Their power comes from their murdering methods and will collapse when they cannot kill with impugnity."

You missed the point! The ragheads got thousands of stupid kids who are willing to die in the name of Allah. How many Passover massacres are you willing to subject the innocent Israeli civilians? Just because you live safely in the US/, you think that the terror that these people is living under is bearable? It is not about who started what, and who is right and who is wrong; it is about how can we bring back a sense of normalcy, and move forward to constructive coexistence. I would be the first to say Sharon should just get rid of Arafat, if that would help! But the problem is much beyond Arafat. It is Islam, and Arab character. You still failed to understand the history of assassins? That is simply how a few thousands Moslems Arabs came from the desert to concur, and force convert a good portion of this earth. As the American and Israelis are worried about their GNP, the Arab Moslems don’t care if all their population are starving! They simply cry in front of the camera to the UN to feed them. Money, public opinion, budget, morality is not a consideration, simply because their stupid dictators like Sadam live in luxury, and their population can go to hell before they will admit they made a mistake.

[happygrl]

Let's see how this "democracy" really works.

Are you referring to the democracy in Israel or the democracies in the member states of the Arab League ?

[Free the USA]

Check the Bump List folders for articles related to and descriptions of the above topic(s) or for other topics of interest.

[happygrl]

I totally agree with you that it is a PR effort aimed, not at Israel, but at U.S. citizens to drive a wedge between the U.S. and Israel. As if our memories are so short ! I think perhaps we may have the Saudis truly running scared. Remember how all the Royals fled to Switzerland after 9-11 ? Here's a quarter, Saudis, buy a clue. We remember who flew those planes.