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.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

[sharktrager]

Gotta love their headline. If you reject a peace plan, regardless of how poorly structured, you are rejecting peace.

Where are their headlines stating that Palestinian actions which violate the Oslo Accord are a rejection of peace?

[Inkie]

The bias of "the world" is too effin' depressing.

[Skooz]

Yeah, thanks to Reuters I now understand that all Arabs want peace, but Israel wants only war to satisfy it's continuing bloodlust.

[borkrules]

That's actually the headline? WOW! That's a new low in media bias. Un-friggin'-believable.

Actually, it's all too believable. Whew.

[veronica]

The correct headline, as it appears on the article at the Reuters site::

Arabs Endorse, Israelis Reject Mideast Peace Plan

Hmmmmmm.

[Sally II]

Frequently I wonder if the Islamic nations think the rest of the world has amnesia. We all know that their state run media has been spreading and fanning the flames of Jewish hatred for decades -or has it been centuries. Wasn't it just this past week that a popular Saudi paper ran a story about how Jews use gentile blood in their holiday meals? And wasn't it just in December that both Saddam Hussein and an Iranian cleric made separate statements suggesting that the Islamic nations rallly together and finally destroy Israel?!! Is Israel and the rest of the world suppose to believe that the Islamic leaders (who are all fundamentalists and who's hatred of Jews -and the USA- is ingrained in their belief system) are now changing their tune, their stripes, and willing to do a complete 180 degree turn in their fundamentalist belief system? That ain't likely.

[Publius6961]

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)

[sfwarrior]

Arabs are right. There should be "land for peace". Except, it's Israel that should be rolling in it's take and heavy armor into neighboring Arab countries, taking more land and then forcing a "peace" on to the Arabs. Either that or there are some countries that really need their cities reorganzied and relocated by nuclear weapons. This kind of therapy works wonders.

[Publius6961]

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.

and... judging by historical Arab./Muslim behavior...

A LIE!

[philosofy123]

ASSASSIN; a word that has its roots in Moslem Arabs culture!

Just look it up in the dictionary to learn how Moslems invented the cowardly killing of their enemies in the darks of the nights. It is very difficult to think that the Arabs and the Israelis are going to hustle each other, by barbaric force, and the Israelis are going to win. Granted Israel is equipped with military force that can kill all the Palestinians, and all the Arabs in a matter of days, however, they are not functioning in vacuum. As a respectful civilized country, and civilized people, they must comply with minimum human behaviors, and that is where the disadvantage is appearant.

From what I know about the Jewish people and their religion, they are certainly civilized peaceful people, and in no way a match to the barbaric Arab Moslems. However, a bully, such as Sharon managed to get elected as their leader, and is certainly learning the hard way that force does not pay, if you are playing with people who have no regards for human life, and an unlimited supply of martyrs who are HAPPY to kill themselves in order to make the Israelis pay dearly for their brutal actions. If your son or dauter is one of the killed Israelis civilians, you would think twice before continuing to antagonizing these savages.

Prime Minister Ehud Barak managed to get considerable amount of normality and goodwill between the two people. Actually the Clinton push to achieve peace in the Middle East before leaving office illustrates that once two sides are not belligerent, an outsider can bridge the gap, and push them to reconcile. We know what happened at the last minute, the “peace” loving king of Saudi Arabia (the darling of all American Presidents) dictated to Arafat to drop the deal if the Israelis don’t allow the return of millions of Palestinians from the Diaspora! That can bring additional millions to overcrowd the Jewish population, and effectively regain majority.

The Israelis are frustrated with the terrorist bombing of their civilians and are loosing their moral superiority by getting dragged down to the mud with the barbaric Moslems. So what can be done? It would be nice if Ehud Barak can take over from Sharon, and start to conduct negotiation from a position of humble humility rather then arrogance. Well well, I will hear all the angry Israeli supporters saying, we cannot reward terrorism, bla, bla, bla….I say to that, before the Sharon arrogant leadership, there was a definite sense of calm, and the Hamas Islamists factions of the Palestinian people were going to be marginalized. Sharon, by pushing a wounded animal to the corner, unleashed the fury of the Islamists savagery. Hence the election of Sharon did not do the Israeli people any favors. I know that I am calling for the resignation of Sharon, and most people say, how about Arafat? To this I say, barbaric Arabs did not learn about resignation/election/peaceful transfer of power yet.

[Tacis]

The Saudi plan is a scam and EVERYONE knows it. The Usraelis can never pull back to the 1967 borders, they have already incorporated too much of the land into Israel. Israeli settlers populate many points and defend these compounds tenaciously. The Israeli government would never move against these settlers and, in fact, rely on them for political support.

Suggesting that Isael revert to the 1967 borders is like Fox of Mexico telling us the the immigration/amnesty issue would be square if we reverted to the 1840 borders. Texas and California long ago ceased being part of Mexico and became part of the US just as points (not all) of the lands acquired in 1967 have become part of Israel.

[veronica]

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.

No it's not. It's the BS they have circulating for years. It's a stunt to get them out of the doghouse after 9-11.

FORMER PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN:

"In the pre-1967 borders, Israel was barely ten miles wide at its narrowest point. The bulk of Israel's population lived within artillery range of hostile Arab armies. I am not about to ask Israel to live that way again." (Address to the Nation, September 1, 1982).

[Cachelot]

Snicker. Our friend at work ;).

http://www.muslimaccess.com/news/2001/Israel_Very_Costly_Ally.htm

[Rustynailww]

good analogy.

[ppaul]

Peace plan - myass.

The Arabs want Israel gone.
That's their plan.
Nothing has changed.
Their "plan" is nothing new.
Over 50 years ago,
they supported the same plan - along with the Third Reich.