Posted By Mahmoud
Labadi
For the fourth time in four months
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice is touring the Middle East Region
in a high diplomatic mission.. She was
well advised to start by the biggest
and the most influential Arab country,
Egypt. In the Southern city of Aswan
Mrs. Rice met with foreign ministers
and security chiefs of the so called
Arab Quartet: Egypt, Jordan, Saudi
Arabia and United Arab Emirates
classified as the friends of the
United States to discuss peace in the
Middle East. Her present mission to
the region is to revive the
long-dormant Arab Peace plan floated
by the Saudi King Abdallah five years
ago. A plan neglected by the U.S. and
despised by Israel. She said that her
present diplomatic push is in
conformity with President Bush’s
Statement about a two-states solution
for the most intractable conflict in
the world. “It is extremely
important that there be a political
horizon for the Palestinian people”,
Rice said in Ramallah. “And I
sincerely believe that in the future
the parties themselves can talk about
that political horizon among
themselves”, she continued.
The latest flurry of diplomatic
efforts has been described as the
biggest push of Israeli Palestinian
peace since talks under Bill
Clinton’s administration collapsed
more than six years ago. David
Ignatius from the Washington Post
described her incremental approach
“step-by-step diplomacy” as
following the foot steps of former
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger who
served in the seventies under
Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald
Ford. Mrs. Rice threw the ball in the
Arab playground by asking them to work
out a mechanism for the Arab peace
initiative.
On the other hand , the Israelis
were little cautious about Rice’s
initiative and started as usual to put
sticks in the wheel of her new
diplomatic mission. Before coming to
the region they started their untiring
maneuvers and delaying tactics by
asking the Arabs to modify their
Initiative to make it more acceptable
to the Israelis. They asked the Arabs
to drop the issue of Palestinians
refugees according to UN resolution
194 asking for their repatriation
and/or compensation.
On Arab level, Amr Moussa the
Secretary General of the Arab League
responded to Israeli demands of
modifying the Saudi Initiative in a
clear statement. He said that Arab
states had no intention of modifying
their initiative to make it palatable
to Israel. The same statement was
given by the Saudi Foreign Minister,
Prince Saud Al Faisal who rejected any
modification to the Arab Peace Plan
and said that there will be no change
in the Arab Initiative which includes
the withdrawal from all Arab
territories occupied by Israel since
1967: The Golan Heights, the West Bank
including East-Jerusalem and Gaza, and
South Lebanon.
The Arab foreign ministers endorsed
the Arab peace plan and the Jordanian
Foreign Minister Abd il Ilah Khatib
said after the meeting of the
ministers before the Summit that they
renewed their endorsement to the Saudi
plan without amendment and in its
initial form. The Arab ministers also
decided to create working groups to
hold contacts with all players in the
Middle East peace process, including
Israel, Khatib said.
The diplomatic drive gained momentum
on March 26, 07 when Israel welcomed
the idea of regional peace Summit.
Olmert responded that he “would not
hesitate” to take part in a regional
summit including Saudi Arabia. Such a
spectacular step could be considered
as a breakthrough in favor of Israel,
especially if Saudis and Israelis were
to meet publicly, and nothing happens
on the peace level. This would enable
Israel to pick up the fruits of the
current diplomatic drive without
paying the price of peace in return.
On the Palestinian level, Olmert
however, is carrying on Israel’s
traditional approach towards
Palestinians in the occupied
territories. His repressive and
expansionist measures on the ground
continue with the same tempo. Jewish
wild settlers are on their way to
resettle down in the formerly
evacuated settlement of Homesh South
of Jenin. The Wall construction and
the isolation of East Jerusalem is
going on with the same speed.
He rejected to deal with the
Palestinian National Unity Government
unless Hamas recognizes explicitly
Israel’s “right to exist”. An
eternal argument used by Israel to
evade the liabilities of Peace. He
also refused to transfer collected
Palestinian tax money to the new
Palestinian Government, an amount
roughly estimated by $ 800 m.
Palestinian GDP per head shrank 10%
last year (2006) and the number of
families living below the poverty line
rose by 50% due to drastic increase in
the number of checkpoints and other
closures in the West Bank and a clamp
down on the flow of goods in and out
of Gaza. The Palestinian economy
retracted by 30% due to the loss of
jobs.
Olmert even asked the Quartet
countries to continue their boycott
against the new National Unity
government. However , his one year
solid front against the Palestinian
government started to crumble, and the
Europeans refused to continue dancing
on Olmert’s tunes. Only Angela
Merkel, the German Chancellor remained
loyal to Olmert’s principles during
her visit to the region in early April
and asked the Palestinian underdog to
show good will towards his oppressor.
The Russians moderated their position
towards the Unity Government.
Norwegians and Swedish government
officials even established direct
contacts with Hamas ministers and were
punished by Olmert for their dissent.
Britain and the UN signaled
flexibility, while the U.S. reacted
coolly, but decided to meet non-Hamas
Ministers. The French Government will
meet moderate ministers who don’t
belong to Hamas, which is a source of
embarrassment to Olmert and his
Foreign Minister Zippi Livni.
Meanwhile, the Arab summit of Riyadh
created some kind of optimism by
renewing the Arab Peace Initiative
floated in 2002 in Beirut. The
creation of Arab ministerial
committees to function as mechanism
for the implementation of the peace
plan was well accepted. Olmert seized
the opportunity in the presence of
Mrs. Merkel to launch an appeal to
moderate Arab states including the
Saudis to meet in an international
Summit. But the Saudis responded by a
strongly worded statement saying:
“Israel should understand that peace
requires it to put an end to
violations, repressions and constant
inhuman practices against the
Palestinian People before any other
matter”. The Saudi cabinet made
clear that the Kingdom is not likely
to make any gesture toward Israel
unless it initiates significant
progress toward establishing a
Palestinian state and giving up
captured Arab lands.
Fouad Saniora, the Lebanese Prime
Minister said Israel must accept the
Arab peace offer unequivocally. “I
think it is about time for Israel to
realize that eventually it is
important to establish real peace in
the region and accept the Arab peace
plan in its entirety, he said in
Beirut.
Other moderate Arab states such as
Egypt and Jordan responded in a chilly
way and said they will not give credit
to Olmert’s call without anything
concrete in return. To pick up the
fruits of peace Olmert has to plant
the peace tree first, and without a
peace tree there will be no fruits. It
seems that the long expected harvest
season has not come yet, and the
political horizon is not yet in the
offing.
* Mahmoud Labadi served as the
spokesperson of the PLO in Lebanon
until 1983. He was the director
general of the Palestinian Legislative
Council until his retirement in 2005.
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