By David Harris, Geng Xuepeng
The Obama administration of the United States seems expecting more help from the Arab world, calling on them to make some goodwill gestures towards Israel in order to build regional stability and facilitate the Israeli-Palestinian talks.
But some Arab states, frustrated by the experiences before as starting with "interim" steps but ending with something like Israel's expansion of settlements, tell the United States that they will not kick off the normalization of ties with Israel until Israel withdraws from all occupied territories and agrees a comprehensive peace deal with the Palestinians.
Obama's push
Since its founding in 1948, Israel has said it is committed to peace with all its Middle East neighbors. However, a series of bloody wars, coupled with Israel's ongoing occupation of the West Bank and the Golan Heights has always left it nothing but a pledge.
Then, the Saudi peace initiative was launched, which later became known as the Arab peace initiative in 2002. The Arabs said they were and remain ready to normalize ties with Israel in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal from all occupied territories.
Now, reports in the Israeli media suggest Oman and Qatar may be prepared to move quicker than other Arab states down the path to normalization. It was reported over the weekend that the two Gulf states may be prepared to allow a diplomatic exchange in return for a total freeze on Israeli settlement activity.
The newspapers carrying the story said American diplomats had told Israel that this was the case. However, so far there has been no confirmation from Oman, Qatar or Israel.
"I am sure the Americans have something up their sleeves, but I certainly can't tell you of something concrete," said Andy David, a spokesman at Israel's Foreign Ministry.
The United States President Barack Obama has been pushing for greater Arab involvement in the peace process. He wants the Arab states to offer incentives to Israel to persuade the Israelis of the value of their cutting a final-status deal with the Palestinians.
At the same time, the Americans insist Israel must freeze all settlement activity in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem. The Palestinians refuse to return to peace talks until this happens.
Settlement freeze not enough
The reports on Oman and Qatar came after Saudi Arabia toughened its stance against peace overtures towards Israel. At a July 31 Washington news conference, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud bin al- Faisal said rewarding Israel for a settlement freeze was out of the question.
The Saudis are currently one of the key payers in coalescing Arab support for any deal with Israel.
Indeed, seasoned Saudi journalists were surprised to hear the rumors that Oman and Qatar were thinking differently. "If these reports are accurate then it's a very sorry state of affairs in the Arab world," the editor-in-chief of the Saudi daily Arab News, Khaled al-Maeena, told Xinhua on Sunday.
"We don't want to be in a state of enmity, we don't wish them harm, but I don't see a reason why somebody forces down my throat, somebody that I don't want to be with," said al-Maeena.
