Israel should send a new message to the Arab world.
The unanimous decision by Arab leaders to revive a five-year-old
plan for peace with Israel and launch a diplomatic offensive to
resolve the Middle East conflict presents Israel with an
opportunity.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Riyadh
summit that the Arab initiative suggested a "new way forward",
offering "new stirrings of potential" that the world community
should now build on.
The appeal from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to Israel to
accept the deal should not fall on deaf ears.
Abbas' statement that the entire Middle East region would be
under threat unless a solution is found to the Palestine crisis is
justifiable.
The warning from Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal
carried the same message. Israel was subjecting "not only the
region but itself to dangers with unpredictable repercussions" if
it ignored peace offers.
The 2002 Saudi peace initiative on the Israel-Palestine conflict
calls for full Arab recognition of Israel in exchange for the
creation of a Palestinian state, Israel's withdrawal from all Arab
territories and the right of return for Palestinian refugees.
Israel has responded to these Arab peace offers with a guarded
welcome. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister
Tzipi Livni have made positive remarks about the Arab plan, but
insisted on keeping the refugee question out of negotiations.
With the recent formation of a new Palestinian national unity
government and signs of reinvigorated US diplomacy, the Arab
initiative offers a rare chance to revive the peace process.
The ball is now in Israel's court.
The United States has put democracy at the top of its Middle
East agenda. The real issue is not a question of development in the
Arab world, but it is both an issue of peace and development.
And as long as the Arab-Israel conflict over Palestine is not
solved, the development process will continually be interrupted and
irreversibly set back.
UN and EU diplomats say there are plans for a meeting of
international peace brokers that would bring the Quartet the
European Union, the UN, Russia and the United States together with
several Arab states over the next few weeks.
Any solution to this conflict has to be just and
comprehensive.
(China Daily March 31, 2007)
