The Arab League delegation arrived in Israel today, and, well, I simply can’t get up the energy to think anything good will come of it. Because the Arab League’s push to use the Saudi initiative as a peace treaty between Israel and the Arab states is simply unworkable.
The foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan began a historic visit to Israel on Wednesday to formally present an Arab peace plan, saying they were extending “a hand of peace” on behalf of the region.
The ministers arrived as representatives of the Arab League, the first time the 22-member group has sent a delegation to the Jewish state. The Arab League peace plan envisions full recognition of Israel in return for evacuation of lands captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
“We are extending a hand of peace on behalf of the whole region to you, and we hope that we will be able to create the momentum needed to resume fruitful and productive negotiations” between Israel and the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab world, Jordan’s foreign minister, Abdul-Ilah Khatib, said at a news conference with Israeli President Shimon Peres.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said the two delegates had been asked by the league “to come and offer Israel the Arab peace initiative.” He urged Israel to consider the plan seriously.
The Saudi plan includes a return of all Palestinian refugees, which would effectively destroy Israel as a Jewish state, and let’s face it—how could Israel absorb 5 million new citizens, nearly doubling her population? It’s a logical impossibility on every level. It’s simply not going to happen. The plan was a non-starter from the get-go. Since the Arab states forced out an equal number of Jewish citizens from 1948 to the 1960s, call it even and move on.
Israel has welcomed the plan as a basis for negotiations, but raised concerns about certain aspects. Israel rejects a full withdrawal from the West Bank and east Jerusalem. It also objects to the plan’s apparent call for the return of Palestinians who became refugees in the 1948 Mideast war and their descendants. Israel says a large-scale return of refugees would destroy the country’s Jewish character.
That, and the influx of terrorists would pretty much guarantee an end to Jews at all in the land of their ancestors. It simply is not going to happen. The problem with the “negotiations,” such as they are, is that the Arab world has consistently said that Israel must revert completely to the 1949 Armistice Lines, and oh yeah, let the pre-1949 population back so that Israel is no longer Israel at all, in spite of the fact of winning some five wars for her existence. The Arabs continue to insist on a do-over, and work for the world’s help in forcing Israel out of existence.
This is not a basis for peace. It is the basis for the extinction of Israel. Which is why I think the Arab League can make all the visits it wants, and take all the photo ops of shaking hands with Peres it can get, and still, nothing is going to change. Not as long as the Arabs are intransigent.
It isn’t the Israelis who have refused to negotiate all these years.
And a closing thought: Take note that the only members of the Arab League to actually take part in this delegation are from Jordan and Egypt, who already have relations with Israel.
Arab diplomats played down the gesture. Egypt and Jordan already have full relations with Israel, and despite U.S. and Israeli appeals to expand the number of Arab participants in the talks, Saudi Arabia and other Arab League members with no formal ties to the Jewish state have refused to take part.
This is a sham visit, and I think nothing will come of it. However, count on the world media to blame Israel when nothing happens. Because the fault never lies in Arab intransigence. No, it’s always Israel’s fault for refusing to give concessions.
I wouldn’t expect anything positive to come of the visit by the Arab League.
I expect that the media will play this up and later indicate that Israel “once again rejected an offer of peace.”
Why is there a complete media blackout of the fact that hundreds of thousands of Jews were exiled from Arab lands with only their clothing on their back?
Actually it is an old oaken bucket
“There’s a hole in the bucket” …
That way they can show the world that they ar pouring water into the bucket and blame Israel when it complains that
“the bucket is empty”
It’s a media event, and the media is all on the Arabs’ side. The Arab League leadership has been explicit that Egypt and Jordan are two Arab League members visiting Israel on their own to explain the elements of the plan. They are most decidedly not an Arab league mission.
Besides, the Arab League is not offering to make peace with Israel. They are supposedly offering to accept the peace Israel makes with the Palestinian Arabs if they agree with the terms.
Israel could give up this, that, and the other, and the Arab League could simply walk away sneering, “Not enough!”
It’s still the Three Noes of Khartoum, and I believe Israel should return the rejection: no peace with a genocidal enemy, no recognition of their illegitimate governments, no negotiation with liars.
“Palestinians who became refugees in the 1948 Mideast war”. Seeing as how most of those refugees are probably dead by now, the claim is a bogus one. I have no right to live somewhere just because my grandparents did.