Crown Prince Abdullah’s peace plan, approved by the 22 Arab League members, offered Israel everything it had only dreamed of. All that was necessary was for Israel to agree to go back to the 1967 borders. In exchange for returning to the 1967 borders the Arabs would recognize Israel. What is more, presumably all of the Arab League states would also establish diplomatic relations with Israel.
In short, everything to end the Middle East stalemate was generously wrapped up and given to Israel. You might have expected a more immediately positive response. This writer went back to Israel’s response in February of this year to see what the Israelis were saying about the Saudi Arabian proposal. It didn’t take long to find out. Some of the most sarcastic statements you could imagine were coming from the Israelis and their American supporters. One example of the harsh criticism from the American Jewish press that met the peace plan stated: “Now, Saudi Arabia comes up with a solution: ‘Israel, if you surrender, we will recognize you’ — an approach reasonable for the Arabs but stupid for Israel and the rest of the Western world. In fact, if that does happen it will be catastrophic for the West. We must recognize that the object of the Palestinians is not a Palestinian state, it is the total annihilation of the Jewish state and the Jewish people. Then all of that area automatically becomes Palestine.”
The March 22 Detroit Jewish News wraps up its commentary by informing its Jewish readers that “The primary goal of those major Arab states, however, is the destruction or conversion of the Western world.”
The scare tactics and sarcasm continues, but you get the gist. Now multiply these comments day in and day out from just one Detroit Jewish weekly. Then think of all the other Jewish newspapers, both in the United States and in Israel, and realize that most of the editorial comment is written in the same vein.
But surprisingly, despite the normal bias of the Jewish and Israeli press which, after all, has to pander to its readers, changes are slowly going on. Jewish pro-peace groups, both in Israel and in the United States, have responded to Prince Abdullah’s peace plan, and tried to move gradually forward toward his objectives.
Now, gradually, others are slowly coming to realize that the peace plan holds no catches and no hitches. Israelis must realize they don’t have much choice. It’s time to make peace. My guess is that some day Israelis will realize there is no future with Ariel Sharon and his butchery. His brutality will not bring safety to the Israeli “man in the street” but just continue the slaughter. Eventually a shift will take place in favor of the Saudi peace plan.
Israelis will realize they have to give up their attempts to “transfer” all the Palestinians, and squeeze the remaining Palestinians into ever-smaller areas. At that time, hopefully, the Saudi peace plan will still be on the table.
There will never be a solution if the Israelis keep thinking up elaborate scenarios of Arab betrayal and perfidy. Arabs are ready to make peace, the sooner the better. If the Israelis really believe that they must never let down their guard and trust, even the United States will finally give up hope.
But in fact, if gradually the majority of Israelis want to end the matter by taking the Saudi offer there are plenty of ways to assure the world that there will be no betrayal. For example, United Nations troops can be brought in to carry out the land for peace exchange. Or if the Israelis insist that the United Nations cannot be trusted to carry out a fair exchange then very likely the United States could be talked into providing troops as part of a UN police force. It is even possible that the United States would undertake the project single-handedly if that is what is required to end the Israeli-Arab impasse.
Meanwhile, it is absolutely essential that the United States postpone any further weapons transfers to Israel until the Jewish state agrees to work for peace. Sharon’s war is a very expensive strategy. Unless the United States gives money and weapons, quickly Israel is going to have trouble financing Sharon’s war.
That, frankly, is the key to ending the Arab-Israeli conflict. It would be nice if the Bush administration could figure this out for itself. It would be nice, but it probably won’t happen without some serious prodding. That is where the Saudi government and all of the other members of the Arab League can come in. No one need doubt that the Arab League members, all of them, want to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict just as desperately as does the Bush administration.
There have been serious attempts by the Arabs in virtually every Arab country to carry out American consumer boycotts to show their disappointment in the US. And Arab and Muslim states will initiate even bigger boycotts, the longer the Arab-Israeli problem continues. That should be a warning to the wise.
If that doesn’t do the trick, however, there is more that can be done. An oil boycott is a two-sided weapon and no one knows where it would end up. Suffice it to say that both sides could suffer serious deprivation. All that is so completely unnecessary. What’s important is for the United States to realize that solving the Israeli-Arab conflict is essential. When the Saudi peace plan is accomplished, all Americans, Europeans, Arabs and even the Israelis will be far better off than they have been to date.
— Richard H. Curtiss is the executive editor of the Washington Report on Middle East afffairs.
