THE two day Arab League summit which ended yesterday in Algiers, concluded with a restatement of the plan originally propounded by Saudi Arabia, in which peace with Israel will be made once an independent Palestinian state has been created and refugees have been permitted to return.
This latest top-level meeting of the league had been criticized in some quarters with suggestions even that the organization was now moribund and powerless. The harsh truth however is that the league has always been confronted by the seemingly intractable problem of Palestine. The endless frustration of this great injustice has been reflected in the powerlessness, not just of the league but the whole international community to find a resolution.
The pivotal moment of change may however now be approaching. The new Palestinian leadership and the anticipated realistic approach of Washington to the creation of a just settlement both seem to promise real change. It was of course no surprise that the summit’s final declaration on Palestine was immediately rejected by the Israelis. For good measure Sharon’s government also let it be known that it intended to expand some settlements in the occupied territories. This was undoubtedly a calculated affront to the league. However, the response from delegates as they prepared to leave the Algerian capital was notably muted. They know that a wind of change is blowing and Israel can no longer sustain its aggressive posture in the eyes of the international community.
No peace can be built upon the basis of a violent and illegal occupation. Nor is it any good Sharon giving the Gaza Strip back to the Palestinians with one hand while with the other he attempts to consolidate his theft of Palestinian land in and around Jerusalem and elsewhere in the West Bank. The hope of diehard Zionists could be that they may yet provoke a new intifada and then be able to turn with crocodile tears to the world at large, protesting that they had tried to make peace with the Palestinians and look at the reward they had received.
The evidence is however that this constant bleat from Israel is wearing thin. Many more people outside the region are now asking themselves how they would react if their homeland was occupied and the occupiers were trying to dictate a peace to them down the barrel of a gun. The activities of Palestinian suicide bombers attacking civilian targets rightly cause revulsion but there is now a wide appreciation that in their current state of misery and humiliation, the Palestinians have had until now only stones and their own bodies with which to fight back against Israeli tyranny.
The time for violence over the fate of the Palestinians is passed and only negotiation and compromise should lie ahead. Zionists fear the concessions they must make and fear even more the economic and political future of an Israel that can no longer claim to be surrounded by enemies and in danger of its very existence. Nevertheless the Arab leaders were right yesterday to once again offer Israeli leaders an olive branch and their statesmanship could well be a significant contribution to the peace process.
