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The Arab summit meeting in Beirut opens in disarray, as Palestinians pull out and key American allies snub the event -- but the Saudi peace plan offers a ray of hope.
Mar 28, 2002 | In a speech Wednesday at the tumultuous opening of the Arab summit meeting, Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia offered normal relations with Israel if the Jewish state would withdraw from territories seized after the 1967 war, recognize a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital and allow refugees to return.
"Allow me at this point to direct myself to the Israeli people," Prince Abdullah declared, "to say to them that the use of violence, for more than 50 years, has only resulted in more violence and destruction, and that the Israeli people are as far as they have been from security and peace, notwithstanding military superiority and despite efforts to subdue and suppress. Israel, and the world, must understand that peace, and the retention of the occupied Arab territories, are incapable and impossible to reconcile and achieve."
Abdullah also said, "I would further say to the Israeli people that if their government abandons the policy of force and aggression and embraces true peace, we will not hesitate to accept the right of the Israeli people to live in security with the people of the region."
Abdullah's proposal, and indeed the entire summit, was almost overwhelmed by a series of disagreements and crucial no-shows. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat refused to attend, citing Israeli conditions. (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon warned that Arafat might not be allowed to return to the territories if he gave an inflammatory speech.) Two key moderates, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah II, were no-shows, with the Egyptian leader saying he refused to attend out of solidarity with Arafat. The non-presence of the two moderate leaders was clearly a slap at the Bush administration for not putting enough pressure on Israel to allow Arafat to attend. And the Palestinian delegates walked out when Lebanon's president inexplicably refused to allow a broadcast.
Despite the upheavals, the prince's proposal took center stage. The plan, which he first floated in an interview with the New York Times last month, reflects what in fact has long been the mainstream Arab position toward Israel and the Palestinians. It does not differ significantly from the two-decade-old Fez Plan, approved unanimously by all 20 Arab states in attendance at the Arab summit in 1982. The Fez plan implied Arab recognition of Israel within its pre-1967 borders and advocated a two-state solution. However, the new proposal is significant both because of its timing, as the semi-war in Israel and the occupied territories enters one of its bloodiest phases ever, and because of Saudi Arabia's stature as the guardian of the two holiest sites in Islam. It is also more explicit in its willingness to recognize Israel.
Abdullah modified his proposal in two significant ways. He added the explosive issue of the Palestinian right of return, a deeply emotional one for both Palestinians and Israelis that has proven to be perhaps the most intractable negotiating point, along with the status of Jerusalem, between the two sides. Palestinians who were among the 700,000 people who were driven out or fled their homes in the 1948 war, and their descendants, have long insisted that they be allowed to return to their ancestral homes. Israelis retort that if the millions of Palestinian refugees actually returned to Israel, the Jewish character of the state would be destroyed. Moreover, in most cases neither the homes nor the villages of the Palestinians still exist in recognizable form.
The prince also changed the wording of his offer on recognition slightly, proffering "normal relations" instead of the more comprehensive "full normalization."
The Saudi proposal was hailed by Arafat from his headquarters in Ramallah in the West Bank. Speaking on the Arabic-language television station Al-Jazeera, in a broadcast not seen by summit participants, Arafat said, "At this summit, this initiative, God willing, will turn into an Arab initiative for the peace of the brave between us and the Israeli people and Jews in the world." Arafat also offered holiday greetings to Jews at the start of the Passover holiday.
The United States also praised Prince Abdullah's initiative. Spokeswoman Claire Buchan hailed his "leadership" and said that President Bush "urges other leaders to build on the crown prince's ideas to address the cause of peace in the troubled region."
Israel, as expected, reacted warily. Officials criticized the term "normal relations" as unacceptably vague; they also rejected the right of return for refugees. In addition, Sharon has long made clear his opposition to full withdrawal from the occupied territories.
Hopes that the Saudi initiative would be accepted by the Arab League were raised when Syria, one of the most hard-line Arab states, gave support to the plan, with some reservations.
If American envoy Anthony Zinni does succeed in hammering out a cease-fire, U.S., Israeli and Palestinian negotiators will have their hands full trying to work out a version of the Saudi plan acceptable to all sides. But for the moment, the fact that any peace plan at all is on the table could be seized as grounds for hope, however distant.
The biggest loser, after the summit's first day, was poor Lebanon. This week's Arab League summit was supposed to bolster the country's reputation, not ruin it. But then, with a single gaffe, Lebanese President Emile Lahoud almost did what even Ariel Sharon couldn't manage to accomplish -- sabotage the summit.
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