Cautious peace steps at Saudi summit
The meeting fell short of delivering the progress expected on a Saudi-led push for peace with Israel.
from the March 30, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 3
Daniel Levy, a key member of Israeli negotiating teams with the Palestinians in the 1990s and now senior fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington, says Israel should make clear that it will meet all the land demands in exchange for compromise on the return of Palestinians.
"Every time [Foreign Minister] Livni says 'refugee' someone sitting next to her should say '67,' " says Mr. Levy. He also says a more careful tone from Israel could be helpful.
"If you want the Saudis and the Arab League to make certain modifications ... is sending the foreign minister to say, 'This is what you have to do, Arabs,' the right way to go about it?"
Mr. Moussa's comments seemed to reflect the Arab anger that Levy mentioned. "The Arab stance is that nothing should be given free. Thus far we have only received negative messages which do not deserve normalization," he said.
Though the Saudi effort has been seen in some quarters as a turning point, this is far from the first time that Israel's erstwhile Arab enemies have pushed for peace. And unlike now, past efforts have come when the Israeli and Palestinian leaders were stronger. Today, a divided Palestinian leadership and a weak Israeli prime minister make reaching a final agreement harder.
In 1991, the Syrians, Jordanians, Lebanese, and Palestinians all sat down with the Israelis in Madrid to discuss peace, and the Egyptians and the Saudis played a key role behind the scenes. That kicked off a series of talks that ended without agreement.
In 2000, there was strong Arab backing for the Camp David summit hosted by President Clinton that presented to then leader Yasser Arafat a deal that envisioned a return of 97 percent of the territory the Israelis seized in the 1967 war and East Jerusalem as a Palestinian capital. Mr. Arafat, since deceased, famously rejected that deal.
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