April 13, 2007	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 24, 1428

CAIRO: Israel’s rejection of the Arab peace initiative, which was reiterated at last month’s Arab Summit, drew emphatic criticism from Egyptian commentators. Although Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert later called for peace talks with “moderate” Arab heads of state, most local political observers say Tel Aviv wants to have its cake and eat it too.

“Olmert’s response was an attempt to normalise relations without responding to the initiative’s demands,” Mohamed Basyouni, former Egyptian ambassador to Israel and head of the committee for Arab affairs in the Shura Council (the upper consultative house of the Egyptian parliament) told reporters. “It was a totally unacceptable manoeuvre that puts the carriage before the horse.”

The Saudi-backed peace plan, first tabled at the 2002 Arab Summit in Beirut, offers across-the-board Arab recognition of Israel in exchange for core Palestinian demands.

According to the proposal’s terms, Arab capitals would extend full diplomatic relations to the Jewish state in exchange for total Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967. The plan seeks a “just solution” to the Palestinian refugee issue on the basis of UN resolutions, and the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Currently, Egypt, Jordan and Qatar are the only Arab countries that maintain overt diplomatic relations with Israel.

Although it was rejected five years ago by then Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, the offer was put back on the table at last month’s Arab Summit in Riyadh. According to a joint declaration issued at the summit’s closing session on Mar 29, Arab States “reconfirmed their adherence to the Arab peace initiative as it was offered at the 2002 Beirut summit along with all of its elements.”

The statement went on to urge the Israeli government and citizens of Israel to accept the offer “and seize the opportunity to restart the negotiation process.”

“Egypt is committed to the Arab initiative as is,” Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul-Gheit said in a press conference with Rice. “We hope the Israeli side will deal with it positively and restart peace talks based on the offer.”

But like his predecessor Sharon, Olmert ultimately rejected the offer, telling the Israeli press on Mar 30 that the return of Palestinian refugees to Israel was “out of the question”. Rice praised Olmert’s suggestion, saying his call for a regional conference represented a “positive” step.

Commentators described the Israeli response as a delaying tactic intended to prevent progress on key issues. —Dawn/The IPS News Service