Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas today urged US President-elect Barack Obama to back an Arab League proposal for comprehensive peace with Israel in return for it quitting all occupied Arab lands.
"We call on President Obama to begin immediately dealing with the peace process based on the relevant United Nations resolutions and based on the Arab peace initiative," Mr Abbas said in a speech opening an economic conference in Nablus.
"Instead of living in an island of peace with only Jordan and Egypt, Israel can live in a sea of peace with the Arab world."
Broached in 2002, the Arab League proposal offered Israel normal ties with all Arab states if it quit the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and Golan Heights - lands captured in a 1967 Middle East war. Egypt and Jordan are currently alone in the
22-member League in having full peace accords with Israel. The proposal also calls for the sides to agree to a "just solution" for millions of Palestinians classed as refugees from homes and land taken by the Jewish state in its 1948 founding.
Successive Israeli governments have either ignored or rejected the Arab plan, which would require Israel to dismantle settlements which house hundreds of thousands of Jews. Israel is also mindful of the demographic impact of any refugee influx.
Mr Obama, who won the US election on November 4th and takes office in January, has pledged to seek a breakthrough in negotiations on founding a peaceful Palestinian state alongside Israel. During an election-trail meeting with Abbas in the West Bank in July, Mr Obama voiced support for the Arab peace proposal, a senior Palestinian official said.
Abbas's Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) this week ran Hebrew-language ads in four Israeli newspapers promoting the proposal - an unprecedented outreach effort.
"Ordinary Israeli people, and even some politicians, began to ask questions," the Palestinian president said today.
"They are talking about a two-state solution. With the Arab peace plan they can have a 58-state solution," he said, referring to Arab and Muslim countries. "I hope they will accept and implement it."
Asked about the advertisement, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said that while she viewed the peace plan as "positive", it needed revisions on issues such as the future of Palestinian refugees and Jerusalem.
Mr Livni, leading the centrist Kadima party into an Israeli parliamentary election on February 10th, said Israel first wanted to achieve bilateral peace agreements with the Palestinians and its Arab neighbours.
Reuters