ISRAEL: The Saudi initiative is exciting despite the negative reaction of official Israel, writes Michael Jansen.
Over the past 10 days, Saudi Arabia's proposal to exchange peace and "full" normalisation with Israel for "full" Israeli withdrawal from occupied Arab land has gained momentum.
It was welcomed by most Arab governments, the Palestine Authority, the Arab League, the UN and, belatedly, the US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell. President Bush, is expected to take it up with President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt in Washington early next month.
Yesterday the Israeli Foreign Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, called it a "fascinating, interesting new opportunity" and President Moshe Katsav offered to go to Saudi Arabia to promote the initiative.
But the Israeli Cabinet Secretary, Mr Gideon Saar, said Israel would "not agree to the demand for a return to the 1967 borders", the Saudi quid pro quo.
Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abel Aziz, the effective ruler of the kingdom, put his proposal to the New York Times columnist, Mr Thomas Friedman, during a dinner party in Riyadh. The crown prince said he had planned to deliver an address to the March 27th-28th Arab summit calling for "full withdrawal from all the occupied territories, in accord with UN resolutions, including in Jerusalem, for full normalisation of relations". This was the first time the conservative Saudis expressed a willingness to recognise and have relations with Israel.
However, the crown prince said he "changed his mind" and consigned his speech to a drawer in his desk "when Sharon took the violence and the oppression to an unprecedented level". Last weekend the crown prince said the address would not be given.
According to Mr Harry Siegman, a senior fellow at the US Council on Foreign Relations, the Saudis, whose basic terms are fixed, would not object to Israeli sovereignty over the Western Wall, the main Jewish religious site in the Old City, and Jewish neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem or the exchange of small pockets of territory in the West Bank. Mr Siegman is discussing the proposal with Israeli leaders and plans to meet the prince next week.
The Saudi daily, Asharq al-Awsat, said the proposal was directed at Israel's citizens, not its government which is dominated by right-wing parties opposed to the "land-for-peace" formula.
Mr Sharon's spokesman, Mr Ra'anan Gissin, initially responded by telling the paper that the proposal constituted "interference in domestic Israeli affairs". But the Israeli Defence Minister, Mr Binyamin Ben Eliezer, dismissed this negative response: "We cannot say no. We must first say yes and agree to listen." Last weekend Mr Sharon called on the US to arrange a meeting with the Saudis, an impossibility in the present hostile climate.
Egypt's official daily, al-Ahram, said the initiative tells Israelis "that the Arab states are not planning to destroy Israel but are ready to coexist with it". Other Arab commentators praised the proposal for "putting the ball in the Israeli court". The Saudi paper, al-Watan, observed that if Israel rejects "the initiative, the \ reaction \ be an end to all political, economic and governmental contacts and renewal of the Arab boycott".
AFP reports from Washington:
The US believes Crown Prince Abdullah's peace initiative is an "important step" but wants to see details of the plan before taking a definitive position on it, the Secretary of State, Mr Powell, said yesterday.
Mr Powell said he had thanked the prince for the proposal in a telephone call.