News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) A large majority of U.S. Senators is demanding that Arab nations “step up and meet their responsibilities,” by stopping their support for terrorist groups and ending anti-Israel and “anti-Jewish incitement” in their countries. The statement comes in anticipation of next month’s U.S.-sponsored Mideast summit, set for November 26 in Annapolis, Maryland.

Seventy-seven out of 100 U.S. Senators signed a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last week urging her to push “friendly Arab states” to “recognize Israel’s right to exist and not use such recognition as a bargaining chip for future Israeli concessions.”

The 2002 Arab League peace initiative set as a precondition for talks with Israel a full withdrawal from the Golan Heights, Judea, Samaria, Gaza and half of Jerusalem. The plan also calls for Israel to allow millions of foreign Arab descendants of those who fled the country during the 1948 war to immigrate to Israel.