Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Thursday night welcomed the Arab League's endorsement of the 2002 Saudi Arabian peace plan and challenged its members to break their diplomatic boycott on Israel and to talk peace, but the Arab strategy is to try to convince the world that the initiative is non-negotiable.
Jordan and Egypt are the only Arab League members that recognize Israel.
The 2002 plan calls on Arab nations to establish "normal" relations with Israel in return for the Jewish state's surrendering all of the land regained in the Six-Day War in 1967, including the Western Wall (Kotel), the Temple Mount and all of the Old City of Jerusalem. It also demands the right of immigration to Israel of more than five million Arabs who live in foreign countries and are descendants of those who fled Israel in 1948.
The Arab strategy is a continuation of a two-year world-wide campaign launched by Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to convince the international community that Israel is wrong in remaining in Judea and Samaria and in denying Arab immigration.
Arab nations "are going to send teams around the world to sell their idea," according to United Press International (UPI).
Faced with the growing threat of Iran and the axis it has formed with Hamas, Syria and Hizbullah, Saudi Arabia has assumed the position as leader in the Arab world.
The Arab League this week essentially repeated approval of the plan that it endorsed five years ago, the same day that terrorists massacred 30 Jews at the traditional Seder on the first night of Passover at the Park Hotel in Netanya.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal taunted Israel by accusing the Jewish state of rejecting "frank and transparent decisions toward peace."
However, Prime Minister Olmert termed the endorsement" revolutionary," even though it was proposed at the Arab Summit in Beirut in 2002. He avoided citing parts of the plan that Israel has said are not even negotiable and instead stated, "We are ready to hold discussions and hear from the Saudis about their approach and to tell them about ours."
Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres urged the Arab nations "to sit together with Israel and achieve an agreement, as we did with Egypt and Jordan."
PA Chairman Abbas warned that if Israel does not accept the plan, which Hamas has not endorsed because it calls for establishing "normal" relations with Israel, violence will result.
Mainstream American analysts cast doubt that the initiative is practical. A Los Angeles Times report noted that the Arab League "gathered in the Saudi capital [and] sniped at Israel, which is so widely loathed in the Arab world that it does not even appear on maps in many countries there."
The conservative leaning Washington Times called the Arab position an "ultimatum" and not a peace proposal. "If the Saudis want to be taken seriously as peacemakers, they need to stop issuing ultimatums to Israel and start issuing them to the Palestinian irredentists they continue to lavish money on," a Times editorial stated.
Meanwhile, the Bush administration has backtracked on reservations about the plan. American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stated earlier this month that the "right of return" clause is not practical but avoided stating any reservations about the 2002 initiative after the Arab League's endorsement of it this week.