Arab countries should start “treating Israel like a normal country” and allow El Al to fly over their countries, Senator John Kerry told the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) meeting in Washington Tuesday morning.
Sen. Kerry, who is chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, charged that “lack of support from Arab states” was the principal reason that the talks with the Palestinian Authority exploded in 2000, resulting in an eight-year war.
He pleaded with the Arab world to end its boycott of Israeli goods and to start meeting with Israeli leaders.
His speech was balanced with a demand that Israel accept the Saudi 2002 Peace initiative, which calls for the Jewish state to surrender all of the land that was restored to it in the Six-Day War in 1967. The plan also demands that Israel allow the immigration into Israel of millions of Arabs who claim to be descendants of those who used to live in Israel.
Virtually every Israeli leader on the right and left has rejected the condition, and Sen. Kerry did not specify in his speech if he also expected Israel to acquiesce to the Saudi demand.
He told AIPAC delegates that the growing Iranian threat has given Israel and its Arab neighbors a mutual reason to pursue the”land for peace” principle. The Arab world “cannot wait for Israel to make all the sacrifices,” he stated.
Sen. Kerry earlier this year visited Gaza, signaling a major change in American policy following the exit of the Bush administration. He also visited Syrian President Bashar Assad, whose country is defined by the U.S. as a supporter of terrorism.