In what I would call extremely welcome news, the JTA reported today that the Arab League will be making an official visit to Israel for the first time in history this week:
This week’s delegation, to be led by Egyptian and Jordanian officials, will discuss the threat posed by Hamas and Islamic extremism as well as the 22-nation league’s peace proposal. The plan offers full Arab recognition of Israel in exchange for its full withdrawal from lands captured in the 1967 Six-Day War, repatriation of Palestinian refugees and the creation of a Palestinian state.
“This is the first time the Arab League is coming to Israel,” Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said, according to The Associated Press. “From its inception, the Arab League has been hostile to Israel. It will be the first time we’ll be flying the Arab League flag.”
The growing power of Islamic extremists in the Middle East, underscored by Hamas’ violent takeover of Gaza last month, has drawn the fortunes of Israel and the league’s members closer together.
My two cents? I’ve long felt that the Arab League’s peace proposal has been unwisely ignored by Israel and US for far too long (it was originally proposed back in 2002). At its core it promotes basically what other similar two-state plans have advocated: a Palestinian state established in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Israel’s return to pre-1967 borders, the notion of a shared Jerusalem, and a mutually acceptable resolution of the refugee issue.
Recent events in Gaza seem to be offering new life to the peace process, and we can only hope that the US will finally step up to the plate to help broker these efforts. There seem to be some indications that this is so. MJ Rosenberg, of the Israel Policy Forum reported last month:
Washington is buzzing with reports that the Secretary of State is determined to salvage the “two-state” policy that President Bush announced five years ago Sunday. Word is that top State Department staffers, including the Secretary, are burning the midnight oil in what would be a last ditch attempt to acheive an Israeli-Palestinian agreement by 2009.
Let us fervently hope that renewed diplomacy is indeed on the way. The window of opportunity on a two-state solution is closing fast…
(For an intelligent Jewish consideration of the Arab League peace proposal, I recommend this analysis from Brit Tzedek v’Shalom.)
