The Hindu : Israel divided on Saudi move

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 02, 2002

International

International

Israel divided on Saudi move

By Kesava Menon

Manama (Bahrain) MARCH 1. Even as the Saudi Arabian initiative for West Asia peace gathers momentum, Israel, the country which has to really respond to it, appears to be caught in several minds. A small group of Israelis, quite surprisingly led by the conservative President, Moshe Katsav, has welcomed the initiative while the hard-line Greater Israel bloc is beginning a counter-offensive to ensure that the initiative is still-born and centrist Israel seems unsure what to make of it.

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdelaziz, who launched the initiative through a statement made to The New York Times, has said that he will attempt to give the proposal a more authoritative foundation at the Arab League summit from March 27-28. Crown Prince Abdullah had offered to fully normalise relations with Israel, including grant of recognition, offering security guarantees and permitting free trade, once Israel withdrew from occupied Arab lands. The fact that it was Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler who has enunciated this position in such clear terms should endow the initiative with a great deal of weight. But Crown Prince Abdullah has subsequently said that he would bring the proposal before the leadership of the Arab world at the Beirut summit and try to have it endorsed by all.

A senior advisor to the Prince said that the proposal was a vision statement and not a blueprint for West Asian peace. The Egyptian and Syrian leaderships have felt it necessary to point out that the proposal is not a very great advance on the long-standing principle for a resolution of the West Asian conflict, that is "land for peace''. But in actuality, the significance of the Saudi initiative cannot be diminished because it has squarely addressed one of the most dangerous ambiguities that has undermined West Asian peace-keeping.

All along, peace-making in the region has proceeded on the presumption that the rest of the Arab world would normalise relations with Israel once it made peace with the three states with which it is directly in conflict _ Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinians. But Israel, mindful of the cold peace that it has had with Egypt (and with Jordan in more recent times), has always had reasons to be suspicious that the rest of the Arab world led by Saudi Arabia would continue to be hostile even if there was withdrawal from occupied Arab lands. Saudi Arabia has, through Crown Prince Abdullah's offer, squarely addressed that suspicion and reversed the order of presumptions.Now, it is Israel's turn to address the Arab suspicion that Israel is more interested in the land it occupies than peace with its neighbours. Hardline Israelis who still cherish dreams of a Greater Israel have given their answer. Some of them have dubbed the Saudi initiative as an Arab trap to make Israel "give up'' the Golan Heights, the shores of Lake Tiberias and the Jordan River Valley. Israel has no right to these territories but the hardliners would rather keep these pieces of territory even if it means that there will be no peace with the neighbours.

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