Opinion - Editorials

A receding peace plan?

SAUDI ARABIA'S INITIATIVE for a comprehensive peace settlement in West Asia is the only hopeful note of sorts in that volatile region. Vicious levels of escalating violence, involving Israel and the Palestinians, have brought West Asia to the brink of a new disaster, horrific even by the standards of that war-torn region. Now, despite being eclipsed by a frenzy of violence at this point, Riyadh's new peace plan seems designed to match the recent indication by the U.S. President, George W. Bush, that Washington might be inclined to encourage the creation of a separate Palestinian state over time. The Saudi Crown Prince, Abdullah bin Abdelaziz, has suggested that a military withdrawal by Israel, specifically to the positions it held prior to its conquests in the 1967 war in West Asia, might prove conducive to peace between the Jewish state, on one side, and the Arab countries across the spectrum and not just the Palestinians on the other side of the divide. In essence, the new Saudi proposal — endorsed by the U.S. as a `vision' — is an updated version of the old principle of "land for peace" that was first enunciated in the context of efforts by the United Nations for peace in West Asia. Israel's political establishment finds itself divided over how to respond to Riyadh's apparent gesture of possible pan-Arab goodwill. But the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, is pleased that a major Islamic country like Saudi Arabia has fired a "peace" salvo amid today's escalating war between his people and the Jewish state. Prince Abdullah's ideas will take some heat off Mr. Arafat's shoulders at this time of a global revulsion against political terrorism which has often marred the Palestinian "cause" even in the face of Israel's own virulent militarism.

The most significant aspect of the new Saudi exercise in some unusual diplomacy is the promise of an eventual reconciliation between all Arab states and Israel. If Riyadh, a newly estranged ally of the United States, has taken it upon itself to propose a way forward for peace in West Asia at this juncture, the reason centres on Saudi Arabia's hopes for cooperative ties with Washington in the future. Geostrategic considerations and plain realpolitik have so far underpinned the U.S.-Saudi equation of exceptional political-military cooperation between two dramatically different societies. Yet, the current American passions against "Islamic terrorism" seem to have brought Washington's ties with Riyadh under strain. This reality has much to do with Saudi Arabia's apparent reservations about some aspects of Washington's ongoing "war on terror". Yet, arguably, Riyadh's new conciliatory gesture towards Israel, which is seen in the Arab world as Washington's protege, is a sign of the Saudi kingdom's desire to mend its ties with the U.S.

On a different plane, Mr. Bush's earlier willingness to countenance the eventual creation of a Palestinian state seemed to mark a phenomenal shift from the political orthodoxy of the West in regard to a major Arab "cause". Mr. Bush's gesture, which has lost some of its political lustre in the current context of his frustrations with Mr. Arafat, is of course tied to America's compulsions to ensure that its "war against terror" does not antagonise the Islamic universe itself. Now, Crown Prince Abdullah's ideas, too, represent a radical shift from the political orthodoxy of the Arabs concerning their fears of having to coexist with Israel into the timeless future. Of utmost priority to the Jerusalem establishment, on the other hand, is the notion that Israel can survive only within securely sustainable frontiers. While this will doubtless influence Israel's eventual responses to Mr. Bush and the Saudi Crown Prince, it is time that attempts are begun to break the mould of adversarial relationships in West Asia.

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