Should Israel Accept the Arab Peace Initiative by Alon Ben-Meir

Read Part I here.

Globalist Analysis > Global Diplomacy Should Israel Accept the Arab Peace Initiative
By Alon Ben-Meir \| Wednesday, July 16, 2008

To many, the Arab Peace Initiative represents a genuine opportunity to advance the Arab-Israeli peace process. In the second installment in this three-part series, Alon Ben-Meir argues that Israel must realize that accepting the Arab Peace Initiative is not a sign of weakness. On the contrary, it is a sign of strength.

srael has never been stronger militarily or economically than it is today.

This is precisely why it can accept the Arab Peace Initiative by openly stating its four core principles, which no Israeli government can give away and no serious Arab interlocutor can deny.

And it is why, rather than rejecting certain aspects of the Initiative, the Israeli government should make its core requirements abundantly clear and use the document’s positive elements to find a way to negotiate over the other aspects.

A confluence of events offers Israel and the Arab states an opportunity that they cannot afford to miss.

By stating its four core requirements, Israel is giving nothing away. In fact, the Arab states will have to concede in many areas to meet those requirements, and if they fail to negotiate in good faith, Israel can stand its ground.

That being said, any commitment to negotiate a peace agreement based on the general principles of the Arab Initiative is unarguably a high-risk game. From the Israeli perspective, the occupied territories are vitally linked to national security, and the Jewish identity of the state is directly related to the kind of solution brought to the Palestinian refugee problem. For these reasons, no one should expect Israel to lay down its arms even after a comprehensive peace agreement has been achieved.

Indeed, the geopolitical and security conditions in the Middle East will remain precarious for many years, especially because of Iran’s ambitions to become a regional hegemon armed with nuclear weapons.

This prospect concerns not only Israel, which would require it to maintain its military superiority for the foreseeable future, but also the Arab Sunni states which are extremely concerned over Iran’s efforts to acquire nuclear arsenals.

Moreover, any Israeli government, regardless of its political orientation, must also be able to envision the end-game with some certainty before it can initiate such a

Any commitment to negotiate a peace agreement based on the general principles of the Arab Initiative is unarguably a high-risk game.
commitment, which is why Israel needs to establish at the outset its core requirements, and also why the Arab states must be prepared to deal with them in good faith.

All Arab states, not only Egypt and Jordan (assigned by the Arab League to pursue the Initiative with Israel), must demonstrate that their Initiative is genuine and that they are ready to engage the Israelis on any level, while remaining true to the Initiative’s principles.

Israel, as indicated, must take advantage of the ways that the Iraq war and occupation have radically altered the political and security conditions in the Middle East, posing a serious challenge to the region’s old geopolitical order.

Because Iran’s regional ambitions alarm both the Sunni Arab states and Israel, this creates the possibility of an alliance of necessity. The reintroduction of the original Saudi Initiative at this particular time is not accidental.

It is designed principally to change the region’s new political dynamic in a central way, by ending the Arab-Israeli conflict. The confluence of events offers Israel and the Arab states an opportunity that they cannot afford to miss.

Editor's Note: This is the second installment of a three-part series. You can read Part I here. Part III will appear on The Globalist tomorrow.

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