By Ryan Jones
Mar 28, 2007
In a statement betraying the true intentions of the Arab world, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister on Tuesday warned Israel to accept the pan-Arab peace proposal as is or face war.
The Arab League convened in Riyadh on Wednesday to discuss the plan, which was first presented by Saudi King Abdullah at a Beirut meeting of the organization in 2002.
It offers Israel the promise of peace with its neighbors in return for surrendering every inch of land liberated in 1967 and opening its borders to millions of foreign-born Arabs who called themselves "Palestinian refugees."
Israel's failure to accept these "generous" terms means it must want war, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal told Britain's Daily Telegraph.
If Israel refuses, that means it doesn't want peace and it places everything back into the hands of fate. They will be putting their future not in the hands of the peacemakers but in the hands of the lords of war.
Prince Saud went on to reiterate that the Arabs have no intention of altering the plan to accommodate Israeli concerns, and claimed that reaching out to Israel never achieved anything for the Arabs.
In doing so he completely ignored that by reaching out only a very little bit (and then never actually fulfilling his promises), Yasser Arafat gained a great deal from Israel.
Despite its clearly dangerous language, Israeli leaders have actually voiced optimism over the proposal, stating that it could serve as a basis for regional peace if only the issue of "Palestinian" refugees were removed.
The vast majority of Israelis recognize that to bow to the demand for an Arab "right of return" would demographically destroy the Jewish state.
Yasser Arafat and his deputies used to boast that the right of return was their diplomatic trump card to win the battle against Israel's existence.