By Stan Goodenough
Aug 01, 2007
Saudi Arabia quickly responded to [America's endorsement of its 2002 "peace plan"]() saying Wednesday it will participate in the US-sponsored international Middle East peace conference set for the fall this year.
Jeddah's participation will add to the already weighted Arab side of the table across from Israel, whose representatives will stand small and alone against the increasingly US-favored Arab world.
Syria announced Tuesday that it, too, would attend.
In 1991, under pressure from the US, Israel went to the International Middle East Peace Conference in Madrid where the Arabs state, the PLO, Russia and the US in effect pulled together against the interests of the Jewish state.
That conference paved the way for the 1993 Oslo Agreement which blew up in Israel's face at the cost of more than 1000 Jewish lives.
Nonetheless, the Saudi announcement was hailed as a "diplomatic breakthrough" because that country does not have relations with Israel.
Instead of recognizing the growing disadvantage to Israel, unnamed sources in Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office reportedly rejoiced at the news, claiming credit for the Israeli leader who "has said before that he is looking for the moderate [sic] Arab nations to join the (peace) process.
"This is the beginning of the creation of a moderate counter power to the axis of evil, headed by Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hizbullah," they said, adding that it was an "important step in the evolution of the Middle East dialogue [which] the prime minister has gone to great lengths to make ... happen."
Some analysts hold that the burgeoning Iranian threat is propelling US and Israeli diplomacy down this road.
Lacking the political courage to crush Tehran and so end the genocidal threat that is being nurtured by the mullahs, Washington and Jerusalem are instead trying to weld together an unnatural alliance comprising the Christian US, Jewish Israel and the "moderate" Islamic Arab states.
Many believe it a gamble from which Israel will emerge the loser.