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Israel Continues to IgnoreArab Peace Offer

Israel is failing to grasp the changes sweeping the Arab world, and in so doing, risks its own security by ignoring the renewed Arab Peace Initiative, Daoud Kuttab writes.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (centre L), Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani (C) and Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr (centre R) arrive to the Arab Peace Initiative Committee Meeting in Doha December 9, 2012.  REUTERS/Mohammed Dabbous (QATAR - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3BDR2

Something strange happened during the last Arab League summit meeting, held in March in the Qatari capital, Doha. The final announcement, which typically presents the points of agreement reached to by the participating heads of state, was possibly the longest communiqué drafted by an Arab summit. It went on and on, detailing the position of the leaders on almost every issue affecting Arab League members.

Squeezed in among the tens of thousands of words was a reiteration of support for the Arab Peace Initiative approved at the 2002 summit in Beirut. The plan has also been approved by the Organization of Islamic Countries. Thus, all in all, 57 Arab and Islamic states have been on the record for more than ten years in support of a peace plan that guarantees normalization with Israel in return for its withdrawal to the 1967 borders and an agreement to a just resolution to the Palestinian refugee problem.

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