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May-24-2013 15:39
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Time for Israel to Accept the Arab Peace Initiative as a Basis for Peace Negotiations
Ralph E. Stone Salem-News.comIf Israel rejects the latest API, the Arab League will probably continue to ratify it.
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(SAN FRANCISCO) - What happened to the recent Arab Peace Initiative (API) unanimously endorsed by the 22-member Arab League in 2002 at the Beirut Summit of the Arab League? It is time for Israel to accept the API as a basis for peace negotiations.
The Arab League latest proposed API to Israel states in brief that if Israel ends the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, and allows the Palestinians to build their own state, the Arab world will recognize Israel's existence and establish normal relations with it. Israel would then be able to exchange ambassadors and trade with all its Arab neighbors. The century-long Arab-Israeli conflict would then be over.
A similar API was rejected by Israel in 2002 because the Arab League had demanded Israel withdraw from all the territories it captured in 1967. This time,the Arabs sweetened the deal, stating that a peace settlement could include modifications to the 1967 borders. This means that Israel could keep many of its West Bank settlements. The Palestinians would be compensated with land from the Israeli side of the border.
In 2007, U.N. General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon urged Israel to restart the peace process based on the API.
In 2009, in a speech at the Brookings Saban Center on Miiddle East Peace, then Senator John Kerry, (D-Mass.), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, re-awakened interest in the API when he remarked, "[t]he Arab Peace Initiative has emerged as the basis on which to build a Regional Road Map that enlists moderate Arab nations to play a more active role in peacemaking and to paint a clearer picture than ever before of the rewards peace would bring to all parties."
Hamas has rejected the API stating, "To those who speak of land swaps we say: Palestine is not a property, it is not for sale, not for a swap and cannot be traded."
On May 23, 2013, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Jerusalem in an effort to jumpstart Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiation by reintroducing the API as a starting point for a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Clearly, the ball is now in Israel's court.
Yet, the Israeli government has not officially responded to the latest API. If Israel rejects the latest API, the Arab League will probably continue to ratify the API, even if Israel continues to reject it, because it helps to expose the fact that Israel has no intention of ending the occupation unless it is forced to do so. And unfortunately, the U.S. is unlikely to impose sanctions on Israel or even reduce its foreign aid to Israel in the face of Israel's intransigence.
Salem-News.com writer Ralph E. Stone was born in Massachusetts. He is a graduate of both Middlebury College and Suffolk Law School. We are very fortunate to have this writer's talents in this troubling world; Ralph has an eye for detail that others miss. As is the case with many Salem-News.com writers, Ralph is an American Veteran who served in war. Ralph served his nation after college as a U.S. Army officer during the Vietnam war. After Vietnam, he went on to have a career with the Federal Trade Commission as an Attorney specializing in Consumer and Antitrust Law. Over the years, Ralph has traveled extensively with his wife Judi, taking in data from all over the world, which today adds to his collective knowledge about extremely important subjects like the economy and taxation. You can send Ralph an email at this address stonere@earthlink.net
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Anonymous May 27, 2013 10:26 am (Pacific time)
Seems that we are right on track to see Israel as the most terrorism-based military in the world. Iran, India and Pakistan would be wiped out...then they can exercise their great prejudice toward all Muslims residing within Western Civilization.
Anonymous May 26, 2013 11:58 am (Pacific time)
A video has emerged which seems to show Palestinian terrorists throwing stones and fire bombs at Israeli soldiers while hiding behind journalists/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_Vkun3rIm8 / guess if you have no kids to use for body armor..... the press will have to do..... Islamists are such low life pussies...What can one expect from these savages. They pray to a 'prophet' who was a rapist and a pedophile. The Islamic Arabs will only understand it when God will punish them for their hate against non-Muslims.
Ralph E. Stone May 26, 2013 8:11 am (Pacific time)
Mr. Epstein, yes I have traveled extensively in the Middle East: Israel, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Iran, Lebanon, and Turkey. Israel's vulnerability is largely a myth. Israel has a nuclear monopoly in the region. It has a military superiority vis-a-vis any possible coalition of Arab forces. It has the fourth largest air force in the world after the U.S., Russian, and China. It is the only state in the region with its own defense industry. It has the most modern military in the region with 160,000 personnel. It has an unwritten alliance with the only remaining superpower, the United States. In short, before it was David (Israel) versus Goliath (the Arab ring states). But now, Israel is now the neighborhood bully.
Mark Epstein May 25, 2013 10:15 am (Pacific time)
Mr. Stone have you ever been to the middle east? Israel is surrounded by those who not only want to wipe out Israel, but also to track down all Jews around the world and kill. I appreciate those of you who want peace, but the Jew wants it possibly even more than you. Thirteen hundred years of homicidal attacks have taught the Jew, that we only negotiate from strength. Thus far we have seen zero compromise by those who have been following the same game plan for hundreds of years. Talk is cheap, and until we see real results of action, expect a final battle. It's coming sooner than our enemies think. It is them who need to capitulate.
Right, and nobody else is fearing for their safety but the Jews, the Muslims aren't being slaughtered in Burma, the Baloch's aren't being killed in Pakistan's 'Dirty War' Christian's aren't fearing for their lives in India and tens of thousands of Palestinians just died mysteriously while the Israeli's shrugged and said, "Hey that 2-year old girl was a terrorist," this sickens me to read your drivel. There isn't Genocide unless it applies to the Jews is that right Epstein? Ralph has been too all over this world and he rallies equally for all people, but your little hasbara propaganda piece here is hogwash and part of the same dishonest crap continually shoved down the throats of Americans on the nightly news. You have no business spreading this here at Salem-News.com.
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