Depressing signs from Arab World -Herb Keinon
Following intensive efforts by US Mideast envoy George Mitchell to relaunch a diplomatic process in the region, the Arab world over the weekend - in three seemingly disconnected events - seemed to give its response, and it sounded like echoes of the famous three noes from Khartoum following the Six Day War.
Back in the summer of 1967, the Arab states - after the war - gathered in the Sudanese capital and said 'no to peace with Israel, no to recognition of Israel, and no to negotiations with Israel.'
[T]here were three significant signals from the Arab world over the weekend, and they were all negative.
Syria's President Bashar Assad said there would be no compromise on the Golan Heights, and that the return of the region was "non-negotiable." Syria has for years been consistent in saying that it would start negotiations with Israel once Israel committed to a total withdrawal from the Golan Heights, leading to the very simple question: If Israel agrees to withdraw before the negotiations, what exactly will the negotiations be about?
The second no, came in the form of Arab press reports over the weekend that Fatah, at its upcoming convention in Bethlehem, will reject Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's call for a Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.
The third no had to be the most disappointing for the Obama administration, because it signaled that the administration's intensive work over the last few months had essentially gotten nowhere. Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal stood next to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the State Department [pictured above], and said Israel could forget about getting any gestures, or confidence-building measures, from Saudi Arabia.
Six months after US President Barack Obama took over and began seriously recalibrating the country's Middle East policy, this is what he has to show for it: an Israeli public that, as recent polls indicate, doesn't trust him; and an Arab world that remains unwilling, despite his coddling, to make any practical move or gesture toward Israel.
[Jerusaem Post]
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Following intensive efforts by US Mideast envoy George Mitchell to relaunch a diplomatic process in the region, the Arab world over the weekend - in three seemingly disconnected events - seemed to give its response, and it sounded like echoes of the famous three noes from Khartoum following the Six Day War.
Back in the summer of 1967, the Arab states - after the war - gathered in the Sudanese capital and said 'no to peace with Israel, no to recognition of Israel, and no to negotiations with Israel.'
[T]here were three significant signals from the Arab world over the weekend, and they were all negative.
Syria's President Bashar Assad said there would be no compromise on the Golan Heights, and that the return of the region was "non-negotiable." Syria has for years been consistent in saying that it would start negotiations with Israel once Israel committed to a total withdrawal from the Golan Heights, leading to the very simple question: If Israel agrees to withdraw before the negotiations, what exactly will the negotiations be about?
The second no, came in the form of Arab press reports over the weekend that Fatah, at its upcoming convention in Bethlehem, will reject Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's call for a Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.
The third no had to be the most disappointing for the Obama administration, because it signaled that the administration's intensive work over the last few months had essentially gotten nowhere. Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal stood next to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the State Department [pictured above], and said Israel could forget about getting any gestures, or confidence-building measures, from Saudi Arabia.
Six months after US President Barack Obama took over and began seriously recalibrating the country's Middle East policy, this is what he has to show for it: an Israeli public that, as recent polls indicate, doesn't trust him; and an Arab world that remains unwilling, despite his coddling, to make any practical move or gesture toward Israel.
[Jerusaem Post]
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