Sunday, May 24, 2009

Arab League Throws Cold Water on Pan-Muslim Peace with Israel


Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
A7 News

U.S. President Barack Obama’s plans for a regional peace between Muslim countries and Israel received a jolt Saturday with Arab League secretary Amr Mussa's rejection of the reported offer of Jordan’s King Abdullah II for a pan-Muslim peace with Israel. The Jordanian monarch told the Times of London following his visit last month with President Obama that Israel would win the recognition of the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) if it accepts the Saudi 2002 peace plan.

Mussa said after a meeting of OIC foreign ministers in Damascus Saturday, "This is not on the table. All talk of this is inaccurate."

He said that Muslim countries might recognize Israel if Israel were to accept the Saudi plan but added, “We do not see any progress in the current circumstances.”

The Saudi plan calls for Israel to turn over to the Palestinian Authority all of the land that was restored to the Jewish State in the 1967 Six-Day War, including the Old City and neighborhoods in Jerusalem where more than 250,000 Jews live today.

Immediately after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu returned last week from his visit to U.S. President Barack Obama, who demanded that Israel stop building in communities in Judea and Samaria, Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered the destruction of the hilltop community of Maoz Esther in Samaria.

The small outpost has been destroyed several times by police, but its residents have rebuilt it every time.

The demolition was a sign by the Netanyahu government that it is willing to show that Israel is making moves to appease both the United States and the PA, but Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon noted that the PA also must show good will moves.

Speaking to British journalist David Frost, Ayalon stated, “We agree that we must abide by former international obligations, but all the onus should not be on Israel. The PA also has obligations.” He referred to the existence of the Hamas de facto government in Gaza, “which wants to exterminate the State of Israel.”

He added, “We have proven that settlements are not an obstacle to peace” by carrying out the destruction of Jewish communities in Gaza and in parts of northern Samaria in 2005.

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