Arab Peace Initiative
The Arab Peace Initiative (Arabic: مبادرة السلام العربية; Hebrew: יוזמת השלום הערבית), also known as the Saudi Initiative (Arabic: مبادرة السعودية; Hebrew: היוזמה הסעודית), is a 10 sentence proposal for an end to the Arab–Israeli conflict that was endorsed by the Arab League in 2002 at the Beirut Summit and re-endorsed at the 2007 and at the 2017 Arab League summits.[1] The initiative offers normalisation of relations by the Arab world with Israel, in return for a full withdrawal by Israel from the occupied territories (including the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights, and Lebanon), with the possibility of comparable and mutual agreed minor swaps of the land between Israel and Palestine, a "just settlement" of the Palestinian refugee problem based on UN Resolution 194, and the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.[2] A Palestinian attack called the Passover massacre took place on 27 March 2002, the day before the Initiative was published, which initially overshadowed it.[3]
Not to be confused with Arab League Monitors in Syria.The Palestinian Authority led by Yasser Arafat immediately embraced the initiative.[4] His successor Mahmoud Abbas also supported the plan and officially asked U.S. President Barack Obama to adopt it as part of his Middle East policy.[5] Initial reports indicate that Islamist political party Hamas, the elected government of the Gaza Strip, was deeply divided,[6] while later reports indicate that Hamas accepted the peace initiative.[7][8] The Israeli government under Ariel Sharon rejected the initiative as a "non-starter"[9] because it required Israel to withdraw to pre-June 1967 borders.[10] In 2015, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed tentative support for the Initiative,[11] but in 2018, he rejected it as a basis for future negotiations with the Palestinians.[12]
Reactions
U.S. reactions
Initially, the initiative was met with enthusiastic support from the Bush administration. According to Bush's spokesperson Ari Fleischer "the president praised the crown prince's ideas regarding the full Arab-Israeli normalization once a comprehensive peace agreement has been reached."[32] Though the president later stressed that it could only be implemented with the cessation of terrorist attacks against Israel.
His successor, Barack Obama expressed praise in the spirit, but not support of its details, for the Initiative in the first days of his presidency. In an interview with Al-Arabiya network on January 27, 2009, he said: