With Israel rejecting the Arab Peace proposal to create a Palestine by following the required conditions by Israel in exchange for better cooperation with Arab states, the prospects of peace in a Middle East remains a bleak proposition.

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For many decades the conflict between Arab states and Israel has remained explosive revolving around the Israel attacks on the Palestinians and the creation of a homeland for the Palestinians. Emboldened by the economic as well as military support it receives from the USA-led west and finances from nations like India by way of selling weapons to them, Israel has successfully retained most of Palestine and conducts campaigns on Palestine.

Intermittent wars by Israel on the Palestinians, on the one hand and on Lebanon on the other, not only have made the issue more and more complicated but the very existence of the Palestinians became a question mark. In recent years, however, many Arab League member states have adopted a more conciliatory tone toward Israel, as they became more concerned about the rising influence of Iran and its nuclear drive and al-Qaida's brand of extremism which the USA seeks to project as a serious threat to Middle East. Now the Arab countries seem to support the West pushing for renewed Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking since Gaza fell to Hamas, a group that refuses to recognize Israel.

After the first ever visit by some Israeli leaders to Saudi Arabia, recently on 25 July the Arab leaders have made a “warm-up” trip to Israel. Led by the foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan, the Arab delegation representing 22 countries was taken deep into Israel's political heartland. The delegates met the prime minister and the president and visited parliament, bringing a proposal for full recognition of Israel by the Arab and Islamic world in return for Israel's withdrawal from all lands captured in the 1967 Middle East war. "This serious offer constitutes a major opportunity of historical levels," Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdul-Ilah Khatib said at a news conference alongside his Israeli and Egyptian counterparts. "It will provide Israel with the security, recognition and acceptance in this region which Israel has long aspired to." He said the plan was endorsed not only by the Arab League, but also by non-Arab Muslim states. At the outset, Israel has welcomed the proposal as a basis for negotiations but says parts of it are unacceptable.

The decision to send a delegation to Israel to Israel to discuss the peace plan is also seen as being reflective of the weakness of Arab countries, having no bargaining position. Both Jordan and Egypt already have peace treaties with Israel and have sent their leaders to the country before, but never on the Arab League's behalf. The delegates themselves said they were sent by the Arab League and would report back to it on Monday. "We are not being asked to negotiate on behalf of the Palestinians," Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said. "We will be helping both the Palestinians and the Israelis to negotiate among themselves." He cautioned against any expectation of a quick resolution to the dispute. "I don't expect that we shall see a Palestinian state established tomorrow," he said. The Arab states, according to Amr Moussa, the secretary general of the Arab League, expressed his reservations and skepticism stating: “We are not convinced at all that Israel is ready to embark on a serious peace process, citing continued settlement building and construction of barriers in the West Bank.” However, it has agreed to open a dialogue with Israel for the first time in its history.

It may be recalled that an Arab Summit held in Saudi Arabia in March 2007 revived the Abdullah Peace Plan, approved in the Beirut Summit of 2002. The Saudi peace plan was based on the principle of land for peace and mutual recognition. It is, however, a measure of the Arabs’ weakness that they have reversed themselves, offering peace, recognition and negotiations in return for Israeli withdrawal to 1967 borders. What Israel rejected in 2002 could hardly form the basis of negotiations in 2007. The emergence of Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, deemed by Israel as its implacable enemies, has led Israel to intensify the conflict between Fatah and Hamas and lead them on to bloody confrontation. Such a strategy will enable Israel to declare that it has no negotiating partner. Bush’s plan is based on isolation of Hamas politically and its marginalization financially. The plan has been offered in the twilight years of Bush’s presidency.

The plan once again has offered Israel an Arab peace initiative and the opportunity to resume the process of direct and serious negotiations on all tracks. The UNSC Resolutions 242 and 338, which held the inadmissibility of acquisition of territory by use of force and had urged Israel to withdraw from the territories occupied in the June 1967 War. Israel, as expected, rejected the peace plan and reiterated its opposition to the right of the Palestinians to return to their homes within Israel proper. The Arab League, on its part, declined to redraft the plan. The Arab League initiative thus failed to make any headway. The Abdullah Plan is based on UNSC Resolutions 242 and 338. It declares that a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East is the strategic option of Arab nations. Under the plan, Israel must confirm that it too seeks peace and in return for recognition and security, it must withdraw from territories occupied during the 1967 War, accept the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital and achieve a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem under the terms of UN Resolution 194.

With Israel rejecting the Arab Peace proposal to create a Palestine by following the required conditions by Israel in exchange for better cooperation with Arab states, the prospects of peace in a Middle East remains a bleak proposition. Israel presented the one-day visit as an unprecedented conciliatory gesture by the Arab League, which actively pursued the destruction of the Jewish state when it was established in 1948, refused to recognize it for decades afterward and suspended Egypt for a decade after it become the first Arab state to make peace with Israel in 1979.

After pulling out of the Gaza Strip in 2005, Israel still rejects a full withdrawal from the West Bank and east Jerusalem, hoping to retain areas heavily settled by Israelis. And Israel strenuously objects to the plan's apparent call for the repatriation to Israel of Palestinians who became refugees in the 1948 Mideast war and their descendants — some 4.4 million people, according to the United Nations. Israel says any influx of refugees would mean the end of Israel as a Jewish state. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said the way forward was to look for points of agreement between Israel and the Arab world while seeking a bilateral solution to core issues such as the refugees and the status of Jerusalem.

The Palestinians have been undergoing one trouble after another engineered by Israel. The plot envisaged aimed at the creation of two Palestines one for Hamas and another for Fatah and accordingly Abbas has overthrown the Hams government and installed his own. Since Hamas took over Gaza in mid-June, Israel has only permitted shipments of food and basic supplies into Gaza through two smaller passages. Israel, which shuns Hamas as a terrorist organization, says it cannot reopen Karni passage. Israel will be ready to reopen the crossings when the Palestinians get their house together regarding security at the crossings," he added. Tel Aviv is using the passage as a weapon to punish the Palestinians.

It is worthwhile to consider the developments from three quarters in this regard. The statement by the U.N. Mideast envoy Michael Williams, the new Peace proposal by USA and a visit to Jerusalem by former UK Premier Tony Blair, ostensibly, to support the Arab move for peace in the region, merit consideration here. Michael Williams warned of impending economic collapse in the Gaza Strip unless Israel reopens the Hamas-led territory's main commercial crossing to the outside world to ease international isolation. Williams said the closure of the Karni crossing in early June has prevented the export of agricultural and industrial goods to Israel, the West Bank and elsewhere, as well as the import of materials needed for manufacturing and construction. The restriction has brought the Gaza economy to a standstill. The World Bank estimates that 75 percent of Gaza's factories have closed and more than 68,000 Palestinian workers have been laid off as a result, he said.

A new vague Bush plan is being promoted in the Middle East. In a surprise move, President Bush in a nationally-televised speech on July 16 proposed an international conference for reviving the Middle East peace process. President Bush’s naiveté in putting across the proposal in such stark terms is typical of him. He also announced $ 190 million assistance for the Palestinians and clearly wants the Palestinians to shed Hamas by calling Hamas as terrorists, and Fatah a patriotic front with Mahmoud Abbas, a visionary of “a peaceful state called Palestine as a homeland for the Palestinian people”.

Bush’s 2003 road-map visualizing a two-state solution also talked of territorial adjustments, showing that the US did not support Israeli withdrawal from all the occupied territories. Bush’s characterization of Hamas as more “devoted to extremism and murder than to serving the Palestinian people” would further deepen the conflict.

The proposal for convening an international conference, to be chaired by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in November 2007, involving Israel, the Palestinian Authority and some Arab states could only complicate the issue further and also intensify the conflict between Hamas and Fatah. Perhaps the intention of the said conference is meant for that.

Blair undertook a trip to Jerusalem. Blair recognizes and understands that Gaza can't be separated. He understands that the Gaza economy is important and vital for the West Bank economy. Palestinian business leaders told Blair that Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank have stifled the economy. "Reform and economy can't be tackled without Gaza being an integral component." Israel says the barrier, about two-thirds complete along its planned 425-mile route, is meant to stop suicide bombers, but the Palestinians call it a land grab. The U.N.'s International Court of Justice in The Hague has declared the structure illegal. President Mahmoud Abbas and his pro-Western prime minister, Salam Fayyad, urged Blair to push a political agenda that would help restart direct talks with Israel on the core issues.

Hamas has understandably denounced both Blair and the new Middle East peace plan, “which aims to serve the interests of the Zionist enemy” and will separate the Gaza Strip more deeply from the West Bank while increasing divisions among the Palestinians. The supporters of Abbas' Fatah and the rival Hamas movement keep clashing killing each other. People are injured and killed in regular Israeli air raids in Gaza. As Blair visited Ramallah, riots erupted at the An Najah University in Nablus, about 30 miles away. A Palestinian student was shot and seriously wounded. The rejection of Blair mediation by Hamas is quite understandable because they don’t trust him. But the fact remains that he had to sacrifice his Premiership of UK only when he announced a plan to withdraw the troops from Israel in opposition to USA stand for continuity. Bush is a different matter altogether.

Under emerging situation in the region, Whether or not a delegation sent to Israel by the Arab League is in fact an Arab League delegation, the visit is part of a flurry of diplomatic efforts meant to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks after a seven-year lull. The international community's Mideast envoy, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, made his first trip in his new role to the region this week, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected next week. While the Israeli and Arab officials greeted each other with smiles, jokes and what looked like genuine warmth, both sides acknowledged that the Arab League peace proposal cannot bypass direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

It seems, no Israeli government will sign an agreement with a Palestinian leader who is not authoritative, peace-seeking, residing over a unified populace and in control of all guns. Both the West and Israel have groomed Abbas to initiate a two-nation agenda for the Palestinians, but that would be dangerous for the Palestinians themselves, even if that solves the "Israeli problem". No Palestinian government can sign an accord with Israel that does not resolve the core issues of Jerusalem, borders and refugees. Neither the US-led West whole-heartedly supports the Palestinian cause nor is Israel, on the strength of US support, keen to resolve the Palestine crisis. One thus does not really know, if all these delegations, big-power visits and peace plans with no tangible results could only essentially mean going back to square one . However, if the petrified attitudes between the Arabs and Israelis have softened to some extend, that in itself is an achievement.

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Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal Research Scholar,School of International Studies,Jawaharlal NehruUniversity,NewDelhi
E mail : abdulruff_jnu@yahoo.com