Wednesday, February 27, 2002
Belaboring...
One issue that had troubled me was that the initiative floated in the Times came from Saudi Arabia and said only that Saudi Arabia would fully normalize relations with Israel if this proposal were accepted. There are some issues that aren't addressed in the article and there has, of course, been no formal proposal:
"the initiative needs some more clarification, especially from other Arab countries. For example, it refers to Israel withdrawing from all the occupied territory, but makes no mention of the refugees. Without some form of solution to the refugee problem, Lebanon won't be able to accept the initiative because Beirut's main interest in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is how to get rid of 300,000 Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon. And if Lebanon doesn't accept the initiative, Syria will not be able to accept it, so it will have a hard time getting through a summit where unanimity is required."
-quoting Ha'aretz commentator Zvi Barel
- posted by levinson @ 2/27/2002 08:05:00 AM
