Israeli Words or Actions?

BOSTON -- It's hard to know whether the most appropriate reply to the sudden Israeli expressions of interest in the 2002 Arab peace plan should be "Hallelujah!" or "Who are they kidding?" 

There are good reasons to read only massive insincerity in the Israeli position, but also room to ask if this is an opening the Arabs and all peace-loving people should explore with more vigor than doubt. The Arab response to Israel's sudden discovery of the Arab peace plan should be well-studied, coordinated and realistic. Even if the Israelis are bluffing, we should call their bluff, most importantly by making sure that the core elements of the Arab peace plan remain on the table and unchanged in any significant way.

The Israeli expressions of interest in the Arab peace plan are hard to fathom in terms of their seriousness, motivation or intent. Israeli President Shimon Peres said last week during a visit to Egypt that the 2002 Arab peace initiative could bring peace to the Middle East.

"In tandem with the bilateral negotiations with the Palestinians, we need to promote the Arab peace initiative," he told reporters, adding that the Saudi-initiated plan was correct in spirit, but "needs to be negotiated" further.

A few days earlier, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Israeli leaders were seriously considering the Arab peace plan, which he said he had discussed with Prime Minister-designate Tzipi Livni.

"There is definitely room to introduce a comprehensive Israeli plan to counter the Saudi plan that would be the basis for a discussion on overall regional peace," he said in a radio interview.

Arab commentators have been scathing in their skepticism of the sudden Israeli interest in the Arab peace initiative that was first agreed during the 2002 Arab summit in Beirut, and reconfirmed several times since then. This is understandable, given that Israeli actions on the ground in recent years have been about fighting and killing Arabs and colonizing their land, especially in Palestine, rather than making peace.

A report issued this week by the World Bank is a timely reminder of how Israel's policies sharply contradict its words. The report says that the West Bank's economy is suffering from a severe and debilitating lack of investment largely due to Israeli restrictions on movement, and despite increased international aid. The 48-page report issued on October 23, states that massive foreign aid "has succeeded in doing little more than slowing down the deterioration of the economy, despite ever larger volumes."

It notes that Palestinian per capita gross domestic product in 2007 was 40 percent lower than its peak in 1999, and that investment "dropped to precariously low levels," with virtually no new public investment in the last two years. It points to the fragmentation of the West Bank into "a multitude of enclaves, with a regime of movement restrictions between them," as a main reason for the economic deterioration.

"The physical access restrictions are the most visible, with 38 percent of the land area reserved by the government of Israel to serve settlements and security objectives," states the report.

Key constraints include the expanding population of Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem (totaling 461,000 people), violence by settlers against Palestinians that creates a "permanent state of insecurity," the increasing number of Israeli walls, roadblocks, and checkpoints, and Israeli restrictions on Palestinians' access to their own land and water.

So what should we believe, the statements of largely discredited Israeli leaders, or the actions of the Israeli government on the ground? Actions certainly speak louder than words, but words also have significance. After all, the Arab peace plan itself is a bunch of words, and we expect Israeli to respond to it.

We should not get lost or sidetracked in the many possible reasons why some Israelis may have suddenly woken up to the importance of the Arab peace plan. Their motives are interesting for their own psychological self-assessment. From our perspective in the Arab world, it is more important to keep challenging the Israelis to respond to the Arab peace plan seriously, which they have not done for the past seven years.

One of the reasons that most peace-making attempts in recent years have failed is that they reflected the balance of power on the ground -- which remains in Israel's favor -- rather than being built on a foundation of accepted international law or norms that would treat both sides as equals who should enjoy the same rights of statehood, sovereignty and security. This seems to be the sort of situation that cries out for a serious, impartial external mediator who can bring together two parties who may be sending strong signals to each other.

Both sides speak of making peace, but neither side has made clear its willingness to make the tough concessions necessary to achieve their most cherished rights and goals.

Rami G. Khouri is Editor-at-large of The Daily Star, and Director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, in Beirut, Lebanon.