Saudi Arabia's Peace Plan for Palestinian Arabs and Israel and Look Who Supported It!

Nadene Goldfoot                                      

King Salman of Saudi Arabia since 2015
born December 31, 1935, Son of Ibn Saud and Hassa bint Ahmed Al Sudairi
half brother of  King Abdullah who died. 

The Saudi Peace plan signed by the former King of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah, is not a peace plan to me.  It's Israel giving up everything they have been forced to fight for when attacked.  For the Israeli state only wanted peace with its neighbors, and instead has been attacked even before the British Mandate ended and while they were announcing the creation of their state.
                                                                       

1949 Armistice lines 

In Arabic, their plan is a simple 10 sentence plan.  They don't expect much;  just everything.  They endorsed this on March 27, 2002 in Beirut, Lebanon.
 The Six Day War broke out on June 5, 1967 and lasted till June 11th.    
The Saudi plan is for the lines to back before the war started on
June 4th, 1967.  Thus, Israel would lose the land originally promised to them on the west side of the Jordan River and had won back in this attack.  According to international law as explained by Professor Eugene Kontorovich,   Israel gained this land back legitimately.  Why should they give it back?                   

1967 Armistice lines after 67 warIn an interview with the author, the Syrian ambassador to the United States, Walid al-Moualem, stated that Syria has never recognized the 1923 international boundary, that it will indeed make a claim to lands west of that boundary, and that its claim will be consistent with the line of June 4, 1967. He declined, however, to be specific, asserting only that Syria and the UN possess identical maps of the status of Syrian and Israeli forces just before the outbreak of war in June 1967. He did, however, say that: "Sometimes people equate the line of June 4 with the town of al-Hamma. It is true that this is a place held dear by the Syrian people, and I myself have camped there as a Boy Scout. But the line of June 4 is more than al-Hamma. It involves water issues for which I believe fair and equitable solutions can be found."

In this Saudi plan, the Palestinian Arabs, of course, have to do nothing.  They are the ones who have been attacking the Jews, along with all the Arab nations, and now even Iran who are not Arabs but another branch of the Middle Eastern people.  In this plan, the Palestinians will gain the whole state of Israel in many respects if accepted as it stands.  All the Arabs had been against Israel and had attacked in 48, 56, 67, and 73 and in other attacks ever since, especially at the UN and let's not forget the threatening from Iran who is about to have atomic missile warheads heading towards Israel.
                                                             

Would this in fact be forcing Israel back to 1947 lines?
There is a difference between June 4th and by June 11th when Israel won the war of being attacked.
Map sequence evidently from the Palestinian map makers. 

     
If Israel will comply to the Saudi's wishes, they will in return:

1. Have a peace treaty with Israel.

In order to have a peace treaty with the 22 states-oops, 23 with Palestine created, Israel has to give up all these things:

1. Withdraw from all territories occupied since 1967.
       a. Syrian Golan Heights
       b. Any Lebanese territories in the South of Lebanon (farm that is in contention)

2.. Go back to the June 4, 1967 lines (at beginning of Six Day War in June 1967)

3. Palestine refugee problem as Resolution 194 that emphasizes the return of Palestinian refugees to Israel, but in the compromised wording, states any negotiated settlement between Israel and Palestinians but does not mention the term "right of return."

4. Accept state of Palestine on Palestinian territories occupied since June 4, 1967 in Judea-Samaria (West Bank) and Gaza Strip.

5. East Jerusalem will be capital of Palestine.  Now is part of unified Jerusalem of Israel's capital. Arabs call it al-Quds al-Sharif in accordance with Security Resolution 1397.

King Abdullah b: August 2, 1924-d: January 23, 2015
Son of Ibn Saud and Fahda bint Asi Al Shuraim
Crown Prince in 2002, became King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was King of Saudi Arabia and Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques from 2005 to his death in 2015. He ascended to the throne on 1 August 2005 upon the death of his half-brother, King Fahd.

Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia spoke to the Arab League when this peace initiative was adopted.  He said that he and his people just want the restoration of legitimate rights in Palestine.  Syria and Lebanon.  Israel has never interfered with anyone's rights.  It has been the Arabs who have been interfering with Israel's legitimate rights by attacking not only their soldiers who were defending their nation but also their civilians!  They have used terrorist attacks on whole families and individuals as well as crowds of people outside, in restaurants, intifadas and outright wars involving their whole armies as one big hoard of attackers.
                                                                     

Netanyahu was Prime Minister of Israel from June 1996 to 1999,
again starting March 31, 2009 to present.
Obama took office as USA President January 1, 2008-2016

Siding with the Arabs by November 2008,  in this horrific plan has been the USA's former President, Barack Hussein Obama, who was contacted by the Arab league in a communique from Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal through their aide who delivered a letter to the President.  The letter stressed that it was important to focus on the Arab-Israeli conflict.
                                                                           

49 year old President Obama in Cairo 2009 Speaking

Obama told Abbas in his July 2008 visit to the Middle East that "The Israelis would be crazy not to accept this initiative.  It would give them peace from Indonesia to Morocco from the Muslim world.  Obama then told Al Arabiya after becoming president in 2008, "I might not agree with every aspect of the proposal, but it took great courage...to put forward something that is as significant as that.  It was right after becoming president on June 4, 2009 that he flew to Cairo for his Cairo speech called "A New Beginning,"  in which he had the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood sit in the front row, against the wishes of the Egyptians.  Obama had favored Morsi, who became President of Egypt and was also the head of the Muslim Brotherhood whose charter was to kill all Jews.  Morsi was overcome by General Sisi who has been cooperative with Israel in their fight against terrorists.  .

Great courage to demand everything that Israel gained in the many wars against these blood-thirsty attackers?  I don't think so.  They had what the Jews talk about and curry;  Chutzpa!  Chutzpa to think that their peace plan is a fair and balanced plan for peace.  No way.  It's a demand, a demand for everything, pushing Israel back to square one  to be again in a position that they cannot defend.  Then they would be ripe for the "coup de gras", the final thrust of the sword of the Arabs.  Forget their promises.  They're not known to be peaceful people.  There's always an attack going on amongst the Middle Easterners.  One has to be "en garde."   Take Gaza as the warning.  Israel left that completely for the Arabs that promised peace, only to be attacked daily by them by rockets, mortars and missiles.  "“Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”  Israel won't fall for any promises after this performance of trading land for peace.  
                                                                            

George Mitchell, US special envoy to the Middle East, told us in March 2009 that the Obama administration intended to "incorporate" the Saudi initiative into its Middle East policy.  The State Department in March 2009 prepared a plan to market this to the Israelis.  They released a document that highlighted the gestures that the Arab nations had agreed to take with this agreement.  The purpose was to break down the Arab Peace Initiative into its details and not leave it as a theoretical framework.  This 10 sentence document was not all that hard to understand.   

By May 6, 2009, the London-based Arabic language daily newspaper, Al-Quds al-Aarab-(Quds refers to Jerusalem) reported that Obama had requested a revising of the initiative so that he could encourage Israel to agree to it.  

 1. Demilitarization of Palestine
 2. Forfeiture of Palestinian right of return to Israel proper.  
     a. Some of refugees would be relocated to Palestine
     b.  Rest would be naturalized in other Arab countries.  (They have kept the Palestinians in refugee camps all these years, never allowing them any status of living in their state, except for Jordan.  Egypt allowed refugees  who could pay to live in Egypt from Syria into Egypt during the Syrian Civil War. He hoped to have their votes for his presidency next time around.)
                                                                 

Reassuring UAE Crown Prince Sheik Mohammed bin Zayedal
May 2015 at Camp David

During Obama's 2nd term of presidency on April 30, 2013, the Arab league re-endorsed the Arab Peace Initiative with updated terms:
   
1. Peace agreement with Israel should be based on 2 state solution with 4th June 1967 armistice lines dividing the 2 countries. 
   2. Possible comparable and mutual agreed minor swaps of land between Israel and Palestine.  
                                                                         
So, all along from Obama's beginning as president, he has been in the pocket of Saudi Arabia's ideas of how to deal with the Palestine-Israel peace process which is the most one-sided deal I've ever seen.  I consider it "shocking!"
                                                                                            

 Born as Ariel ScheinermannFebruary 26, 1928 – January 11, 2014) was an Israeli general and politician who served as the 11th Prime Minister of Israel from March 2001 until April 2006 when he had a stroke.  

 Ariel Sharon rejected the initiative as a "non-starter."  He saw right away that it did away with the UN resolution 242 and 338 calling for bilateral negotiations.  

Danny Ayalon, policy adviser to Prime Minister Sharon, said, "that he was sent to meet Saudi officials to discuss the initiative but was refused a meeting."  

After 2007 and the edited endorsement changes, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert gave a "cautious welcome to the plan."

On March 28, 2002, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said,  Israel views positively every initiative aimed at arriving at peace and normalization.  In this respect, the Saudi step is an important one, but it is liable to flounder if terrorism is not stopped.  ....It is also clear that the details of every peace plan must be discussed directly between Israel and the Palestinians, and to make this possible, the Palestinian Authority must put an end to terror, ...which we witnessed just last night in Netanya.  

In 2009, President Shimon Peres expressed satisfaction at the "u-turn" in the attitudes of Arab states toward peace with Israel, but said that "Israel wasn't a partner to the wording of this initiative, and it doesn't have to agree to every word.  Peres said, "To those still holding a clenched fist, I have just one word to say.  Enough.  Enough war.  Enough destruction.  Enough hatred.  Now is the time for change.  Israel is prepared today to bring peace closer. " 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed tentative support for it, saying he accepts the "general idea" with important caveats such as this one they can't agree upon:

 Israel must withdraw from the Golan Heights and accept the relocation of millions of Palestinian refugees into Israel.  (Israel would then not be a Jewish State, and would be outnumbered.  It was created for the purpose of being a refuge for the Jewish people).  

Israeli consul general in New York in March 2007 the day before Zalman Shoval spoke, said, "We said we would endorse and enter a dialogue with the Saudis or anyone else--indeed in the entire Arab world-----IF they are serious on the normalization issue. ....Life in the Middle East has taught us to be extremely skeptical and extremely wary of these kinds of declarations until they are actually delivered in the Arabic language.  

Zalman Shoval, Likud party (Netanyahu's party)  spokesman, said in March 2007, that Israel would never accept the return of refugees who had lived in pre-1967 Israeli territory.  "If 300,00 to 400,00 or maybe a million Palestinians would invade the country, it would be the end of the state of Israel as a Jewish state.  That's not why we created the state.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Labor Party (Left) , "I'll never accept a solution that is based on their return to Israel, any number....I will not agree to accept any kind of Israel responsibility for the refugees.  It's a moral issue of the highest level.  I don't think that we should accept any kind of responsibility for the creation of this problem.  In general, though, he described the initiative as a "revolutionary change."  

Yossi Alpher, political consultant, former senior advisor to Ehud Barak said in November 2008, "The initiative is unique in terms of the payoff.  .With regard to refugees, both the absence of the 'right of return" and recognition that Israel's agreement to a solution must be solicited.  

Caroline B. Glick, editor of Jerusalem Post newspaper in English, said in March 2007, "There is no chance whatsoever that the Saudi initiative will bring peace."  She called it a recipe for Israel's destruction.  

Tzipi Livni of Kadima party and its Chairperson, has distanced herself from it because of her opposition to the return of the Palestinian refugees.  

Yuval Steinitz, Likud Knesset member on October 2008, referred to it as a nonstarter and called Barak's support of it as empty political gesturing.  

Joshua Teitelbaum of Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, called on Israel to reject the plan based on its "all or nothing" attitude, emphasizing that true peace will come with negotiations.  


                                                                                 

Yasser Arafat with his admirers, Hillary and daughter 

Yasser Arafat, leader of terrorism and constant terrorist himself immediately embraced the plan.  His successor, Mahmoud Abbas also supported the plan and asked Barack Obama to adopt it as part of his Middle East policy.  He must have, for he brought it up when talking with Netanyahu on live TV and was nicely lectured by Netanyahu as to why it was an impossibility.  Obama seemed to me to be embarrassed, but evidently was fuming, for he had it in for Netanyahu from then on.
                                                                   

Khaled Mashal, b: May 28, 1956 in Silward, Judea-Samaria
Hamas leadership, joined Muslim Brotherhood in 1971

Hamas, the terrorist political party who took over Gaza and chased out Abbas, is deeply divided over the Saudi plan.  Most factions in this party rejected the plan.  The point is that Hamas and Fatah do not agree and do not stay united, except for the camera.  They fight for power and leadership.  It's a marriage that has had more divorces than days together.                                                                                   

Hamas Terrorist 

Fatah's leader, Abbas, is holding out for the French initiative. "
 Israeli-Palestinian peace talks collapsed in April 2014 and since then, the situation has deteriorated, with the prospects of fresh dialogue appearing more remote than ever "

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed France’s proposal, describing it as “mystifying” and counterproductive, arguing that it gives Palestinians no incentive to compromise.

One thing I've always been able to count on, when things look bad to me and all is lost, the Palestinians always come through with non-agreements, throwing logic to the wind for them.  It's been like that from the beginning in 1947 when they were handed half of what remained of the crumbs of land of the whole loaf that Jordan took over.  Jordan got 80% of the Promised Land, the Jewish Homeland, and Jews got 20% with almost losing half of that to a Palestine, but the Palestinians refused it, holding out for the total 20%.  Of course, their greed paid off with nothing gained.  69 years of living in refugee camps and the UN dole.  I think they enjoy the fight more than the prize at the end of the rope tethering them to one state.   They don't want to be state-owners.  They were roaming Bedouins-Syrian Palestinians at best, coming from places all over the Middle East.  They   are not a homogenous people.  They are multi-national people with Arabism being the only binding connection.  

Resource:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Peace_Initiative
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passover_massacre
http://al-bab.com/albab-orig/albab/arab/docs/league/peace02.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_of_Saudi_Arabia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_New_Beginning
From Time Immemorial by Joan Peters
http://www.metro.us/news/obama-aims-to-reassure-arab-leaders-amid-middle-east-tensions/zsJoen---TlkUpUe477K6/
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/line-of-june-4-1967
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2016/03/02/Abbas-eyes-French-peace-initiative-on-Iran-deal-model.html