arab league peace proposal

Palestinians take peace plan directly to Israelis with ad campaign
You don't put a peace plan on the table and say 'take it or leave it': Livni
Last Updated: Thursday, November 20, 2008
CBC News

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas began an unprecedented public relations campaign Thursday, with advertisements in major Hebrew-language newspapers, taking his case for a peace deal directly to Israeli citizens.

Abbas is reaching out over the heads of politicians, assuring Israelis that a withdrawal from the West Bank and East Jerusalem will win them full recognition in the Arab world.

Abbas is trying to promote a six-year-old Arab peace plan for the region.

"Fifty-seven Arab and Islamic countries will establish diplomatic ties and normal relations with Israel in return for a full peace agreement and an end to the occupation," the text of the ad read, under Palestinian and Israel flags set side by side.

Irris Makler of CBC News reports from Jerusalem: "This Palestinian PR campaign is unprecedented. Full-page ads in all the main Hebrew dailies today spell out that in return for Israel withdrawing from the West Bank and East Jerusalem, it will win an end to the conflict with the Palestinians, and also full recognition from all the Arab and Muslim countries that presently don't have ties with Israel."

Israeli leaders skeptical

Asked about the advertisement, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni reiterated that while she viewed the peace plan as "positive," it needed revisions on issues such as the future of Palestinian refugees and Jerusalem.

"The Arab world has to understand what I am saying now: you don't put a peace plan on the table and say, 'Take it or leave it,'" Livni told reporters.

The Arab League proposal offers the following to Israel:

* Peace and normal relations with all Arab countries in return for withdrawal from all territory captured in the 1967 Middle East war [the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights].
* Both sides to agree to a "just solution" for millions of Palestinians classified as refugees from homes and land taken by the new Israeli state in 1948.

Senior Abbas aide Yasser Abed Rabbo said the campaign was meant to inform Israelis about the peace initiative, which until now has been "misinterpreted by the extreme Israeli right wing as an Arab conspiracy against Israel and its future."

The advertisement, bordered by the flags of dozens of Arab and other Muslim states, also ran in Arabic in three Palestinian papers.

Egypt and Jordan are the only two of 22 Arab League members to have peace accords with Israel. While some Muslim countries, like Turkey, have close relations, Israelis would like to trade with others, notably in Asia and the Gulf.