Critics assail Israeli silence on Arab peace plan
Source: Associated Press
JERUSALEM (AP) -- On the surface, the Arab League's improved peace initiative offers Israel everything it ever dreamed of - normal relations with an entire region that has long objected to the very existence of the Jewish state, and even the chance to keep some war-won land.
But two weeks after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry persuaded Arab leaders to reissue their 2002 offer with new incentives, Israel is maintaining a striking silence, and critics are accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of missing a historic chance.
"We are speaking of an opportunity that must be seized to renew the diplomatic process," former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told The Associated Press in a statement. "It's a very important development."
When it was first issued in 2002, the initiative was a breakthrough. It countered the Arab League's famous "Three No's" that followed the 1967 Mideast war, when Israel captured the West Bank and east Jerusalem from Jordan, the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip from Egypt and the Golan Heights from Syria. At a summit in Khartoum, Sudan, the Arab countries passed a resolution saying no peace, recognition or negotiations with Israel.
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