Last update - 00:00 06/06/2007
PM: Israel ready to discuss Arab plan, but won't be dictated to
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent and The Associated Press
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Wednesday that Israel was ready to discuss the Saudi peace initiative backed by the Arab League, but would not accept ultimatums.
Olmert said this in an op-ed piece, published in the British newspaper The Guardian to mark the 40th anniversary of the 1967 Six-Day War.
The Guardian ran a dueling piece by Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, where he said the catastrophic climate in the region couldn't be changed unless the West engaged with his government.
Olmert wrote: "I take the offer of full normalization of relations between Israel and the Arab world seriously; and I am ready to discuss the Arab peace initiative in an open and sincere manner."
"But the talks must be a discussion, not an ultimatum," the prime minister added.
The Arab peace deal, first proposed in 2002, and recently revived, offers Israel full recognition in exchange for a withdrawal from all territories it occupied in the war and a just solution for Palestinian refugees.
Israel has not rejected the idea, but has expressed reservations about a complete withdrawal and resettling Palestinian refugees in Israel.
Haniyeh said in his piece that Israel's fateful error was to underestimate the resolve of the Palestinians to fight Israeli occupation.
"The first step to change this catastrophic climate is for the West to engage with the Palestinian National Unity government," Haniyeh also said.
The Palestinian government is ruled by a coalition of Haniyeh's Hamas and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement.
Speaking of the difficulties in reaching an accord with the Palestinians, the prime minister wrote: "We need such political maturity from our Palestinian partners now if they are to stop the internecine fighting that is tearing apart their society, exposing our citizens to a daily barrage of deadly rocketfire and preventing any progress on peace talks."
Olmert said Israel will not tolerate violence against its citizens, and would act decisively to protect them.
The prime minister also stated, however, that Israel cannot resolve the crisis through military means alone: "I will continue to meet Mahmoud Abbas, and discuss ways in which the PA can fight against lawlessness and extremism, and urge him to control the violence emanating from Gaza."
Meanwhile, Foreign Ministry Director General Aharon Abramowitz secretly visited Morocco recently, meeting with the country's foreign minister to discuss the Arab peace initiative.
During Abramowitz's flash visit of just a few hours, he met with other senior ministry officials.
Abramowitz told his hosts that while Israel agreed to certain clauses in the initiative, it has reservations regarding other aspects of the plan such as the clause pertaining to the refugee problem.
In addition to the peace initiative, Abramowitz discussed the situation in the Palestinian Authority.
Abramowitz also requested that his Moroccan colleagues consider reopening their liaison office to Israel, which was closed in 2000 after the second intifiada broke out.
Despite this, Morocco has maintained low-level diplomatic relations with Israel throughout the period.