Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Arab initiative offers hope for peace - will Olmert respond?

Susie Becher è membro del direttivo del Meretz-Yachad
da 
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3300844,00.html
Peace partners are coming!
Arab initiative offers hope for peace - will Olmert respond?
Some two weeks after a UN-brokered ceasefire halted the hostilities
between Israel and Lebanon, the prime minister of Israel glibly
invited the Lebanese leader to shake hands and make peace.
True, the Israeli blockade of Lebanon is still in place; IDF troops
are still on Lebanese soil; the Shebaa Farms remain under Israeli
control; work to rebuild roads, bridges, schools, homes, and power
lines has barely begun; and humanitarian aid efforts have yet to reach
the desired mark.
Yet Ehud Olmert, with the same impeccable timing he demonstrated
throughout the crisis, chose this moment to go public with his latest
peace plan, which can be summed up in four little words: Kiss and make
up.
Olmert's game
No one, least of all Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, took
Olmert's remarks seriously, but there is something to be learned about
his diplomatic vision from the fact that the prime minister chose to
make an overture to the man who had vowed only a few days earlier that
his would be the very last country to sign a peace agreement with
Israel.
Like the trial lawyers who know never to ask a question to which they
don't know the answer in advance, Olmert is extending his hand only in
those directions where he knows he is certain to be rebuffed.
Arab initiative
At the same time that Olmert was dreaming up this sophisticated
approach to the regional conflict, news of a new Arab League
initiative began to surface.
The London-based al-Hayat was the first to report on the plan, which
calls for convening an international conference under the aegis of the
UN Security Council to launch negotiations between Israel and Syria,
Lebanon, and the Palestinians with the aim of reaching peace
agreements with all three within a year.
According to al-Hayat, Israel has already rejected the proposal
because it is opposed to a comprehensive approach that would link the
three tracks. Israeli media have since reported that the Foreign
Ministry views the initiative as "a very dangerous move" and that
Minister Livni has made a point of emphasizing that the government is
committed solely to the Road Map.
While Israel's steadfast support for the US peace plan is certainly
admirable, one wonders if its attraction lies in the fact that the
date on which it was to be concluded passed almost a year ago, and no
one has bothered to revise it.
 
Different directions
In this week's meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense
Committee, Olmert announced that the Lebanon war had changed Israel's
order of priorities. This is half true. The country's priorities
haven't changed, but those of its leaders certainly have.
Before the war, the government had declared its priorities to be
reshaping the map through the removal of outposts, dismantlement of
settlements, and "realignment" within defensible borders. Today, the
prime minister and his defense minister are primarily concerned with
holding on to their seats in the face of growing public appeals for
their resignation and their parties' plummeting showings in the polls.
To accomplish this lofty goal of staying in power, they have chosen to
sow fear rather than hope and devote their efforts to planning how to
win the next war rather than how to prevent it.
Unlike Yitzhak Shamir, who was famous for his unabashed noes, Prime
Minister Olmert seems to think that he can hang on by saying yes,
hoping that we won't notice that he is only saying it to those who
aren't ready to listen.
Unfortunately for him but luckily for the Israeli people, the renewed
Arab League initiative for a comprehensive peace in the Middle East is
expected to be put to a vote at the UN Security Council within a
month. This is where Olmert's top priority and that of the country he
was elected to lead converge. If he sees the initiative as an
opportunity rather than a threat, he may save his own skin while
giving the Israeli people a chance at a secure future. 
The Arab states are signaling that there is a partner – in fact, more
than one. The only danger here is that Israel will fail to respon
-- 
E' in discussione su it.news.gruppi la RFD 
di it.politica.internazionale moderato

 -- 
Mi sa che il Divo Massimo sta sondando anche questa possibilita', se 
metterci l'appoggio italiano dietro. (Hint: viaggio in MO)
Am.
-- 
Ovviamente hanno esagerato (oltretutto sbagliato anche i tempi)
ma non vedo nulla di scandaloso.
Tutti si danno del nazista o fascista reciprocamente (Capt. Kirk)