American officials have largely given up their hope that the Arabs might actually change the initiative to include things more palatable to Israel — like, for instance, signaling a willingness to at least discuss ways to settle the issue of Palestinian refugees who left, or were forced to leave, their homes in Israel.
But Ms. Rice may be able to get some sort of formal or informal mechanism going that could give the Israelis the hope of eventually normalizing relations with the Arab world, American officials said. “It would be a very good thing if at some point, the Arab initiative provided a basis for discussion,” Ms. Rice said.
That is a tall order even in the best of circumstances — most Arab countries do not talk to Israel. It becomes even taller considering that the Arab League works under rules that require unanimous votes from all its members. And in any case, the secretary general of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, signaled Saturday that there was no intention to change the league’s peace initiative.
“We fail to understand why we should modify such a peace offer and make it less objective and less positive,” Reuters quoted him as saying at a news conference here with Mr. Ban on Saturday.
Not to mention the fact that Arab aggression and violation of the norms of international justice are the reason we all have to negotiate for peace.
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