DO YOU SUPPOSE HE READ HIS OWN PIECE?:

SAUDI ARABIA'S KING ABDULLAH: A Beacon of Hope in Riyadh?: Saudi Arabia's peace plan for the Middle East was long considered stillborn by the West. Now the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is lauding it as "revolutionary." Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah is fast emerging as a key player in current moves to end the conflict. (Bernhard Zand, 4/03/07, Der Spiegel)

Back in March 2002, Saddam Hussein was still ruling in Baghdad, and Yasser Arafat was sitting trapped in his headquarters in Ramallah, cornered by Ariel Sharon. Palestinian suicide bombers had killed 20 Israeli civilians in Haifa, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in the span of just a few weeks. The Israelis were winning one Pyrrhic victory after another in the West Bank and Gaza -- the situation in the Middle East had reached yet another low point.

Then Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah flew to Beirut for the Arab summit, replacing his ailing brother, King Fahd. In the midst of the crisis, he presented a peace plan: If Israel withdrew to its 1967 borders, acknowledged the right of return to Palestinian refugees and allowed for the creation of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, then the Arab world would normalize its relations with the Jewish state. It offered an enticing prospect: oranges from a kibbutz for sale in a Damascus market; Israeli tourists in the shopping malls of Dubai; Saudi Arabia's green flag flying on the roof of a Jerusalem embassy.

The world, however, was still in shock following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. A peace plan from Saudi Arabia of all places -- Osama bin Laden's country of birth, and that of 15 of the 19 attackers? Israel and the West certainly listened to the proposal -- only they didn't believe in it. Condoleeza Rice, then the United States' National Security Advisor, called it "extremely important" but added that "every element of it may not be workable" and some would have to be negotiated first. The Israeli and the Western press viewed the proposal as well intentioned but unlikely to be realized anytime soon.

"The real blame should fall on us -- we the leaders of the Arab nations"

Last week, the 22 government leaders of the Arab League renewed their commitment to the Beirut proposal. First, however, Abdullah, who has since become the king of Saudi Arabia, gave them a telling-off the likes of which has never been heard before at an Arab summit. He mentioned the bloodshed in occupied Iraq, the political deadlock in Lebanon, the "Arab meekness" in Sudan and the seemingly endless series of civil wars in Somalia. "The real blame should fall on us -- we the leaders of the Arab nations," he said.

Of course, the Arabs are not the only ones to have messed up during the five years since the Beirut proposal. The Bush administration began a war in Iraq that has opened the "gates of hell," just as Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa predicted.

So, by his own estimation, 5 years and change into the WoT we've replaced Saddam and Arafat with elected leaders, effectively ended Palestinian terrorism, and have a Sa'udi leader who's not just suing for peace but excoriating the Arabs and we've messed up?

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 3, 2007 1:12 PM