Haaretz.com
"Man interrupts PM speech; slams efforts to release IDF abductees"
March 22, 2007
by: Eli Ashkenazi
During a speech in Tel Aviv Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was interrupted by an audience member asking about his efforts to secure the release of three IDF soldiers captured by Palestinian forces this past summer. The soldiers in question are Gilad Shalit, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. The interrupter was Danny Valla, a member of Kibbutz Yotvata. In response, Olmert said, "A day doesn't go by without me making efforts to resolve this painful issue. It takes time. There's no instant solution in this case. I regret that I cannot elaborate on this topic." The speech that was interrupted was at a conference of the Kibbutz Movement. In regards to peace efforts, Olmert said that Israel would be happy to make peace with Syria, expressing hope that conditions will come to facilitate negotiations. He said that Israel is willing to make "sweeping, painful and tough concessions" to create a setting for dialogue with its enemies. The current peace plan Saudi Arabia is posing, which may be a starting point for Israeli-Syrian conversation calls for "full diplomatic relations between the entire Arab world and Israel in exchange for full Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and East Jerusalem," the article says. When this plan was first proposed in 2002, Israel rejected it outright and became more even oppositional when the Arab League also demanded that Palestinian refugees and their descendants be allowed to return to their former homes in Israel, but now, with negotiations reaching a stopgap, Israel has begun to show slight interest in the plan. Arab leaders are excited to revisit the proposal at a summit in Riyadh later this month. Part of this push to revisit the 2002 Saudi plan comes from moderate Arab governments who are worried about the rising tensions in the region and sees progress between Israelis and Palestinians as a way to lessen tensions in the region and lessen the growing influence of Iran. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said that Israel has no intentions of accepting the Arab peace plan as it currently stands, but will work to revise it--particularly the part allowing displaced Palestinians from the 1948 Independence War to return to their homes inside Israel, while Arabs hold strong to their land-for-peace ideology.
I believe that as long as Israeli-Arab negotiations do not result in an increase in violence, or a greater and more galvinized band of Arab nations against Israel, they will be good for all countries involved. I do not think that an actual workable peace plan will be reached, as the Arab countries coming to the table are pretty firm on a plan that is not acceptable to Israel. Still, however, the opportunity to open conversation and express a desire for peace with these countries is a step in the right direction, just it is important that steps be taken very carefully and strategically, especially at this early stage in the game.
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