A Real Plan
Crocidile tears and blood money from the Saudis.

By Michael Steinberger, a journalist based in Montclair, New Jersey.
March 11, 2002 10:30 a.m.

ay this for the Saudis: They excel at changing the subject. Just as U.S.-Saudi relations were beginning to crumble over Riyadh's role in nurturing Islamic fanaticism, along comes Crown Prince Abdullah with a plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There is, of course, nothing about his proposal that hasn't been mooted before, and it offers Israel nothing more than the prospect of a bitterly cold peace with the Arabs.

Given that the House of Saud has a profound interest in seeing the intifada continue — after all, once the Palestinian issue is off the table, all those seething young Saudis are surely going to direct their rage inward — it stands to reason that Abdullah's initiative is merely a cynical ploy to divert attention from the kingdom's murderous duplicity. But let's not answer his cynicism with our own. President Bush called Abdullah to thank him for his olive branch; now he should call his bluff.

The real obstacle to a lasting settlement in the Middle East has always been Arab hypocrisy and the West's acquiescence in it. For decades, the Arabs have howled about the plight of the West Bank and Gaza Palestinians, even while undermining every attempt at remedying the situation and treating their own Palestinian populations like dirt. Memories of the massacre at Sabra and Shatila apparently smolder in every Arab heart — but when, following the Gulf War, 300,000 Palestinians were evicted from Kuwait in an orgy of ethnic cleansing that would have made Slobodan Milosevic blush, the anguish in Cairo and Damascus was, well, muted.

Likewise, our stalwart allies, the Egyptians and the Saudis, played a singularly unhelpful role during the Camp David talks two years ago: Rather than pressing Yasser Arafat to sign on the dotted line, they warned him that he had no business negotiating away any part of Jerusalem, thus giving the wily little thug one more reason not to cut a deal. And yet the Arabs continue to claim — with straight faces — that Israel's treatment of the Palestinians is the source of all that ails the Middle East; and the appeasers in Europe and at Foggy Bottom continue to nod their heads in sympathy. The president should politely tell Abdullah that the time has arrived to put up or shut up — that if he wants the Palestinian question settled, he and other Arab leaders are finally going to have to take some risks for peace, too.

Already, the Saudis have nixed the idea of immediately opening a dialogue with Israel; they want the Sharon government to first reach out to Arafat. The president should inform Abdullah that his plan is a non-starter unless he is prepared to break bread with the Israelis right now. From the Israeli standpoint, the problem with the Oslo process was that there was never any light at the end of the tunnel: Even if Israel gave the Palestinians the sun and the moon — and Ehud Barak tried — anti-Zionism would remain the Arab world's secular religion.

Moreover, as Arafat has proven time and again, he makes peace only when war is not an option. He embraced diplomacy after the Gulf War simply because he had no one to bankroll his terrorism. The Soviet Union had gone bust, and the PLO had put itself in purgatory by backing Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait. Only when peace is breaking out all around him — and his fellow Arabs are no longer willing to underwrite his violence — will Arafat lay down arms. For these reasons, Bush needs to instruct Abdullah that the first move is his.

The president should ask the crown prince to demonstrate his sincerity by traveling to Israel, and including on his itinerary a speech to the Knesset and a tour of Yad Vashem. More exchanges will follow, ultimately resulting in the establishment of full diplomatic, economic, and cultural ties. Abdullah should also be advised that the administration will wish to see a cessation of the anti-Semitic bile spewed out by the Saudi media (the Saudi government controls the spigot; it can shut it) and will require, in the interest of promoting tolerance and understanding, that the Arabic-language service of Israel Television be made available in Saudi homes.

The president should tell Abdullah that once these terms have been met — and if the Saudis really want peace for themselves and the Palestinians, it should take them no time to satisfy Washington's conditions — the administration will sit down and hammer out a final agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The Israelis will not surrender the Golan Heights, nor will they completely withdraw to the pre-1967 borders; the objective will be to give Israel secure borders while creating a Palestinian state, free of nearly all Israeli settlements, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Bush should further stipulate that once Palestinian independence is achieved, the United States will expect Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states to foot the bill for rebuilding the Palestinian economy. Abdullah should be reminded that just 18 months ago, the Arab League grandly promised the Palestinians $1 billion in aid but then delivered only around $30 million, withholding the balance because of concerns about corruption (this from the Saudis and the Egyptians? Never let it be said that they don't have a sense of humor). He and his fellow Arabs are now going to have to cough up the cash.

At the same time, the United States will demand that discrimination against Palestinians residing in Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries end immediately, and that they be given full rights as citizens. Surely it must tug at Abdullah's conscience to realize that a Palestinian living in Israel enjoys more liberties than a Palestinian in Jedda; here's an opportunity to rectify that. It should also be made clear that because the Palestinians outside Israel will not be granted the right of return, Washington will want the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan emptied and their occupants fully integrated into the societies that have kept them caged, for a half-century, as hostages to the "Palestinian cause."

Finally, to ensure a sustainable peace, the president should require that any Israeli-Palestinian agreement include the following provision: The Palestinian side of the border will be policed for the first ten years by a joint Saudi-Egyptian-Jordanian patrol. The Israelis have every reason to fear that a Palestinian state will be a terrorist state; what better way to assuage their concern than by putting a coalition of Arab forces in the firing line? It goes without saying that if statehood failed to curb Palestinian violence, Israel would be compelled to dismantle the Palestinian state. The Saudis, Egyptians, and Jordanians would then face a searing dilemma: Order their soldiers to battle the Israelis or instruct them to step aside. In other words, the choice would be war with Israel or humiliation by Israel. Given that they can afford neither, the Arabs would have abundant incentive to keep the Palestinians in line.

Crocodile tears and blood money; this is the sum total of what the Arab world has contributed to the Palestinians. Abdullah's gesture is an empty, insincere one; however, the Bush administration shouldn't do him the favor of treating it as such. But for American might, Abdullah and his fellow royals would be dead, living in exile, or rotting in an Iraqi jail. We have some leverage here, and we ought to use it to make the crown prince match his words with actions. And if he balks, we should tell Abdullah that the next time he wants to discuss the Palestinians, he should save his dime.