Stardate 20020325.1437

(On Screen): The leaders of the Arab League are gearing up for a meeting in Beirut. First position on the agenda (always) is figuring out how to embarrass Israel and make them look like the bad guys.

The big weapon this time is the Saudi peace proposal. I'm resisting the urge to use gratuitous quotation marks here, because it's a sham. The proposal includes conditions such that the Saudis know full well that Israel would never accept it as is, so they can make the proposal secure in the knowledge that it won't be accepted. Then Israel will be the bad guys, and the Saudis can pretend to be in favor of peace. In fact, the Saudis have already released their response to the Israeli rejection before the Isrealis even rejected it.

Unfortunately, Khaddafi (the Arab loose cannon) may have spoiled the game by being too honest. He has made a modest proposal: Israel can get peace by surrendering. It will dissolve its government, merge with the Palestinians, become a single nation with both (with a majority of voters being Arab), dissolve its army, get rid of its nukes, give back all occupied territories, and live in peace with an integrated Palestinian majority who exercise the full right of return.

The only peace that would get the Israelis is the peace of the grave; they would give up every defense they had with no guarantee of either peace or security. There is no chance whatever of this being accepted.

But then the Saudis are in practice correct that their proposal won't be accepted, either. The reason is that it is missing one big thing: a plausible guarantee. The plan envisions Israel making all its concessions at the beginning in exchange for a promise of a cessation of hostilities against it not only by the Arab nations but by the Palestinian terrorists and suicide bombers. How can Israel believe that there would actually be such a cessation?

The proposed deal is: you, Israel, give us everything we want, and trust us, the Arabs, to pay you later. And of course we'll pay; would we lie to you? We're a peace-loving and honorable people; we wouldn't hurt a fly. (Pay no attention to those suicide bombers behind that curtain.)

The proposal is ludicrous; only insanely optimistic Israelis would believe that hostilities would really cease. This would in effect be a unilateral concession by the Israelis. It is completely unreasonable. For the proposal to be viable, there must be some way in which the Arabs and Palestinians would be forced to actually deliver some of what they promise before Israel had completed giving up its concessions.

Which isn't going to happen, for a simple reason: they actually have no intention of giving Israel anything. These are diplomatic maneuvers intended only to make Israel look bad and to help defeat it militarily. Khaddaffi said what the others are thinking: peace will come only when Israel no longer exists.