Posted on: Wednesday, March 27, 2002

EDITORIAL
Arab summit loses a chance for progress

It's a sign of how desperate things are in the Middle East that a half-formed Saudi peace proposal is seen as the last great hope for the troubled region.

But now even that plan, essentially a land-for-peace idea put forward by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, may be a nonstarter.

The proposal is to be discussed at the Arab summit in Beirut this week. But since Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat decided not to attend the summit, there is very little chance for movement.

Arafat decided to stay home after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Israel might block Arafat's return if there were Palestinian terror attacks in his absence. Without a "round trip" guarantee, Arafat concluded he could not attend.

Surely, even if Arafat had gone to the conference, there were no guarantees of success. Some analysts noted that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, traditionally a moderate voice at these gatherings, is also a no-show.

Israel's leadership has every reason to be suspicious about the Saudi proposal, which would trade pan-Arabic normalization of relations with Israel in exchange for complete withdrawal of lands occupied in the 1967 war. But by making it impossible for Arafat to attend the meeting, Israel all but guaranteed that this latest peace plan will fall by the wayside.

The Saudi proposal is rife with difficult issues, ranging from guaranteeing the future security of Israel to questions of right-of-return for Palestinian refugees.

It is, in short, a far-from-perfect vehicle. But it deserves more serious consideration than it now appears likely to get.