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Blair: Sunni states ready to normalize Israel ties based on Arab peace plan
| The man has become a monomaniac. No sooner has his Herzog-in-government effort failed than he turns up with this rerun that never flew before, and won't fly now. |
[IsraelTimes] Former British prime minister Tony Blair says Sunni Muslim countries are ready to normalize ties with Israel should the Jewish state negotiate a peace deal with the PA on the basis of the Arab Peace Initiative.
The plan, first proposed in 2002, calls for full normalization between Israel and the Arab world in exchange for a withdrawal from the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Golan Heights.
| The first might happen with an honest Palestinian government, the third might have happened back when Bashir Assad controlled all of Syria, the second might have happened if Yasser Arafat had accepted the trade for peace instead of literally running away. But until there is an honest Palestinian government and Syria is at peace, what is the point of negotiations? |
It would include land swaps, the establishment of a Paleostinian state and a negotiated agreement on Paleostinian refugees.
| The negotiation on Palestinian refugees is that they can all settle in the Palestinian territories... but they could do that now without any agreement, were the Palestinians willing to share with their "kin". |
"Provided the Israeli government is ready to commit to a discussion around the Arab peace initiative ... it would be possible to have some steps of normalization along the way to give confidence to this process," says Blair, according to Haaretz.
| Oh. It's Ha'aretz, the correctly self-described New York Times of Israel. No wonder this report does not ask what confidence-building steps will be asked of the Palestinians. |
"With the new leadership in the region today that is possible. A lot will depend on the response of the Israeli government to President Sissi’s initiative and to the Arab Peace Initiative, and to whatever steps the Israelis are ready to take," he says.
| President Sissi was in on Mr. Blair's initiative to put Herzog in Israel's government. Did he happen to mention this to Prime Minister Netanyahu during their near-daily phone calls? |
Blair has in recent years been working independently on a peace deal between Israel and the Paleostinians.
| I don't recall -- is Mr. Blair part of former president Jimmy Carter's Elders, that group of leftist former heads of state and other important people that provides unsolicited advice to those who aren't interested? President Carter himself just announced he is moving to emeritus status, according to Politico, so hopefully only the non-emeritus Elders will now have to screen his calls. |
Posted by: trailing wife 2016-05-26 |
