Word: arabize
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There's not much new in Saudi Arabia's new peace offer to Israel. But what has Mideast players buzzing is the fact that it emanated from the traditionally-aloof Saudis, quickly garnered Arab moderate support and even elicited positive responses from the U.S. and Israel...
...Where did it come from? Two weeks ago, New York Times columnist Tom Friedman reported that Saudi Arabia's de facto leader, Crown Prince Abdullah, had authorized him to make public an unprecedented offer: full normalization of relations with the Arab world if Israel withdraws to its 1967 borders. Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights in the war of June 1967, and Abdullah is advocating that the latter be handed back to Syria and the two Palestinian enclaves become a Palestinian state...
...proposal itself might be old news, but the Saudis have never before taken an active role in pushing for peace with Israel. And Abdullah is weighing taking his proposal before the Arab league, to win support for an unprecedented pan-Arab peace offer...
...single issue stokes the fires of the Arab street as fiercely as the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians does - that's why it takes center-stage, for example, the propaganda of Osama bin Laden. As the situation deteriorates, Abdullah is worried that failure to resolve that conflict soon may imperil the ability of moderate Arab regimes to work with the U.S. in the region, and eventually even their own survival in the face of extremist challenges...
...past three months, Washington's focus has been almost exclusively on pressuring Yasser Arafat to act against terrorism. But the Bush team's efforts - like Israel PM Ariel Sharon's - have failed to stop a dramatic escalation of violence of late. And that's causing consternation among the Arab allies Washington wants to recruit for a war to topple Saddam Hussein. Other parties mediating the conflict, including Israeli peacemakers such as foreign minister Shimon Peres, have long emphasized that progress depends on linking cease-fire efforts to negotiations over Palestinian statehood. The emergence of the Saudi initiative offers Washington...