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Not a Peace Initiative, But Rather a Public Relations Stunt for America

[Maariv-Hebrew, 23Mar07] Jacky Hogy - The wind blowing in the last few weeks from Jerusalem concerning the Saudi initiative is not sweeping with it Prof. Joseph Kostiner from Tel Aviv University. The senior Arabist, an analyst with a world-wide reputation who specializes in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, prefers to see this peace formula sink into the dustbin of history and be replaced by another. "The Saudis themselves did not believe that Israel would accept the plan," he stresses. The authors of the initiative didn't direct it to Israeli ears at all. The 9/11 attacks created a hostile environment in the U.S. for its friends in Riyadh. "They [the Saudis] wanted to demonstrate before American public opinion their positive side. It was not coincidental that the initiative was first floated with the American newspaperman Thomas Friedman on 13 February 2002. But the strategic aim was not to reach peace, but rather to use the American conception of peace."
2007-03-23 01:00:00
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