I’m still not finished with my residence move, and still have books all over the floor, but I felt the need to start blogging again after a six-day hiatus. So, since I recently posted an entry pouring water on the Palestinians’ united front, as it included a release of terrorists by Israel in exchange for just ten months of peace, I felt it appropriate to note that the Arab League made a more realistic offer at its yearly conference this week (see my last post on this issue, Oslo II? The Palestinians’ United Front, and the Fading Hopes for Peace).

The Arab League’s annual talkathon ended on Wednesday, and they reiterated their 2002 offer, made at their meeting in Beruit, for normalization (i.e. peace) with Israel in exchange for Israel’s withdrawal to its 1967 borders (i.e. giving up land it occupied following that war), and allowing for the return to Israel proper of the Palestinian refugees (i.e. all those who left in 1948 and 1967 and their families). This proposal is dead on arrival for the same reason that it wasn’t seriously considered before, and that is that while most Israelis are prepared to give up most or all of the West Bank, and a significant minority would be willing to share sovereignty in Jerusalem, virtually no Jewish Israelis would allow for the return of the refugees. At present, about 20% of Israel’s population is Arab. If the three (plus) million refugees were able to return and live in Israel, they would soon be able to abolish Israel through the ballot box.

But there is a key difference between what the Arab League – including, of course, the Palestinian Authority – offered here, and what the Palestinian Authority coalitioning with Hamas offered last week. This was an offer for permanent peace. The previous offer was just a 10-month truce. This difference was emphasized when Al-Jazeera interviewed a Hamas representative who vehemetly rejected the Arab League’s proposal. This makes as clear as it can be that Hamas only wants the 10-month truce to get its captured operatives back and prepare the next round of suicide bombers.

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I only saw excerpts of the conference on Al-Jazeera, but from what I saw it seemed that the other main theme of the conference was that reform in Arab countries was important, but it had to come from within, not be imposed from outside. In a sense this is certainly true, but it took the blood and iron of Western armies to remove an Iraqi dictator, and things sure have been moving faster since then.

Contributed by Kirk H. Sowell at Window on the Arab World, and More!”