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Posted March 28, 2007

So what is there to say? I am beyond analysis. The 22 nations of the Arab League voted unanimously tonight to revive the Saudi plan with no changes.

In an interview given to the British The Daily Telegraph, Prince Saud, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister declared that the "lords of war" will decide Israel’s future if she rejects a peace plan "crafted by the entire Arab world."

Sure smells like a threat to me.

"What we have the power to do in the Arab world, we think we have done, so now it is up to the other side because if you want peace, it is not enough for one side only to want it. Both sides must want it equally.

"If Israel refuses, that means it doesn’t want peace and it places everything back into the hands of fate. They will be putting their future not in the hands of the peacemakers but in the hands of the lords of war."

There won’t be any further diplomatic overtures towards Israel, said Saud: "It has never been proven that reaching out to Israel achieves anything…"

Take or leave it, we’re being told. This is not a bid for negotiation. Once again: What we’re being offered is normalization with the Arab states if we pull back to pre-67 lines, surrender all of eastern Jerusalem including our holy sites, and accept over 4 million ostensible "refugees" into our nation.

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I’ll leave the subject, for now with the words of former foreign minister Silvan Shalom (Likud):

"It’s too bad Arab leaders didn’t live up to their standing, but rather were swept up by the extremists among them into adopting a policy that is unreasonable and impossible to implement.

"Moderate Arab nations must pull the extremists towards them, not be pulled after them…It behooves them to come up with an initiative that can facilitate an actual dialogue with their Israeli colleagues."

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Meanwhile, incredibly, Foreign Minister Livni is crowing about how pleased she is with the way Rice has moved things along: "in spite of the complex diplomatic situation, we found a common denominator reflecting the aspiration to advance the diplomatic process…" Livni made it clear that final status negotiations will not be held now, and expressed disappointment with Palestinian behavior. However, she said, there will discussions about the characteristics of a Palestinian state. And she represents this as being something to Israel’s advantage. I’ll believe it when I see it.

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The good news is Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi. He received praise today for his presentation to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee because of his clarity. "My goal is to ready the military…" he said. "During my tenure, there will not be a situation such as there was in the last war, when it was unclear who lost and who won."

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For the first time since the so-called ceasefire, begun four months ago (during which time 185 rockets have been launched from Gaza to Israel), the IDF struck inside of Gaza today at a cell that was in the process of launching rockets.

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All Jews were evacuated from Homesh today, without violence. Core activists have vowed to return again and again.

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