BEIRUT -- There is little new about Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah's proposal for full Arab "normalization" with Israel in return for a full Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories and the establishment of a Palestine state. A vision more than a plan, it leaves vague or unmentioned potential stumbling blocks such as who has sovereignty over the holy places and Palestinian refugees' "right of return." It simply lays out what the peace process would bring: the fulfillment of what Israel has always been striving for -- its acceptance by and integration into the Arab region, a portion of whose territory it conquered and occupied and whose inhabitants it drove out.
No one is better qualified to promote this initiative than Abdullah, both because of the reputation he has earned as a strong, straightforward and uncorrupted leader, and because of the political, economic and religious weight of the Saudi kingdom. His initiative is a wholly Arab one, not only because it is the brainchild of an Arab leader but also because it should be collectively endorsed by the Arab world -- an action that could take place at the Arab summit this month in Beirut.
Abdullah's initiative comes at a time of looming emergency, not only for the Palestinians and Israelis but for the region. Since the intifada began, the Arab regimes, fearful of Israeli retaliation or U.S. wrath, have done next to nothing to honor what their people regard as their obligation to support their fellow Arabs in Palestine. Such weakness and inaction cannot, the critics say, protect Arab regimes forever. Doing nothing will eventually prove far more dangerous than doing something.