Sharon stuurde Danny Ayalon om Saudisch Vredesplan te bespreken

 

De normale lezing in de media is dat Israel het Saudische vredesinitaitief direct afwees en daarmee een mooie kans op vrede zomaar liet liggen, waaruit blijkt dat het land helemaal niet op vrede uit is en slechts excuses zoekt om door te kunnen bouwen en de Westbank verder in te pikken. In werkelijkheid was de Israelische houding naar dit vredesplan veel genuanceerder. Men ervoer het terecht als dictaat en als iets dat ver lag van wat voor Israel acceptabel is – geen enkele uitruil van land, veel vluchtelingen die ‘terug’ zouden moeten kunnen keren, heel Oost Jeruzalem inclusief alle voor Joden zo belangrijke historische en religieuze plaatsen naar de Palestijnen. Maar men zag er ook een breuk in met de traditionele Arabische houding waarin vrede en onderhandelingen met Israel vieze woorden waren en van de ‘zionistische entiteit’ werd gesproken. Nu blijkt dat Sharon minister voor buitenlandse zaken Danny Ayalon opdroeg om het plan met Saudische politici te bespreken, maar men weigerde hem te ontvangen. Waaruit blijkt dat de weigering om te onderhandelen en te praten nog steeds aan Arabische zijde ligt. 

 

RP

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'Sharon sent me for Saudi Peace Initiative meeting'

http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=264627

By HERB KEINON

04/03/2012 14:54

Deputy Foreign Minister Ayalon reveals secret mission during ministry conference promoting rights of Jewish refugees.

 

Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said Tuesday that former prime minister Ariel Sharon sent him on a secret mission ten years ago following the publication of the Saudi Peace Initiative to meet with Saudi representatives to discuss it, but they refused to meet him.

Ayalon's comments came at a conference at the Foreign Ministry to announce a new ministry initiative to put the issue of Jewish refugees high on the international agenda.

Ayalon, who was Sharon's foreign policy advisor at the time, said he was sent to meet his Saudi counterpart Adel Al-Jubeir, who today is the Kingdom's ambassador to Washington. Al-Jubeir refused to meet him, Ayalon said.

The deputy foreign minister angrily dismissed comments from someone in the crowd who said Israel never gave the Saudi initiative a chance. Ayalon said the problem with the initiative was that it was a dictate and not something that could be negotiated.

During the conference, Ayalon said that the Foreign Ministry had directed its ambassadors and representatives abroad to raise with governments abroad the issue of some-850,000 Jewish refugees who were forced to flee Arab and Middle Easter countries. Of those refugees, some 650,000 were absorbed in Israel.

Ayalon said that raising the issue serves a number of purposes. Firstly, he said, it attempts to redress a historic wrong. Secondly, it will make sure that Israel documents claims from the first generation of refugees, who are dying off. Another of the goals, he said, is that when the refugee issue comes up in any final negotiations, all immigrants, Arab, Jewish and Muslims alike, will be treated equally.