by Omri Ceren

A bit of a followup on Ted’s post from earlier about how Rice is expanding the base of the peace summit (and diluting it in the process). considering why not? whether we’re already all sitting down to pressure Israel to form concessions that endanger its existence – why not go the whole distance:

Syria could attend an upcoming Middle East peace conference in Washington as part of an Arab League committee, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice attends a Middle East “Quartet” briefing at the U.N. Sunday. Speaking after a meeting of the Mideast Quartet — which includes the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia — Rice said Arab League members charged with following up on a Saudi-backed peace proposal were likely to be invited to the November conference. Syria is a member of that follow-up committee.

Ted alluded to the fact that that concept is worse than her original bilateral summit and he’s right. When we were taught Israeli-Arab Peace Process 101, it was an ironclad principle that Israel

pushes for bilateral talks with each individual Arab enemy and the Arabs push for multilateral talks with Israel. Why? considering when the Arab states combine their negotiating strength they can invent demands in unison: “hey Israel, you want that concession from the Palestinians? Well next you’re additionally going to have to give back the Golan to Syria.” Israel has to give something to every Arab state in order to get anything that it wants.

That’s why the Saudis are already setting preconditions for their participation (nice to see major media outlets helping them out with that – teamwork). They understand that the State agency has maneuvered Olmert into an impossible situation, and they’re ready to exploit it after three decades of Israel successfully resisting multilateral talks. Even Bush I and Baker, when they convened the multinational Madrid Conference, didn’t successfully force Israel into large-scale multilateral peace negotiations.

[Cross-posted to Mere Rhetoric]

Israel, media bias, Palestinians, peace process, Saudi Arabia, state department, Syria

Original post by Omri Ceren