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New
Initiative from the International Crisis Group
Urges
Action on Arab-Israeli Settlement
~October 5, 2006~
The
International Crisis Group has launched a
global advocacy initiative designed to generate new
political momentum for a comprehensive Middle East
peace agreement. They have organized a statement by
global leaders calling for action, "Towards a Comprehensive Settlement of
the Arab-Israeli Conflict" and issued a new report,
"The Arab-Israeli Conflict: To Reach a Lasting Peace".
The statement was signed by 135 respected global leaders
- former presidents, prime ministers, foreign and
defense ministers, congressional leaders and heads of
international organizations. It was published in an ad
in the New York Times on October 4 and widely
reported by the media. The statement
is provided below, along with links to the full list
of signers and the new report. U.S. signers include:
Jimmy Carter, Lee Hamilton, Zbigniew Brzezinski,
George Soros and Thomas Pickering.
CMEP has contacted Crisis Group leaders in Washington to
express our appreciation and support of their new
initiative. Jon Greenwald, a Crisis Group vice president,
spoke at the CMEP-sponsored Middle East track of
Ecumenical Advocacy Days last March, and Robert Malley,
the director of Crisis Group's Middle East and North Africa
program, briefed the CMEP Board at their May meeting.
CMEP will inform and guide you if citizen advocacy in
support of the Crisis Group initiative is timely and useful.
For now, CMEP encourages you to study the document and
to use it to encourage discussion. If your paper
reported on the initiative, perhaps the paper would
publish a letter-to-the-editor from you that brings
attention to this excerpt from the report's Executive Summary,
"But the Lebanon war must serve as a wake-up call: so
long as the political roots of the Arab-Israeli
conflict are not addressed, it will remain a
bottomless source and pretext for repression, radicalisation and bloodletting, both in the region
and beyond. Now is the time for an international push
to launch a new peace initiative."
Global
Leaders Call for Action on Arab-Israeli Settlement
Towards a Comprehensive Settlement of the Arab-Israeli Conflict
4 October 2006
With the Middle East immersed in its worst crisis for years, we call for
urgent international action towards a comprehensive settlement of the
Arab-Israeli conflict.
Everyone has lost in this conflict except the extremists throughout the
world who prosper on the rage that it continues to provoke. Every passing
day undermines prospects for a peaceful, enduring solution. As long as the
conflict lasts, it will generate instability and violence in the region
and beyond.
The outlines of what is needed are well known, based on UN Security
Council resolutions 242 of 1967 and 338 of 1973, the Camp David peace
accords of 1978, the
Clinton Parameters 2000, the Arab League Initiative of 2002, and the
Roadmap
proposed in 2003 by the Quartet (UN, US, EU and Russia). The goal must be
security and full recognition to the state of Israel within
internationally recognized borders, an end to the occupation for the
Palestinian people in a viable independent, sovereign state, and the
return of lost land to Syria.
We believe the time has come for a new international conference, held as
soon as possible and attended by all relevant players, at which all the
elements of a comprehensive peace agreement would be mapped, and momentum
generated for detailed negotiations.
Whether or not such an early conference can be convened, there are crucial
steps that can and should be taken by the key players, including:
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Support for a Palestinian national unity government, with an end to the
political and financial boycott of the Palestinian Authority.
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Talks between Israel and the Palestinian leadership, mediated by the
Quartet and reinforced by the participation of the Arab League and key
regional countries, on rapidly enhancing mutual security and allowing
revival of the Palestinian economy.
-
Talks between the Palestinian leadership and the Israeli government,
sponsored by a reinforced Quartet, on the core political issues that stand
in the way of achieving a final status agreement.
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Parallel talks of the reinforced Quartet with Israel, Syria and Lebanon,
to discuss the foundations on which Israeli-Syrian and Israeli-Lebanese
agreements can be reached.
Nobody underestimates the intractability of the underlying issues or the
intensity of feelings they provoke. But if the Arab-Israeli conflict, with
all its terrible consequences, is ever to be resolved, there is a
desperate need for fresh thinking and the injection of new political will.
The times demand no less.
Click for more information:
Full
Statement with Signers
Executive
Summary of Report (5 pages)
Full Report (pdf file, 38 pages)
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