The Visit

Let's make a huge deal about the fact that the Arab League has visited Israel for the first time. Hooray!

Foreign ministry spokesman Mark Regev said the visit was historic.

"This is the first time that a delegation is coming here under the auspices of the Arab League," he said. "In the past, the Arab League has opposed dialogue, normalization and any contact with Israel and this is the first time the Arab League has authorized a delegation to visit Israel."

The Arab League asked Jordan and Egypt to take the lead in pushing forward their newly revived peace plan, which offers a comprehensive peace agreement in exchange for Israel's withdrawal from all territories captured in 1967.

Israel rejected the plan when Saudi Arabia first proposed it in 2002, at the height of the Palestinian uprising. But it softened its resistance after moderate Arab states endorsed the plan again in March, sharing their concerns about Iran's growing influence.

Israel has welcomed the plan as a basis for negotiations, but raised concerns about certain aspects. Israel rejects a full withdrawal from the West Bank and east Jerusalem. It also objects to the plan's apparent call for the return of Palestinians who became refugees in the 1948 Mideast war and their descendants. Israel says a large-scale return of refugees would destroy the country's Jewish character.

Moderate Arab countries and the West have been pushing for renewed Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking since Gaza fell to Hamas, a group that refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist and has killed more than 250 Israelis in suicide bombings.

Can we please get a little perspective here? Seriously, what exactly has this visit accomplished? The Arab League is sticking to the same line it's had since 1967. They want Israel to relinquish all of the territories it captured in 1967.

That means giving up the Golan Heights, all of the West Bank, and most importantly, Jerusalem, home to Judaism's holiest site - the Temple Mount and Western Wall.

Israel is under absolutely no obligation to do so, even under UN SCR 242, which only requires that Israel return lands for peace, not all land captured.

Syria, meanwhile, continues to play games in Lebanon and nary a peep from the Arab League - the ongoing occupation of 177 square miles of Lebanon. Gaza is only 57.916 square miles (and Israel withdrew fully in 2005 only to watch Gaza turn into a terrorist homeland for Hamas - complete with regularly scheduled rocket attacks on a near daily basis). The West Bank is about 2,200 square miles. The Arab League has no problem putting its blinders on when it comes to the depravities of Arabs against Arabs, but Israel's ongoing existence and repeated victories over Arab armies through the years is too much to ignore.

If the Arab League were truly serious about a peace deal with Israel, they should start with the member nations fully recognizing Israel and dropping the demands for Palestinian right of return along with normalization of relations.

UPDATE:
And while the Arab League continues to pressure Israel in to making concessions, Hamas is finding persuasion of a different sort useful. Assassinating your enemies is superior to dealing with them. In this instance, Hamas failed to assassinate Abbas, but the gunmen got away.

PA security officials here told The Jerusalem Post several shots were fired at Abbas's home. Abbas was inside the house, but neither he nor any of his family members were hurt, they said.

Following the incident, PA security forces launched a manhunt for the shooters who, eyewitnesses said, managed to escape in a car toward the northern part of the city.

"Several shots were fired near the home of President Abbas," said a senior PA security official. "I don't know if this was an assassination attempt, but it's the first incident of its kind here and that's why we are taking it very seriously."

Another top security official said he was convinced Hamas was behind the shooting.