Regional partners in peace are a key to Israel’s security and, and Arab-Israel peace can be a key to regional stability. Indeed, Israel and the moderate regimes of the Middle East share both interests and threats. These include a shared desire for prosperity and stability for their citizens, and shared concerns about the rising tide of religious extremism, the growing influence of Iran in the region, and the dangers of Iran obtaining nuclear weapons.

In February 2002, Saudi Arabia offered a comprehensive peace plan for Israel, Syria, and the Palestinians – including full normalization of relations between Israel and the Arab world. This plan, adopted in March 2002 by the Arab League, has become known as the Arab Peace Initiative - API (also called the Saudi Initiative or the Arab League Initiative).

Unfortunately, for more than six years Israel, the U.S., and the international community ignored the plan. What little discussion there was consisted of denouncing it as an all-or-nothing diktat by Arab states – ignoring the fact that the plan specifies that on issues like refugees, any solution must be agreed-to by Israel and the Palestinians (giving Israel a veto over unacceptable solutions).

Recently, positive interest in the Arab Peace Initiative has grown, both inside and outside Israel. This reflects both the increasing desperation to find some avenue that could lead to progress on the Israeli-Palestinian track, and the longstanding Israeli desire for normalized relations with the Arab world.

The re-emergence of the Arab Peace Initiative is a hopeful development. This historic plan represents a real basis for negotiations that could deliver comprehensive regional peace. At the same time, shortsighted attempts to exploit the initiative in order to normalize Israel’s relations with the Arab world – absent progress on the Israeli-Palestinian track – will be counterproductive, weakening moderate Arab leaders who support the Initiative and bolstering extremists in the Palestinian arena and beyond.

APN supports the Arab Peace Initiative as a signal of a sincere willingness on the part of Arab states to pursue peace and normalize relations with Israel. APN believes the US should embrace the API as a basis for negotiations that could resolve the Israeli-Arab conflict.