Opinion: The Saudi overture

The Middle East peace proposal offered by Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is a hopeful development for a region that was on the verge of losing hope.

The proposal is significant not so much for its substance, which is similar in important respects to previous peace plans, as for its origin and timing. Since Israel's inception, Arab leaders typically have avoided making peace overtures. They have preferred instead to respond (usually negatively) to proposals coming from Israel or outside parties such as the United States. This gesture of leadership from Saudi Arabia, made in the context of post-Sept. 11 tensions and 18 months of escalating violence between Israelis and Palestinians, could mark a turning point for statesmanship in the Islamic world.

The outline of Prince Abdullah's proposal is comparable to previous land-for-peace formulations. Israel would withdraw to its pre-1967 borders in return for full normalization of relations with Arab governments. A succession of Israeli leaders more malleable than current Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has rejected plans that would require full withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza. However, the Saudi plan also offers inducements that Arab governments historically have been unwilling to make. The Persian Gulf states and most other Arab regimes have rejected even the cold peace that Egypt forged with Israel in 1979. Until now, the Palestinians and Arab governments also have insisted on Palestinians' right of return to Israeli land -- one of the issues that scuttled the promising Camp David peace plan at the end of the Clinton administration.

The Saudi overture also offers crucial cover for Yasser Arafat. The Palestinian leader may have had genuine misgivings about the substance of the Camp David plan, but he would be afraid to accept even the most generous peace offer unless he was confident of the support of major Arab governments. Without that, Camp David was doomed to failure -- and that failure doomed the region to an unprecedented outbreak of sustained violence.

Now Arafat can re-enter negotiations with the imprimatur of the most influential Arab government in the region. For U.S. and Saudi leaders, Prince Abdullah's overture also offers a chance to work together on a more agreeable issue than those that have dominated relations between their countries in recent months. Osama bin Laden and most of the Sept. 11 hijackers were Saudi nationals. Since then, the American public has learned much more about the Saudi royal family's complicity with rabid anti-Western Islamic fundamentalism. By attempting to play a more constructive role in the Middle East peace process, the Saudis can begin to repair the damage done to their vital relationship with Washington.

Nothing comes easily in the Middle East, and the Saudi proposal looks all too similar to many that have failed before. After months of unbroken bleakness, however, even a glimmer of hope is worth pursuing.

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