by David Harris, Geng Xuepeng

    JERUSALEM, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Obama administration of the United States seems expecting more help from the Arab world, calling on them to make some goodwill gestures towards Israel in order to build regional stability and facilitate the Israeli-Palestinian talks.

    But some Arab states, frustrated by the experiences before as starting with "interim" steps but ending with something like Israel's expansion of settlements, tell the United States that they will not kick off the normalization of ties with Israel until Israel withdraws from all occupied territories and agrees a comprehensive peace deal with the Palestinians.     

    OBAMA'S PUSH

    Since its founding in 1948, Israel has said it is committed to peace with all its Middle East neighbors. However, a series of bloody wars, coupled with Israel's ongoing occupation of the West Bank and the Golan Heights has always left it nothing but a pledge.

    Then, the Saudi peace initiative was launched, which later became known as the Arab peace initiative in 2002. The Arabs said they were and remain ready to normalize ties with Israel in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal from all occupied territories.

    Now, reports in the Israeli media suggest Oman and Qatar may be prepared to move quicker than other Arab states down the path to normalization. It was reported over the weekend that the two Gulf states may be prepared to allow a diplomatic exchange in return for a total freeze on Israeli settlement activity.

    The newspapers carrying the story said American diplomats had told Israel that this was the case. However, so far there has been no confirmation from Oman, Qatar or Israel.

    "I am sure the Americans have something up their sleeves, but I certainly can't tell you of something concrete," said Andy David, a spokesman at Israel's Foreign Ministry.

    The United States President Barack Obama has been pushing for greater Arab involvement in the peace process. He wants the Arab states to offer incentives to Israel to persuade the Israelis of the value of their cutting a final-status deal with the Palestinians.

    At the same time, the Americans insist Israel must freeze all settlement activity in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem. The Palestinians refuse to return to peace talks until this happens.

    SETTLEMENT FREEZE NOT ENOUGH

    The reports on Oman and Qatar came after Saudi Arabia toughened its stance against peace overtures towards Israel. At a July 31 Washington news conference, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud bin al-Faisal said rewarding Israel for a settlement freeze was out of the question.

    The Saudis are currently one of the key payers in coalescing Arab support for any deal with Israel.

    Indeed, seasoned Saudi journalists were surprised to hear the rumors that Oman and Qatar were thinking differently. "If these reports are accurate then it's a very sorry state of affairs in the Arab world," the editor-in-chief of the Saudi daily Arab News,Khaled al-Maeena, told Xinhua on Sunday.

    "We don't want to be in a state of enmity, we don't wish them harm, but I don't see a reason why somebody forces down my throat, somebody that I don't want to be with," said al-Maeena.

    Al-Maeena's newspaper has carried out an informal survey of influential Saudis from across the political spectrum over the last few days. The answers made it very clear that Saudis do not want to see any gestures towards Israel at this stage, but would be comfortable with a normalization of ties once Israel fulfills all its obligations under international law.

    Some Arab and Muslim states have already worked with Israel and some could possibly be persuaded to resume that cooperation should Israel match its statements about a readiness for regional peace with some actions.

    Israel has enjoyed diplomatic relations with a variety of Arab countries over the years. The breakthrough came in 1979 with the signing of a peace treaty with Egypt. The Oslo Accords that established a working relationship between Israel and the Palestinians followed in 1993, and peace between Israel and Jordan was established a year later.

    In the wake of those developments, some Arab states also felt the atmosphere was right to create some form of working relationship with Israel. Mauritania became the third and only other state to have a full diplomatic exchange with Israel.

    Israel has set up official offices in Qatar and Oman and maintains relatively open relations with Morocco and Tunisia.

    However, as Israel continued to fight against Palestinians and Hezbollah in Lebanon, its relations with Arab states have suffered. Oman, for example, shut down the Israel Trade Representation Office in Muscat with the outbreak of the second Intifada in 2000.

    In the wake of Israel's military operation in Gaza in January, Mauritania withdrew its ambassador to Israel and expelled Israel's man in Nouakchott.

    "With Mauritania, Morocco and elsewhere there's nothing new to report," David said on Sunday.

    WHO TAKES THE FIRST

    However, Israel is constantly trying to find ways to open avenues to the Arab world, the Israeli Foreign Ministry's spokesman said. There are a number of methods used by Israel to try to up the ante, but David would not give specifics.

    From time to time there are reports of senior Arab officials and politicians meeting Israelis in third countries, but these reports are either ignored or immediately dismissed by the Arabs concerned or their governments' spokespeople.

    Israeli diplomats say they get very frustrated by Israeli politicians and reporters who make such meetings public.

    For Israel, a normalization of ties with the Arab world would not only guarantee some form of regional stability but also open up a market of some 250 million people. Israeli economists have always argued that the country's economy would gain enormously from a warming of ties. Indeed Israel's gross domestic product (GDP) increased in leaps and bounds in the wake of the signing of the Oslo Accords.

    However, what is at the top of the Obama foreign-policy agenda is to reboot the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process. For that, the Obama team keeps repeating the mantra that Washington expects more help from the Arab world.

    Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak flew to Washington over the weekend. The New York Times on Monday quoted an Egyptian official as saying that Mubarak is expected to tell Obama administration that Arab states have no intention of echoing the United States on making goodwill gestures towards Israel until Israel takes some tangible steps.

    "If they do this and engage immediately in negotiations with Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority),this is a recipe for openness and the Arabs will make the gestures needed," Hossam Zaki, spokesman for Egypt's Foreign Ministry, was quoted as saying.

    Zaki hinted that Israel should not only freeze settlements, but also implement an economic plan to improve living conditions in the West Bank, ease pressure on Gaza and agree to negotiate about all issues on the table, including the status of Jerusalem and refugees.

    "But they don't want to make this first step. They are demanding the Arabs make the first step. The Arabs should not make the first step. They are the occupying power. The occupation must end," he added.