The cost of this tri-partite handshake in Israel
Finally, after having been paid to make peace for how-many-years, the foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan visit Israel to promote the Arab League's new peace inititive.
As the New York Times reports:
The league’s initiative would grant Israel full recognition and normal relations with its Arab neighbors in return for withdrawing to its 1967 borders and accepting the creation of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.Let's hope all this works out because here's is how much the U.S. has spent on this Middle East peace business so far, not even counting the War in Iraq:
It also calls for “an agreed, just solution” to the issue of Palestinian refugees. The initiative was begun by Saudi Arabia and endorsed by the Arab League in 2002.
“We are extending a hand of peace on behalf of the whole region to you, and we hope that we will be able to create the momentum needed to resume fruitful and productive negotiations” among Israel, Palestinians, and the rest of the Arab world, the Jordanian foreign minister, Abdul-Ilah al-Khatib, said at a news conference with Mr. Peres, The Associated Press reported.
The Egyptian foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, said he hoped Israel would respond positively to the proposal.
Egypt and Jordan are the only two Arab countries that have signed peace treaties with Israel. They have served as an official diplomatic bridge between Israel and the other Arab nations.
Israel was cool to the Arab initiative when it was first put forth in 2002, but more recently it has yielded to pressure from the United States to discuss the plan. The United States, in turn, was responding to pressure from Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
Israel: $94 billion
Eypgt: 61
Jordan: 9
Total $164 billion (and that's just up through 2005)
Source: The Greenbook
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