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APN Welcomes Israeli Peace Initiative

New_Peace_Initiative_186x140.jpgWashington, D.C. -- APN today welcomed news of the imminent release of the Israeli Peace Initiative (IPI), reportedly endorsed by a number of leading Israeli political, intelligence, and security figures.

APN President and CEO Debra DeLee commented:  

"The Israeli Peace Initiative is a powerful demonstration of how the Israeli government could push for peace if it were genuinely interested in the two-state solution.  The fact that so many of the signers on the IPI come from the Israeli security and intelligence community only reinforces the fact that peace is vital and urgent for Israel's national security.

"We hope that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will move quickly to embrace the IPI, recognizing this as an opportunity to show the world that, contrary to popular belief, he and his government are not an obstacle to peace but rather a ready and willing partner for peace.  Doing so would do more to improve Israel's relations and push back against challenges to Israel's legitimacy than any "hasbara" effort the government could launch.

"The IPI represents a welcome - if long overdue - response to the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative (API).  Its publication, even by figures not associated with the current Israeli government, sends a positive signal to the Palestinians and the Arab world that there is still a significant and influential constituency in Israel that supports Israeli-Palestinian and Israeli-Arab peace based on agreements that reflect the interests of all the peoples concerned.  


"Regrettably, while the API carried the seal-of-approval of the Arab League and, by extension, the official leadership of the member countries of the Arab League, the IPI is still the not official policy of the government of Israel.


"Similarly, it is regrettable that successive U.S. administrations have hedged on the API, speaking of it in positive terms but never embracing it for what it is: an historic opportunity to achieve regional peace that deserves serious engagement.  The publication of the IPI offers the Obama Administration the chance to correct this mistake.  Now is the time for the White House to publicly embrace both the API and the IPI as important foundations on which to build Israeli-Palestinian, Israeli-Syrian, Israeli-Lebanese, and, ultimately, Israeli-Arab peace.  At this moment of regional upheaval, U.S. dual embrace of the API and IPI would send a powerful signal to the peoples of the region that the U.S. is serious about a better future for the Middle East and all of its inhabitants, with freedom, human rights, democracy, and self-determination for all its peoples, including the Palestinians, and with security and prosperity for all its nations, including Israel."