Mixed Arab Messages on Normalization?

United States government officials claimed they extracted "pledges" from a number of Arab states to move toward normalization of relations with Israel in exchange for a settlement freeze. Today it was reported that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu visited in secret an unnamed Arab country with which Israel does not have diplomatic relations.

The Jerusalem newspaper Al Manar reported that Netanyahu secretly visited an Arab country with which Israel does not have diplomatic relations on Monday.

According to the report, Netanyahu met with two senior personages from Arab countries, accompanied by two of his advisers, and discussed cooperation vis-a-vis Iran. According to IDF Radio, Israeli observers speculated Monday that Netanyahu had gone to Qatar, Oman or Bahrain.

According to the U.S. officials, some Arab states have agreed to let Israel open offices in their territory, others have agreed to grant visas to Israeli businessmen and tourists, and still others have offered to allow direct telephone connections between Israel and their countries. A few Arab countries have agreed to hold high-level public meetings with senior Israeli officials, and others have agreed to let Israeli planes fly through their air space or even land at their airports.

So far the Arab position has been to condition normalization developments on a settlement freeze. Last week, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Ali Aboul Gheit said that normalized relations between Israel and the Arab world is possible, but only on the condition that peace talks be renewed with the Palestinians and that settlement-building be halted. He was speaking in a joint press conference with his Spanish counterpart, Miguel Angel Moratinos in Cairo.

Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa told a press conference that given Israel's "stubbornness" over the settlements, there is no place for any moves toward normalization.

"Israel is still refusing to freeze construction in the settlements," he said. "As long as that continues, it is impossible to talk about steps toward normalization."

Hamas warned against "free normalization." Khaled Mashal, head of the Political Bureau of the Hamas movement, said that “this formula is asking for Arab normalization with Israel in return for a 9-month settlement freeze, the does not even include Jerusalem.”

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