On May 26, a Saudi prince and a reserve Israeli major general, participated in a public dialogue in Brussels, moderated by David Ignatius of the Washington Post. This was reported in Haaretz, The Times of Israel, Jerusalem Post, and by J.J. Goldberg in The Forward. Prince Turki al-Faisal and Gen. (Res.) Amos Yadlin spoke of the Saudi peace proposal (Arab Peace Initiative), which has been on the table since 2002 but is generally ignored by Israelis. Unfortunately, Prince Turki turned down the idea of an official Saudi visit to Jerusalem and the Knesset for now, but at one point, he mused personally on his desire to visit.
This is a key exchange as reported in Haaretz (followed by Part 2 of the YouTube video):
. . . Amos Yadlin, who headed the Israel Defense Forces’ Military Intelligence Directorate for four years until 2010, made the [invitation] during a public talk in Brussels with Turki bin Faisal Al Saud, director of the General Intelligence of Saudi Arabia from 1979 to 2001 and the youngest son of the late King Faisal of Saudi Arabia.
According to Yadlin, Israel has not accepted the Saudi peace initiative because the Arab League has turned it into a take-it-or-leave-it deal.
“The real problem is that the Saudi initiative became the Arab League dictate in a summit in Beirut in 2002,” Yadlin said. “The Saudis modified it into a take it or leave it offer with parameters we can’t accept: Mostly in the issue of returning the Golan to Syrians,” Yadlin said, adding that the settling of the Palestinian refugee problem was also a stumbling block.
Faisal Al Saud disputed Yadlin’s assertion and retorted that Israel should accept the proposal in principle, “and then negotiate on the details.” . . .
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