2. US and the Arab Peace Proposal: At the same meeting, Secretary of State Rice will be talking with Arab heads of state, many of whom will be pressing the U.S. to state publicly whether or not it should support a different approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Among the recent proposals are the Arab League Peace Proposal first made in Beirut in March 2002 and outlining their views on a two-state settlement with Israel, and the so-called Geneva Accord, a proposal launched by prominent Israeli and Palestinian figures and outlining a comprehensive settlement. Again, debate over these proposals has been fierce, as it represents a siginificant departure from the so-called U.S.-sponsored Road Map to peace (widely recognized to be in tatters).

Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to draft a historical briefing paper that outlines the US role in the so-called Arab Israeli peace process from 1967 to 2003 or so, assesses the wisdom (or lack thereof) and success (or lack thereog) and recommend, based on this history, whether or not the U.S. should accept either the Arab League Peace Proposal or the Geneva Accord as a basis for a settlement, or continue with its support for the Road Map. You should consider the impact of the U.S. position (and its history) on the Arab world, Israel, and Palestinians. You should also consider whether it is possible (or desirable) for the U.S. to be an "honest broker" given its historically close relationship with Israel. More documents will be posted soon.

Documents/Links

The "Peace Process" - a series of links and discussion from Global Policy.org, a nongovernmental organization which monitors the UN. Contains the text of all the major documents, peace plans and final status proposals

Official Collection of US documents and positions on the Arab-Israeli Conflict

Israeli-Palestinian and Arab-Israeli Peace Plans - a good summary from http://www.mideastweb.org/index.html, an online community of Israeli Jewish, Palestinian and non-Israeli scholars and activists seeking to "build a new Middle East based on coexistence and neighborly relations"

Ha'aretz Newspaper on the Geneva Accord Text of the accord and criticism right and left from Israel's most critical daily newspaper