Islamic States See Sympathy Turning Against Israel
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Courtesy Of: Reuters
By Andrew Hammond
Sat Nov. 18, 2006
http://today.reuters.com

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - International opinion has started to turn against Israel after its army killed Palestinian civilians this month, Arab and Muslim officials said in Saudi Arabia on Saturday.

"There is growing international resentment over Israel's actions and policies ... we must take advantage of this change to stop Israel acting like a country above the law," said Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary-general of the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

He urged a meeting of the Saudi-based body to organize diplomatic action to help the Palestinians.

The U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly on Friday to deplore a deadly Israeli artillery attack in Gaza earlier this month, defying a U.S. veto which blocked similar condemnation at the U.N. Security Council.

On November 8 Israeli shelling killed 19 Palestinian civilians at Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip, part of ongoing military operations against Palestinian militants.

Ihsanoglu said the OIC had been instrumental in mobilizing Islamic and non-Western states against a U.S.-Israeli alliance at the United Nations.

He also pointed to a new European drive to restart peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Israel has resisted peace talks because the Islamic militant group Hamas won Palestinian Authority elections this year.

France, Spain and Italy said this week they would try to revive the moribund peace process.

Arab and Islamic states want an international conference to help create a land-for-peace deal between Israel and her neighbors that would see Palestinians set up a state on the territories Israel has occupied since 1967.

Israel has built Jewish settlements on the land and does not want to hand over the entire territory.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar told Reuters the defeat of President George W. Bush's Republican Party in mid-term elections this month was another sign that the wind was blowing the Arabs' way.

Voter anger over Iraq help oust Bush's Republicans from power in Congress in the November 7 elections.

"Things have turned around ... There are major new factors involved, including the American retreat in military terms and in Congress, and new Arab-Islamic action," Zahar said.

"Instead of plans being proposed to us that do not meet the Palestinian people's needs, internationally accepted Arab proposals are being made," he said, referring to a 2002 Arab land-for-peace offer welcomed in Europe and which some Israeli officials recently said could be a basis for talks.

"If we develop this, we could take the initiative in the Palestinian issue out of America's hands and into those of the international community, which is fairer."