John V. Whitbeck, Arab News, 31/07/07. To prevent such a manipulation and deformation of the Arab Peace Initiative, the “carrot” must be complemented with a credible and effective “stick”. The Arab League should make it clear that, if Israel does not accept the Arab Peace Initiative, without reservations, by a specific near-term date, it will lapse and be “off the table”. At the same time, the major Arab and Muslim oil producers should state that, if Israel rejects the Arab Peace Initiative, then, until Israel complies fully with international law and UN resolutions by withdrawing from all occupied Arab land to its internationally recognized borders, they will reduce their petroleum exports by increments of five percent each month — month after month after month.
It would, of course, be preferable if the United States, whose unconditional support of Israel has made possible its continuing occupation of Arab lands, were to undergo a moral and ethical transformation and if Americans were suddenly to realize both that Palestinians are human beings entitled to basic human rights and that international law should be complied with by all, not only by the poor, the weak and the Arab. Realistically, after so many years of antithetical attitudes, such a transformation is most unlikely to occur.
However, if Americans cannot be reached through their hearts or minds, they can be reached through their wallets. If oil prices, already near historic highs, were to soar and stock market prices were to plunge, Americans would be certain to start asking why, precisely, Israel should be permitted to continue defying international law and UN resolutions and denying Palestinians their basic human rights and why the United States, alone, should be unconditionally supporting it in doing so — at the cost of both worldwide anti-American rage and sharply higher oil prices for Americans.
Since no American national interests are served by Israel’s continuing occupation of Arab lands, no credible, nonracist answers could be offered, and, with oil prices rising, stock market prices falling and no reversal of these trends in sight, these questions would become more insistent and Israel’s defiant position could rapidly become untenable.
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