Sherman, Royce Letter Signed by Over 200 Members of Congress

Washington, D.C. - Congressmen Brad Sherman (D-CA) and Ed Royce (R-CA), joined by more than two hundred of their colleagues, are urging the Saudi Arabian government to seize on this historical moment to foster peace in the Middle East i

n a letter to be delivered this evening. The letter calls on the Saudi government to engage directly with the Israelis to discuss a resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The letter to King

Abdullah builds on comments made by President Obama e

arlier this year in his address to the Muslim World,

when he called on Arab states to live up to their responsibility and recognize Israeli legitimacy. "…Arab states must recognize that the Arab Peace Initiative was an important beginning, but not the end of their responsibility," Obama said. “The Arab-Israeli conflict should no longer be used to distract the people of Arab nations from other problems. Instead, it must be a cause for action to help the Palestinian people develop the institutions that will sustain their state, to recognize Israel's legitimacy and to choose progress over a self-defeating focus on the past."

The Saudi Arabian government authored the Arab Peace Initiative, first proposed at an Arab League summit in 2002, which calls for Arab states to normalize relations with Israel in return for Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 "Green Line" and a settlement of the Palestinian refugee issue. This proposal is potentially an important step by the Arab states toward peace with Israel, as it holds out the possibility of Arab recognition of Israel. However, the Saudis have treated the proposal as a take-it-or-leave-it offer.

Sherman, a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, argues, “

it is not enough for the Saudis to put forward a peace proposal and treat it as a take-it-or-leave-it document that the Israelis must fulfill in total before the Arab states take any concrete steps toward peace with Israel.”

"How can there be peace without recognition of Israel? Direct engagement between the parties is essential if there is to be a chance at peace," remarked Royce, also a senior member of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

In part, the letter reads, “We have been disappointed thus far to see the public reaction of your government to President Obama’s request. Rather than expressing willingness to break down barriers between Arabs and Israelis, your foreign minister asserted that Saudi Arabia could not take any step toward normalization before the return of all Arab land.

”

To view the letter please click here.