My letter to the NYTimes RE One Step Forward, The Arab League offers an improved proposal for peace in the Middle East, a welcome announcement.

 Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world...

In 1950, on the second anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, students at the UN International Nursery School in New York viewed a poster of the historic document.   After adopting it on December 10, 1948, the UN General Assembly had called upon all Member States to publicize the text of the Declaration and "to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories."  (UN Photo)

 RE One Step Forward
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/03/opinion/one-step-forward-for-the-israelis-and-palestinians.html?ref=global

Dear Editor,

In 1948, Martin Luther Kings was fifteen years away from articulating "I have a dream" making America a more real democracy.

In 1948, after the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust, the idea of creating a country called Israel specifically as a Jewish homeland probably seemed reasonable.  That was then, this is now... Now after the longest running refugee crisis in the world today only grows more catastrophic for the native non-Jewish population of the land that Israel currently rules with an iron fist, and now as Islamists clamor to gain power, I think we must conscientiously refuse to underwrite religious tyranny of any type: Taxpayers here and there should not be funding religious 'scholars', settlements and further conflict.

Fair and just laws and respect for universal basic human rights are the tools to keep Jewish people (as well as Muslims and Christians and everyone else) safe, secure, gainfully employed, able active citizens contributing to the common good. Two fully sovereign secular states, one Israel and one Palestine living side by side in peace is the best way forward- for everyone's sake.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES
Fayyad Steps Down, Not Out

The Economist: Squeeze them out... As Jewish settlements expand, the Palestinians are being driven away

'Quiet man' Kerry's strategy for Middle East peace

Vatican urged to act after nuns, landowners lose Israel wall challenge After a seven-year legal battle, a group of Palestinian landowners and Catholic nuns this week lost an appeal against Israel building its separation barrier on their land.

Youth voice hope for change in static Palestinian politics

This Week in Palestine: Palestinian Institutions A Story of Perseverance ... Salam Fayyad "This was not about roads, buildings, or infrastructure, despite their importance. This plan was about statehood, citizen participation, and enfranchisement. It was based on the vision of establishing a functional framework where government is accountable and citizens participate in the widest and most effective way possible in decision-making and governance."

Israeli forces uproot 700 olive trees near Jenin

CNN online Dean Obeidallah: I'm Muslim, and I hate terrorism

Hussein Ibish: Fate of Christians will define the Arab future

"I come from there and I have memories... "

*******

LIKE ATFP - The American Task Force on Palestine

"The only way to honor our tragic histories is to create a future for our children free of man-made tragedy. This means making peace fully, completely and without reservation, between Israel and Palestine." ATFP's Ziad Asali: To honor a tragic history, we must work for peace

The Balfour Declaration of 1917

".... it being clearly understood that nothing
          shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious
          rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine..."

"Legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." Thomas Jefferson

The Office of International Religious Freedom ( http://www.state.gov/j/drl/irf/)   Given the U.S. commitment to religious freedom, and to the international covenants that guarantee it as the inalienable right of every human being, the United States seeks to:

Promote freedom of religion and conscience throughout the world as a fundamental human right and as a source of stability for all countries

Palestinian Refugees(1948-NOW) refused their right to return... and their right to live in peace free from religious bigotry and injustice.

The Golden Rule... Do unto others as you would have them do unto you

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world." Eleanor Roosevelt

Empowering Peace & Palestine

Refugees and the Right of Return

Palestinian refugees must be given the option to exercise their right of return (as well as receive compensation for their losses arising from their dispossession and displacement) though refugees may prefer other options such as: (i) resettlement in third countries, (ii) resettlement in a newly independent Palestine (even though they originate from that part of Palestine which became Israel) or (iii) normalization of their legal status in the host country where they currently reside.  What is important is that individual refugees decide for themselves which option they prefer – a decision must not be imposed upon them.

UN Resolution 194 from 1948  : The refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible.

The Economist: Squeeze them out... As Jewish settlements expand, the Palestinians are being driven away

A barrage of reports by the UN, the European Union and assorted charities has repeatedly warned that the Palestinians in Area C are under threat. Some 350,000 Jewish settlers now inhabit over 200 settlements and outposts in the same area, usually on the high ground, twice as many people as the Palestinians in the land below.

May 4th 2013 

 [AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21577111-jewish-settlements-expand-palestinians-are-being-driven-away-squeeze-them?frsc=dg|a 

 

IT WAS just another day for the Israeli army on the West Bank. Having parked its jeeps in the hills south of Hebron, a unit of soldiers checked the papers of the Palestinians who lived there, confiscated one or two, and then herded the people and their flocks off a hilltop which a nearby Jewish settlement, called Susiya, has been eyeing with a view to taking it over. “Military zone,” tersely explained an Israeli officer, who had just received a warrant declaring it such. “Off you go.”

Taking time out from their Saturday morning prayers, a few settlers looked on approvingly. “Don’t argue,” replied the officer, when a Palestinian shepherd asked why the soldiers were moving Arabs out of the newly acquired military zone but not Jews. “You have a minute to move or I’ll arrest you,” said the officer.

“Settlers are just off-duty soldiers,” mumbled the shepherd to his sons as they stubbornly continued to tend their sheep. A Palestinian mother picnicking with her two toddlers is hauled away by Israeli soldiers, while villagers plead for her release.

The signs of previous bouts of displacement ring the adjacent hills. Mobile homes for young Jewish settlers sprout on the hilltops. Armed with a list of military orders, Israeli soldiers are herding the West Bank’s Palestinians out of the rural 60% of the territory, officially known as Area C, where Israel has full military and civilian control, and into cities. On some days the Israeli army declares a patch of land to be a live-fire military zone. On other days they say the Palestinians must move because of an impending archaeological dig. The erection of hilltop stations to provide antennae for Israeli mobile phones (but not for Palestinian ones) is another oft-cited reason for pushing Palestinians out. Eight Palestinian hamlets around Susiya face demolition.

Armed Jewish settlers assist the clearance. Soon after the army did its job, a Jewish shepherdess from Susiya brought her flock onto a Palestinian field of wheat to let it graze. Someone had scratched out all the Arabic road signs...READ MORE

My letter to the Washington Post RE Netanyahu cool to Arab land-swap initiative [Kerry this week praised the League for backing land swaps as part of Israeli-Palestinian peace process.]

Liberty Enlightening the World

The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World is a universal symbol of freedom and democracy... The statue, a gift to the United States from the people of France, is of a robed female figure representing Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom, who bears a torch and a tabula ansata (a tablet evoking the law)

RE: Israel’s Netanyahu responds coolly to Arab League support for land swaps

Kerry this week praised the League for backing land swaps as part of Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/netanyahu-cool-to-arab-land-swap-initiative/2013/05/01/b695449c-b282-11e2-9fb1-62de9581c946_story.html

Dear Editor,

The US State Department has clear goals and priorities- one of the most obvious is to "Promote freedom of religion and conscience throughout the world as a fundamental human right and as a source of stability for all countries" http://www.state.gov/j/drl/irf/  

Palestinians refusing to recognize Israel's right to exist is a very different thing than Palestinians refusing to recognize Israel as Jewish, or as Netanyahu phrases it to "recognize Israel as the national state of the Jewish people". 

Israel's Jewishness is none of our business. It is not America's job to define what is Jewish or who is Jewish or where Jewish people should live and who they should be allowed to marry.

Our efforts to help end the Israel-Palestine conflict need to be in line with our ideals.  America should not be advocating (or funding) official state religions. Nor should Palestinians be forced to endorse and empower the institutionalized bigotry that already exists in Israel.

A fully secular two state solution to once and for all actually end the Israel-Palestine conflict is the best way forward. Tax payers (here and there) should not be coerced into funding creeds and cults and religious tyranny of any type.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES
'Quiet man' Kerry's strategy for Middle East peace

Vatican urged to act after nuns, landowners lose Israel wall challenge After a seven-year legal battle, a group of Palestinian landowners and Catholic nuns this week lost an appeal against Israel building its separation barrier on their land.

Youth voice hope for change in static Palestinian politics

This Week in Palestine: Palestinian Institutions A Story of Perseverance ... Salam Fayyad "This was not about roads, buildings, or infrastructure, despite their importance. This plan was about statehood, citizen participation, and enfranchisement. It was based on the vision of establishing a functional framework where government is accountable and citizens participate in the widest and most effective way possible in decision-making and governance."

Israeli forces uproot 700 olive trees near Jenin

CNN online Dean Obeidallah: I'm Muslim, and I hate terrorism

Hussein Ibish: Fate of Christians will define the Arab future

"I come from there and I have memories... "

*******

LIKE ATFP - The American Task Force on Palestine

"The only way to honor our tragic histories is to create a future for our children free of man-made tragedy. This means making peace fully, completely and without reservation, between Israel and Palestine." ATFP's Ziad Asali: To honor a tragic history, we must work for peace

The Balfour Declaration of 1917

".... it being clearly understood that nothing
          shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious
          rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine..."

"Legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." Thomas Jefferson

The Office of International Religious Freedom ( http://www.state.gov/j/drl/irf/)   Given the U.S. commitment to religious freedom, and to the international covenants that guarantee it as the inalienable right of every human being, the United States seeks to:

Promote freedom of religion and conscience throughout the world as a fundamental human right and as a source of stability for all countries

Palestinian Refugees(1948-NOW) refused their right to return... and their right to live in peace free from religious bigotry and injustice.

The Golden Rule... Do unto others as you would have them do unto you

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world." Eleanor Roosevelt

Empowering Peace & Palestine

Refugees and the Right of Return

Palestinian refugees must be given the option to exercise their right of return (as well as receive compensation for their losses arising from their dispossession and displacement) though refugees may prefer other options such as: (i) resettlement in third countries, (ii) resettlement in a newly independent Palestine (even though they originate from that part of Palestine which became Israel) or (iii) normalization of their legal status in the host country where they currently reside.  What is important is that individual refugees decide for themselves which option they prefer – a decision must not be imposed upon them.

UN Resolution 194 from 1948  : The refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible.

My letters 4-21, 4-24 & 5-1-2013 RE Salam Fayyad's state building efforts & The Arab Peace Initiative

RE Kerry makes headway with Middle East peace, but violence flares
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2013/0430/Kerry-makes-headway-with-Middle-East-peace-but-violence-flares?nav=87-frontpage-entryNineItem

Dear Editor,

The Arab Peace Initiative is sensible, realistic and an admirable first firm step towards actually ending the Israel-Palestine conflict and all the many negative ramifications created by that conflict.

Kudos to all who are courageous and compassionate enough to help shape and sustain a just and lasting peace with real security for all, regardless of supposed race or religion.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES

This Week in Palestine: Palestinian Institutions A Story of Perseverance ... Salam Fayyad "This was not about roads, buildings, or infrastructure, despite their importance. This plan was about statehood, citizen participation, and enfranchisement. It was based on the vision of establishing a functional framework where government is accountable and citizens participate in the widest and most effective way possible in decision-making and governance."

Israeli forces uproot 700 olive trees near Jenin

CNN online Dean Obeidallah: I'm Muslim, and I hate terrorism

Hussein Ibish: Fate of Christians will define the Arab future

"I come from there and I have memories... "

*******

LIKE ATFP - The American Task Force on Palestine

"The only way to honor our tragic histories is to create a future for our children free of man-made tragedy. This means making peace fully, completely and without reservation, between Israel and Palestine." ATFP's Ziad Asali: To honor a tragic history, we must work for peace

The Balfour Declaration of 1917

".... it being clearly understood that nothing
          shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious
          rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine..."

"Legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." Thomas Jefferson

The Office of International Religious Freedom ( http://www.state.gov/j/drl/irf/)   Given the U.S. commitment to religious freedom, and to the international covenants that guarantee it as the inalienable right of every human being, the United States seeks to:

Promote freedom of religion and conscience throughout the world as a fundamental human right and as a source of stability for all countries

Palestinian Refugees(1948-NOW) refused their right to return... and their right to live in peace free from religious bigotry and injustice.

The Golden Rule... Do unto others as you would have them do unto you

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world." Eleanor Roosevelt

Empowering Peace & Palestine

Refugees and the Right of Return

Palestinian refugees must be given the option to exercise their right of return (as well as receive compensation for their losses arising from their dispossession and displacement) though refugees may prefer other options such as: (i) resettlement in third countries, (ii) resettlement in a newly independent Palestine (even though they originate from that part of Palestine which became Israel) or (iii) normalization of their legal status in the host country where they currently reside.  What is important is that individual refugees decide for themselves which option they prefer – a decision must not be imposed upon them.

UN Resolution 194 from 1948  : The refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible.

*************



RE: Goodbye to All That by Thomas L. Friedman
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/24/opinion/friedman-goodbye-to-all-that.html

Dear Editor,

There are many nails in the coffin of the two-state solution and the cherished dream of a free Palestine.... and the cherished dream of a just and lasting peace here there and everywhere.

The insulting assertion by some that Fayyad was a "stooge" for America helps hate mongering anti-Palestine activists and agent provocateurs lay the groundwork for mainstream America and our leadership to become even more alienated from Palestine. 

Anti-America rhetoric has serious ramifications beyond merely hurting the feelings of Americans, and jeopardizing future funding of Middle East state building efforts and UNWRA.

Anti-America rhetoric, as well as anti-Israel rhetoric, fuels terrorism... " What makes young men, in the prime of their lives, believe that killing others, including at a sports event, is some kind of sacred duty? And can they really identify with an imaginary "nation," one that transcends boundaries and ethnicities, no less? And what will it take to make people on all four corners of earth unite in putting an end to this barbaric pattern and bringing such young men to their senses?" Hassan Khader: Mourning Martin Richard

Fayyad was good for Palestine, not only because of his non-corrupt, institution-focused leadership, but also because he was a darn good diplomat and role model.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES
"When concepts such as democracy, secularism and liberalism are stigmatized and discredited as products of an alien and hostile culture, their Arab advocates are crippled from the outset... A basic decision needs to be made. We can resign ourselves to downplaying and shortchanging these concepts. Or we can reassert and redefine them by demonstrating in practical terms how these values -- along with our system of entrepreneurship -- have informed American success and are fueling growth and progress around the world." Dr. Ziad Asali

ATFP Thanks PM Fayyad for his Service, Reiterates Importance of Institution-Building

April 15, 2013

At Cornell, Panelists Call for Solution to Conflict in Middle East

Hussein Ibish: Fate of Christians will define the Arab future: "States will become, at best, merely the geographical battlegrounds and, at worst, the principal weapons of repression between battling groups of intolerant religious fanatics."

Gifts of Glass

Our words have a way of echoing out into either war or peace....

Growing Gardens for Palestine: Nominating a hero

"Resuscitating the peace process"...excellent cartoon from the Baltimore Sun

HEAR PEACE - SEE PEACE - SPEAK PEACE.... be peace

 
Crowdsourcing Peace: By going over the heads of Israeli and Palestinian leaders, Obama is demanding that their people step up.

LIKE ATFP - The American Task Force on Palestine

"I come from there and I have memories... "

*******
"The only way to honor our tragic histories is to create a future for our children free of man-made tragedy. This means making peace fully, completely and without reservation, between Israel and Palestine." ATFP's Ziad Asali: To honor a tragic history, we must work for peace

The Balfour Declaration of 1917

".... it being clearly understood that nothing
          shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious
          rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine..."

What is an Israeli settlement

"Legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." Thomas Jefferson

The Office of International Religious Freedom ( http://www.state.gov/j/drl/irf/)   Given the U.S. commitment to religious freedom, and to the international covenants that guarantee it as the inalienable right of every human being, the United States seeks to:

Promote freedom of religion and conscience throughout the world as a fundamental human right and as a source of stability for all countries

Palestinian Refugees(1948-NOW) refused their right to return... and their right to live in peace free from religious bigotry and injustice.

The Golden Rule... Do unto others as you would have them do unto you

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world." Eleanor Roosevelt

Empowering Peace & Palestine

Refugees and the Right of Return

Palestinian refugees must be given the option to exercise their right of return (as well as receive compensation for their losses arising from their dispossession and displacement) though refugees may prefer other options such as: (i) resettlement in third countries, (ii) resettlement in a newly independent Palestine (even though they originate from that part of Palestine which became Israel) or (iii) normalization of their legal status in the host country where they currently reside.  What is important is that individual refugees decide for themselves which option they prefer – a decision must not be imposed upon them.

UN Resolution 194 from 1948  : The refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible.

The Arab Peace Initiative

Emanating from the conviction of the Arab countries that a military solution to the conflict will not achieve peace or provide security for the parties, the council:

1. Requests Israel to reconsider its policies and declare that a just peace is its strategic option as well.

2. Further calls upon Israel to affirm:

I- Full Israeli withdrawal from all the territories occupied since 1967, including the Syrian Golan Heights, to the June 4, 1967 lines as well as the remaining occupied Lebanese territories in the south of Lebanon.

II- Achievement of a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem to be agreed upon in accordance with U.N. General Assembly Resolution 194.

III- The acceptance of the establishment of a sovereign independent Palestinian state on the Palestinian territories occupied since June 4, 1967 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

3. Consequently, the Arab countries affirm the following:

I- Consider the Arab-Israeli conflict ended, and enter into a peace agreement with Israel, and provide security for all the states of the region.

II- Establish normal relations with Israel in the context of this comprehensive peace.

4. Assures the rejection of all forms of Palestinian patriation which conflict with the special circumstances of the Arab host countries.

5. Calls upon the government of Israel and all Israelis to accept this initiative in order to safeguard the prospects for peace and stop the further shedding of blood, enabling the Arab countries and Israel to live in peace and good neighbourliness and provide future generations with security, stability and prosperity.

6. Invites the international community and all countries and organisations to support this initiative.

7. Requests the chairman of the summit to form a special committee composed of some of its concerned member states and the secretary general of the League of Arab States to pursue the necessary contacts to gain support for this initiative at all levels, particularly from the United Nations, the Security Council, the United States of America, the Russian Federation, the Muslim states and the European Union.

 

**************

 

 

 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-fayyad-20130420,0,2859547.story 

 

I totally appreciate and agree with your pro-Palestine editorial- and I think that it is a huge shame that so many people  sabotaged and/or scapegoated Fayyad, rather than appreciating his wisdom and his many positive contributions to Palestine.  He is indeed a hero.

Kerry backs moves to revive Arab peace initiative... Addressing reporters after the talks, he said he had reaffirmed the vision of President Barack Obama of "two states living side-by-side in peace and security, brought about through direct negotiations between the parties."

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr Al-Thani deliver a joint statement after a multilateral meeting with the Arab League delegation at the Blair House in Washington, D.C., on April 29, 2013. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=590774

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- US Secretary of State John Kerry made a fresh push Monday to relaunch the moribund Middle East peace process, meeting top Arab League officials in a bid to revive a decade-old Saudi plan.

Far from the cameras, the new top US diplomat held talks with senior ministers from the Arab League, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the Palestinian territories to discuss the Arab Peace Initiative.

The ministers, meeting in the privacy of Blair House just a stone's throw from the White House, were also joined by Vice President Joe Biden, for what Kerry called a "very positive, very constructive discussion."

Since taking office on February 1, Kerry has plunged into the maelstrom of Arab-Israeli politics hoping to break an impasse and resume the vital Palestinian-Israeli talks which collapsed in late 2010.

After his discussions, he praised "the Arab League's very important role... in bringing about a peace in the Middle East, and specifically by reaffirming the Arab Peace Initiative here... with a view to ending the conflict."

Kerry has suggested the Arab Peace Initiative -- unveiled in 2002 by Saudi King Abdullah in which 22 Arab countries would normalize ties with Israel in return for Israeli withdrawal from occupied lands -- could provide a framework.

Addressing reporters after the talks, he said he had reaffirmed the vision of President Barack Obama of "two states living side-by-side in peace and security, brought about through direct negotiations between the parties."

Kerry has already traveled three times to the region, meeting senior Israeli and Palestinian officials, pursuing what he has called "a quiet strategy" in an ambitious bid to revive the talks and achieve a peace treaty which has eluded successive American administrations for decades.

Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim, chair of the Arab Peace Initiative follow-up committee, headed the delegation, which also included Palestinian foreign affairs minister Riyad al-Maliki and Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi.

"Peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis ... is a strategic choice for the Arab states," Jassim said after the talks.

He agreed that any deal should be based on a two-state solution, with the borders defined by the June 4, 1967 borders, before Israeli troops seized East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

But Jassim backed Obama's proposals for a "comparable and mutual agreed minor swap of the land" between Israelis and Palestinians to reflect the realities of the burgeoning communities on the ground.

Earlier, Jassim had welcomed the talks saying he believed it was "an important meeting, an important era, which we hope will lead to peace, a comprehensive peace between the Arabs and the Israelis."

Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr also attended the talks, along with Bahrain's Foreign Minister Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmed al-Khalifa and top Saudi and Lebanese officials.

The talks came after a "series of productive conversations by the secretary to explore how we can best move regional peace efforts forward," deputy acting State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell told journalists.

They also focused on new proposals from Kerry to promote economic development on the West Bank -- a scheme in which he is hoping to attract private sector investment to boost Palestinian trust.