Editorial: Arab Peace Initiative

The chief merit of the plan is that it restores a much-needed clarity to the whole process. The offer is clear, leaving no room for ambiguity about the shape of a final settlement: two independent neighboring states. The offer does not insist on confidence-building measures or stage-by-stage disengagement. The main drawback of previous plans was that they gave the occupying power, Israel, the authority to decide whether the Palestinians were conducting themselves so that they deserved the next stage of withdrawal or, indeed, whether they deserved any other concessions.