As Arab leaders prepare to attend the summit of the Council of the Arab league to be held in Beirut March 27 and 28, 2001, the draft committee is finalizing the contents of the Saudi initiative proposed by Crown Prince Abdullah that commits all Arabs to normal relations with Israel for a full withdrawal of all Arab land occupied in 1967.

The summit is of quite importance to Arab public audience and has stirred considerable interest among diplomats namely because it will address the future of the Middle East and it will decide what happens next. It is seen as a major first step to concluding a peace deal between the Israelis, the Palestinians, the Syrians and the Lebanese, a step that the US administration has embraced. The idea of peace with Israel is not new, but the timing may well put all parties back on the peace track. According to Amr Moussa the Mideast faces `either justice and peace or total anarchy and confrontations," so what will be of the summit?

On ground, Israeli military policies continue regardless of any peace initiative; latest round of security meetings fail to achieve an agreement; Cheney's scheduled meeting with President Arafat in Cairo is a forgotten issue; Ariel Sharon continues to prevent Arafat from attending the Arab League meeting and to top it all Israeli aggression managed to murder seven Palestinians in less than 24 hours.

Because the regional dynamics are changing so rapidly, bold and courageous decisions are to be expected from the Arab League summit. Ending the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories and accepting a sovereign Palestinian state on the land occupied since June 4, 1967 with Jerusalem as its capital in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions 242, 338 and 1397; finding a just solution to the problem of the Palestinian refugees in conformity with UN resolution 194; ending the brutal killings of Palestinian civilians and the endless siege of Palestinian towns and villages, and other vital issues are but some minimum requirements.

The summit, it seems, may offer some hope to the gloomy prospects of calm in the region. Yet, without a serious consideration of the political issues and root causes of the conflict, any initiative is bound to backfire and drag the region further into bloody conflict and escalation.