Ok, last week four Israeli newspapers ran full-page ads paid for and produced by the Palestinian Authority calling for Israelis to accept the "Saudi initiative." The initiative itself calls on Israel to cede large swaths of land in exchange for peace and recognition that it is a state even by Arab nations.
But a paper in Jordan, one of only two Arab nations with a peace agreement, albeit tenuous, with Israel has refused to run the ad because it shows an Israeli flag along with an entire border of Islamic nations' flags.
This refusal shows there is "long way to go before we reach peace," Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said Wednesday.
An editor at Al-Arab Al-Yawm was quoted as saying that the advertisement was rejected both because of the flag and because it promoted the idea that Israel accepted the peace initiative, "although Israeli officials have rejected the initiative."
In fact, President Shimon Peres has said it is a good starting point for negotiations. But never mind.
"This shows the gap in terms of freedom of opinion and expression between Israel and its neighbors," Palmor said. "While it was possible for a foreign government to place a political advertisement in Israeli papers it seems impossible for the same government to place a call for Israeli Arab peace in a Jordanian paper, because of the Israeli flag. Some people have a long way to go before we reach peace."To say the least. And of course, this is Jordan which already recognizes Israel as a state. Imagine the others.
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