Israel Defense Minister Eyes Arab Plan

In this photo made available by the Israeli Government Press Office, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, left, listens to a brief, given by an unidentified Israeli army officer, at an army post on the border with Lebanon in northern Israel Tuesday Oct. 31, 2006. (AP Photo/GPO, Moshe Milner, HO) (Moshe Milner - AP)

At the time, Israel asked Saudi Arabia to send an envoy to clarify the proposal, but that did not happen.

In 2003, the Saudi initiative was overtaken by the U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan, which called for establishment of a Palestinian state in a three-stage process and mentioned the Saudi initiative as part of the basis for the solution.

However, the plan was frozen from the outset when neither side implemented its initial steps. Israel failed to dismantle dozens of unauthorized West Bank settlement outposts, and the Palestinians declined to disarm violent groups.

Peace moves have been stalled since 2000, when the outbreak of Palestinian violence followed a failed summit meeting of Israeli and Palestinian leaders in the United States.

Israel's official position has been that the "road map" is the only plan on the table now, but Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev indicated the Saudi plan could be the basis for talks.

"Israel has never accepted the Saudi initiative but would see positive elements in the initiative, particularly the call for reconciliation and the call for establishing normalized realizations between Israel and her Arab neighbors," Regev told The Associated Press.

Though Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's election platform this year called for a unilateral Israeli pullout from much of the West Bank, he shelved the proposal in the aftermath of the unpopular, inconclusive war with Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas in the summer.

The addition this week of an ultra-hawkish party to shore up Olmert's governing coalition made a new peace drive unlikely.