EDITOR’S NOTE: The opinions stated in guest editorials are not necessarily the opinions of Beyond Chron.

Once again, the leaders of 22 Arab states are practically down on their hands and knees –begging Israel to make peace. The Saudi-initiated Arab League Peace Plan – re-affirmed at the March 29th summit in Riyadh – would provide fully normalized diplomatic relations to Israel. Palestinian President Abbas calls it an opportunity for Israel to “live in a sea of peace.” The requirements are simple: withdraw to the 1967 borders and a just, mutually agreed solution to the Palestinian refugee crisis – both based on U.N. resolutions.

For years, Israeli leaders have balked at any attempt to resolve the conflict. Ariel Sharon’s claim was that “there is no one to talk to and nothing to talk about” – despite the election of moderate President Abbas who has repeatedly called for nonviolent resistance to Israel’s occupation. Current Prime Minister Olmert’s excuse is that the Arab Peace Plan requires Israel to play its part in resolving the Palestinian refugee crisis, conveniently ignoring the “mutually agreed” part of the language (which would allow Israel to ensure that any influx of refugees would not alter the Jewish majority status of Israel, a redline for most Israelis.)

His further excuse is that Israel will not accept a full withdrawal from the West Bank – but in reality, key Palestinian negotiators have already agreed to border modifications on a one-to-one basis (the Geneva Initiative). If Israel were to sit down with the Arabs with the intention of making peace, there is little doubt that a final version of the plan could address the needs of all parties.

The truth of the matter – the Elephant in the room that no Israeli leader will publicly admit – is that Israel does not want to make peace with the Arabs because it has no intention of confronting its politically powerful settler constituency. Successive Israeli governments – “left” and “right” alike – have supported Israel’s illegal and immoral colonization of the occupied territories, which has led to over 450,000 colonizers on Palestinian land and the West Bank map turned into a Swiss cheese of disconnected ghettoes.

Let us pray that someone in Israel will have the courage to confront the colonizers and bring them home, but don’t hold your breath. As veteran Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery of Gush Shalom reports, the current Israeli government has not dismantled so much as a single settlement “outpost” despite repeated (perfunctory) promises to do so.

I’m an American Jew who has spent extensive time in the Holy Land, and I have witnessed first-hand Israel’s systemic oppression of the Palestinian population and theft of their farmlands. It is with deep sadness that I must report that President Carter’s charge of Apartheid in the occupied territories is correct. For instance, near the holy city of Bethlehem, I watched the Israeli army bulldoze a Palestinian home in order to construct a road that only Israeli settlers are allowed to access. If separate laws, separate public works projects, and land theft from one ethnic group for the benefit of another does not constitute Apartheid, please tell me what does.

The Arab Peace Plan might be Israel’s last best chance to change this tragic reality into a positive one. If Israel once again ignores the initiative, Avnery expects more war to be visited on innocent Arab and Jewish civilian populations.

In the meantime, I wonder if it’s time for the United States to change its foreign policy. U.S. taxpayer dollars fund the oppression that I witnessed. If we’re going to give billions to Israel, why not let it serve a constructive rather than destructive purpose, such as paying to move the settlers out of Palestinian lands and into appropriate housing in pre-1967 Israel?

As we begin the Passover holiday, let us channel our prayers and our activism for the liberation, freedom, and human rights of all human beings on this planet – especially the war-weary Jewish and Arab populations.

Matthew Taylor is a 5th year Peace and Conflict Studies student at UC Berkeley and an editor of PeacePower magazine (www.calpeacepower.org) who has written extensively on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.