We've maintained since our founding, in January 1982, that real stability in the Middle East and real security for both Arabs and Israelis, must start with an Arab-Israeli land-for-peace settlement based upon U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, including full Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, Gaza, southern Lebanon and the Golan Heights, and equal rights for all of the Muslim, Christian and Jewish residents of a shared Jerusalem.

We also have suggested that the dispute is not between Arabs and Israelis, but rather moderates versus extremists in each camp. Now we include the objective of fair and free elections to choose Palestinian leaders to finalize a peace agreement with Israel. Our goal, therefore, has been the fine-tuning of U.S. Middle East policies to support the moderates in Israel, in the Arab States, and in the rest of the Islamic world.

These proposals for bettering U.S. relations with all Middle Eastern countries have been characterized as "Arabist" or "Israel bashing" by partisans of special interests in the Middle East. But they provided the underpinning for the principles of peace signed Sept. 13, 1993, and the Cairo, Oslo II and Wye Plantation implementation agreements that followed.

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