Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa opened the two-day meeting, Saturday, by warning that Arabs will not stay idle in the face of fierce Israeli attacks against the Palestinians. In his speech, the former Egyptian foreign minister accused Israel of making violence its "permanent strategic policy."

 Kuwait's minister of state for foreign affairs, Sheikh Mohammad al-Salem al-Sabah, says the Palestinian people are "longing to have the international community stand at their side and protect them from Israeli tyranny." 

The Cairo meeting is also expected to focus on Saudi Crown Price Abdullah's proposal for Arab countries to normalize relations with Israel in return for Israel's withdrawal from Arab lands captured in the 1967 Middle East War. 

The Saudi initiative has already won support from three major Arab countries - Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. Libya and Iraq have rejected the Saudi initiative and instead called for stepped up Arab support for the Palestinian uprising.

 The Saudi plan is expected to be discussed at an Arab summit meeting, scheduled later this month in Beirut. 

Some information for this report provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.

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