Israel's first woman ambassador to the United Nations sees cracks in the longstanding Arab cold shoulder and animosity directed at the Jewish state.

Gabriela Shalev, Israel's first woman ambassador to the United Nations, speaks during a Security Council meeting about the situation in the Middle East on Sept 26, 2008, at the UN headquarters in New York. [Agencies]

Gabriela Shalev pointed to the UN interfaith conference in mid-November, held at the initiative of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, who listened to a speech by Israel's President Shimon Peres "which never happened before".

Peres and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni also met privately with some Arab leaders during the two-day meeting in the General Assembly, and Shalev said she took part in some of the discussions. The Israelis refused to identify any of the Arabs, citing the sensitivity of the talks.

"The whole idea was to start some kind of a dialogue with the moderate Arab countries, and the UN is really the right place - not to do negotiations themselves, but all states are represented," Shalev said.

Israel already has low-level trade relations but no diplomatic ties with Qatar, an energy-rich Gulf state which has established itself as a regional peace-broker in recent years. In April, its leader, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifah Al-Thani, invited Livni to give the keynote speech at the Doha Forum on Democracy.

And at the UN General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting in late September, the foreign minister of Bahrain - a island nation with Sunni rulers and a Shi'ite majority - created a stir when he said it was time to consider establishing an organization that would include "all states in the Middle East, without exception" to overcome long-standing differences and ensure "stable and lasting peace".

When Foreign Minister Sheik Khalid bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa was asked afterward by the Arab daily Al-Hayat if it would include Israel, he replied, "with Israel, Turkey, Iran and Arab countries. Let them all sit together in one group. ... This is the only path to solve our problems."

Shalev, a 67-year-old law professor who speaks Arabic and spent her working life on university campuses in the US, Canada and Europe as well as in Israel, said she was warned that the UN was "a very cold and hostile place, especially to Israel."

Israel has been the target of more UN resolutions than any other country, most criticizing its treatment of the Palestinians. A 1975 General Assembly resolution equating Zionism with racism was finally rescinded in December 1991.