The Israel-Arab Reader

by Walter Laqueur

  H. In conclusion, His Majesty King Hussein and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin wish to express once again their profound thanks and appreciation to President William J. Clinton and his administration for their untiring efforts in furthering the cause of peace, justice, and prosperity for all the peoples of the region.

  King Hussein of Jordan and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin: Speeches on Signing the Washington Agreement (July 26, 1994)

  King Hussein of Jordan

  We in Jordan have always sought a bold peace. We have been conscious of our responsibilities towards the coming generations to ensure that they will have the certainty of leading a dignified and fulfilled life. We have sought a peace that can harness the creative energies to allow them to realize their true potential and build their future with confidence, devoid of fear and uncertainty. None of this can be achieved without establishing a direct dialogue at the highest level of leadership.

  This meeting in Washington, at the invitation of President Clinton, represents the beginning of a new phase in our common journey towards peace between Jordan and Israel. It is a milestone on the road toward comprehensive peace in our region. This meeting was preceded by a trilateral Jordanian-American-Israeli meeting at which my brother, Crown Prince Hassan, represented myself and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres represented Israel.

  The trilateral working group was established under an agreement completed at the meeting hosted by President Clinton at the White House in October 1993.

  Following my recent visit to the United States, in light of the status of negotiations, I decided to share with my people the realities affecting our search for peace. In a meeting with members of our parliament, I addressed the entire Jordanian nation. I have been rewarded by their approval and support. Their expression of confidence has always been the foremost consideration in my life. All of Jordan is here with me today.

  We also remember today the three generations of gallant Jordanians and so many others who sacrificed themselves for the cause of Palestine. Every household in Jordan has sent a son to answer the Arab call. Many have not returned. Their sacrifice has made it possible for me to be here today.

  My family has also paid a heavy price. My great grandfather, the leader of the great Arab revolt for freedom, independence and unity, lies buried next to the blessed Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. I was by the side of my grandfather, King Abdallah, at the doors of Al Aqsa Mosque when he was martyred. He was a man of peace who gave his life for this ideal. I have pledged my life to fulfilling his dream. He, too, is here today.

  Mr. Speaker, at our meeting today I hope you will find a clear message to the American nation and to the world.

  We are, together, committed to work tirelessly, to banish forever the abnormal conditions which have dominated our people’s lives. We want normality and humanity to become the prevailing order.

  Although we have labored for so long under conditions of hostility, I am certain that we can see these conditions for what they are: emblems of an unnatural and sinister state. We have all known the portents of the state— the fear of death, the silence of isolation—and we have all felt the fear that has mesmerized us, preventing us from moving forward to create together a bright future for the coming generations. What we are witnessing today, God willing, is a progression from a state of war to a state of peace.

  These unique circumstances allow us to take bold steps. Our meeting now represents a revolt against all that is unnatural. It is unnatural not to have direct and open meetings between our respective officials and their leaders in order to grapple with all aspects of the conflict and, God willing, to resolve them. It is unnatural not to wish to bridge this gulf across which we have all paid a shattering toll in blood and tears, the waste of our youth, and the grief of our forefathers. We have suffered this loss together, and it will leave its impact on all of us far into the future.

  The two Semitic people, the Arabs and the Jews, have endured bitter trials and tribulations during the journey of history. Let us resolve to end this suffering forever and to fulfill our responsibilities as leaders of our peoples and our duty as human beings towards mankind. I come before you today fully conscious of the need to secure a peace for all the children of Abraham. Our land is the birthplace of the divine faiths and the cradle of the heavenly messages to all humanity.

  I also come before you today as a soldier who seeks to bear arms solely in the defense of his homeland, a man who understands the fears of his neighbors and who wishes only to live in peace with them, a man who wishes to secure democracy, political pluralism and human rights for his nation.

  I come before you today encouraged in the knowledge that the prime minister of Israel and his government have responded to the call for peace. They have recognized the Palestinian people and their rights and are negotiating with their chosen leadership in accordance with United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338.

  For our part, we will never forget Palestine, not for a moment. We in Jordan were the first to shoulder our responsibility, and we were the most adversely affected by the legacy of the Palestinian tragedy. And still our people in Jordan remain one united family irrespective of their origins, sharing equally, free to choose our political future and destiny.

  My religious faith demands that sovereignty over the holy places in Jerusalem reside with God, and God alone. Dialogue between the faiths should be strengthened. Religious sovereignty should be accorded to all believers of the three Abrahamic faiths in accordance with their religions, and this way Jerusalem will become the symbol of peace and its embodiment as it must be for both Palestinians and Israelis when their negotiations determine the final status of Arab East Jerusalem.

  I come before you today fully confident that progress will be made on the Syrian-Israeli and Lebanese-Israeli tracks of the peace process and towards achievement of comprehensive peace. . . .

  The state of war between Israel and Jordan is over.

  We have accepted United Nations Security Council Resolution 338, which calls for negotiations between the parties concerned under appropriate auspices to establish a just and durable peace in the Middle East. We have accepted United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, which sought acknowledgement of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every state in the area and thereby to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries, free from threats or acts of force.

  I want to reaffirm, without any reservation, that we, together with other parties concerned, have exercised our sovereign right to make peace.

  We are moving forward and tackling, one by one, all the problems listed in our common agenda. We have great faith in our joint progress towards the ultimate goal, the culmination of all our efforts, a Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty.

  In this we take courage from the words of God in his holy book, the Koran, that if they should be inclined to make peace, do thou incline towards it also, and put thy trust in Allah. Surely it is he who is all hearing, all knowing.

  I value the long friendship between Jordan and the United States inherited from the era of my grandfather. I have strived over 34 years since the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower to ensure that it be honest and true.

  It has been a friendship built on mutual respect and common interests, and I am proud to remind how we stood shoulder to shoulder during the long years of the Cold War. And now, together we share a great hope to establish a lasting peace in the Middle East.

  We believe that an enduring partnership for cooperation and development between Jordan and the United States is essential to the realization of this dream. We aim to build a better future under peace, to change the pattern of life for our people from despair and hopelessness to honor and dignity. We want to fashion a new commonwealth of hope on our ancient soil. We want all voices to be heard in shaping a new regional order. If we are to achieve our aims, all of us must be given the opportunity and the tools to play our part in this historic endea
vor.

  The creative drive of our region has been crippled by the conflict. The healing hand of the international community is now essential. It should never be forgotten that peace resides ultimately not in the hands of governments but in the hands of the people, for unless peace can be made real to the men, women and children of the Middle East, the best efforts of negotiators will come to naught.

  I have come before you today to demonstrate that we are ready to open a new era in our relations with Israel. With the help and cooperation of this august body, the peace we all want can be achieved. With your help, I am certain that the imbalances between our societies can be remedied and that the sources of frustration and enmity can be eradicated. It is in this spirit and with these hopes that I share this platform with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

  Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin

  Each year, on Memorial Day for the Fallen of Israel’s Wars, I go to the cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. Facing me are the graves and headstones, the colorful flowers blooming on them—and thousands of pairs of weeping eyes. I stand there, in front of the large silent crowd—and read in their eyes the words of “The Young Dead Soldiers”—as the famous American poet Archibald MacLeish entitled the poem from which I take these lines: They say: Whether our lives and our deaths were for peace and a new hope, or for nothing, we cannot say; it is you who must say this.

  We have come from Jerusalem to Washington because it is we who must say, and we are here to say: Peace is our goal. It is peace we desire.

  With me here in this House today are my partners in this great dream. Allow me to refer to some Israelis who are here with me, here with you: • Amiram Kaplan, whose first brother was killed in an accident, whose second brother was killed in pursuit of terrorists, whose third brother was killed in war, and whose parents died of heartbreak. And today he is a seeker of peace.

  • Moshe Sasson, who, together with his father, was an emissary to the talks with King Abdallah and to other missions of peace. Today he is also an emissary of peace.

  • With me, a classmate of mine, Chana Rivlin of Kibbutz Gesher, which faces Jordan, who endured bitter fighting and lost a son in war. Today she looks out her window onto Jordan, and wants the dream of peace to come true.

  • Avraham Daskal, almost 90 years old, who worked for the Electric Company in Trans-Jordan and was privileged to attend the celebrations marking King Hussein’s birth, is hoping for peace in his lifetime.

  • And Dani Matt, who fought against Jordan in the War of Independence, was taken prisoner of war, and devoted his life to the security of the State of Israel. He hopes that his grandchildren will never know war.

  • Mrs. Penina Herzog, whose husband wove the first threads of political ties with Jordan.

  With us here in this hall are: • Mr. Gabi Kadosh, the mayor of Eilat, which touches the frontier with Jordan and will be a focus of common tourism.

  • And Mr. Shimon Cahaner, who fought against the Jordanians, memorializes his fallen comrades, and hopes that they will have been the last to fall.

  • And Mr. Talal al-Krienawi, the mayor of a Bedouin town in Israel, who looks forward to renewing the friendship with their brothers in Jordan.

  • And Mr. David Coren, a member of a kibbutz which was captured by the Jordanians in 1948, who awaits the day when the borders will be open.

  • And Dr. Asher Susser, a scholar who has done research on Jordan throughout his adult life.

  • And Dr. Sharon Regev, whose father was killed while pursuing terrorists in the Jordan Valley, and who yearns for peace with all his heart.

  Here they are before you. All of them wanted to come. Here they are, people who never rejoiced in the victories of war, but whose hearts are now filled with joy in peace.

  I have come here from Jerusalem on behalf of those thousands of bereaved families—though I haven’t asked their permission. I stand here on behalf of the parents who have buried their children; of the children who have no fathers; and of the sons and daughters who are gone, but return to us in our dreams. I stand here today on behalf of those youngsters who wanted to live, to love, to build a home.

  I have come from Jerusalem in the name of our children, who began their lives with great hope—and are now names on graves and memorial stones; old pictures in albums; fading clothes in closets.

  Each year as I stand before the parents whose lips are chanting “Kaddish”, the Jewish memorial prayer, ringing in my ears are the words of Archibald MacLeish, who echoes the plea of the young dead soldiers:

  They say: We leave you our deaths. Give them their meaning.

  Let us give them meaning. Let us make an end to bloodshed. Let us make true peace. Let us today be victorious in ending war.

  The debate goes on: Who shapes the face of history?—leaders or circumstances?

  My answer to you is: We all shape the face of history. We, the people. We, the farmers behind our plows, the teachers in our classrooms, the doctors saving lives, the scientists at our computers, the workers on the assembly lines, the builders on our scaffolds.

  We, the mothers blinking back tears as our sons are drafted into the army; we, the fathers who stay awake at night worried and anxious for our children’s safety. We, Jews and Arabs. We, Israelis and Jordanians. We, the people, we shape the face of history.

  And we, the leaders, hear the voices, and sense the deepest emotions and feelings of the thousands and the millions, and translate them into reality.

  If my people did not desire peace so strongly, I would not be standing here today. And I am sure that if the children of Amman, and the soldiers of Irbid, the women of Saltt and the citizens of Aqaba did not seek peace, our partner in this great quest, the King of Jordan, would not be here now, shaking hands, calling for peace.

  We bear the responsibility. We have the power to decide. And we dare not miss this great opportunity. For it is the duty of leaders to bring peace and well-being to their peoples. We are graced with the privilege of fulfilling this duty for our peoples. This is our responsibility.

  The complex relations between Israel and Jordan have continued for a generation. Today, so many years later, we carry with us good memories of the special ties between your country, your Majesty, and mine, and we carry with us the grim reminders of the times we found ourselves at war. We remember the days of your grandfather, King Abdallah, who sought avenues of peace with the heads of the Jewish people and the leaders of the young State of Israel.

  There is much work before us. We face psychological barriers. We face genuine practical problems. Walls of hostility have been built on the River Jordan which runs between us. You in Amman, and we in Jerusalem, must bring down those barriers and walls, must solve those concrete problems. I am sure that we will do it.

  Yesterday we took a giant step towards a peace which will embrace it all: borders and water, security and economics, trade without boycotts, tourism and environment, diplomatic relations. We want peace between countries, but above all, between human beings.

  Beyond the ceremonies, after the festivities, we will move on to the negotiations. They will not be easy. But when they are completed, a wonderful, common future awaits us. The Middle East, the cradle of the great monotheistic civilizations—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam; the Middle East, which was a valley of the shadow of death, will be a place where it is a pleasure to live.

  We live on the same stretch of land. The same rain nourishes our soil; the same hot wind parches our fields. We find shade under the same fig tree. We savor the fruit of the same green vine. We drink from the same well. Only a 70-minute journey separates these cities—Jerusalem and Amman—and 46 years. And just as we have been enemies, so can we be good and friendly neighbors.

  Since it is unprecedented that in this joint meeting two speakers are invited, allow me to turn to His Majesty.

  Your Majesty, We have both seen a lot in our lifetime. We have both seen too much suffering. What will you leave to your children? What will I leave
to my grandchildren? I have only dreams: to build a better world—a world of understanding and harmony, a world in which it is a joy to live. This is not asking too much.

  The State of Israel thanks you: thanks you for accepting our hand in peace; for your political wisdom and courage; for planting new hope in our hearts, in the hearts of your subjects, and the hearts of all peace-loving people. And I know that you enjoy the highest esteem of the United States—this great America which is helping the bold to make a peace of the brave. . . .

  I do so because no words can express our gratitude to you and to the American people for your generous support, understanding, and cooperation which are beyond compare in modern history. Thank you, America. God bless America.

  Tomorrow I shall return to Jerusalem, the capital of the State of Israel and the heart of the Jewish people. Lining the road to Jerusalem are rusting hulks of metal—burnt-out, silent, cold. They are the remains of convoys which brought food and medicine to the war-torn and besieged city of Jerusalem 46 years ago.

  For many of Israel’s citizens, their story is one of heroism, part of our national legend. For me and for my comrades-in-arms, every scrap of cold metal lying there by the wayside is a bitter memory. I remember it as though it were just yesterday.

  I remember them. I was their commander in war. For them this ceremony has come too late. What endures are their children, their comrades, their legacy.

  Allow me to make a personal note. I, military I.D. number three-zero-seven-four-three, retired general in the Israel Defense Forces in the past, consider myself to be a soldier in the army of peace today. I, who served my country for 27 years as a soldier, I say to you, Your Majesty, the King of Jordan, and I say to you, American friends:

  Today we are embarking on a battle which has no dead and no wounded, no blood and no anguish. This is the only battle which is a pleasure to wage: the battle for peace.