During Peres Center for Peace anniversary, president says Israelis, Palestinians want peace over radicalism.
By TOVAH LAZAROFFPeres 224.88(photo credit: AP)
As a proud Jew and a fighter for peace, Andre Azoulay, a senior Jewish adviser to Morocco's King Muhammad VI, said on Tuesday that Israeli abuse of the Palestinians made him feel like his "Judaism is at risk."
He spoke at a panel debate about Middle East peace in Tel Aviv to mark the 10th anniversary of the Peres Center for Peace.
"Daily I feel less Jewish," he said, even though the overall vision for peace in the Middle East "was never as strong and as articulate as it is today."
Jews were more accepted in the Arab world today than in the past, said Azoulay. Years ago, when visiting Saudi Arabia, he was asked to hide the fact that he was Jewish.
"Today, that is over," he said. "I am a committed Jew. I am an Arab Jew."
The momentum for peace was growing, he said, and it created an opportunity that should not be missed. However, he warned it would not last forever.
As the opening speaker, President Shimon Peres struck an optimistic note when he said, "Never in the past 100 years have we been closer to peace than we are today."
Israel's first real chance at peace with the Palestinians has come about because of Hamas, he said. He cautioned, however, Hamas from adopting a radical Iranian-style of rule.
In reflecting on the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that have taken place this year as part of the Annapolis process, he said, "I think that headway was made. The remaining gaps are negotiable."
"We will not cease to negotiate with the Palestinians and help them with all our might in order to establish an independent Palestinian state with a real economy," Peres said. "The better life is for the Palestinians, the better it will be for us, and we want to see the Palestinians as a neighbor and not as an enemy."
But other speakers in the panel, such as Palestinian Authority representative Muhammad Shtayyeh, were more pessimistic, noting that the announcement of Israeli elections this week had thrown a monkey wrench in the process.
Shtayyeh, who heads the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction and who addressed the panel on behalf of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, said he did not believe that a final-status deal would be reached this year.
"The year 2008 is going to end without concluding a peace settlement. Why? Simply because there have not been clear points of reference for the peace talks. Was it the vision of [US] President [George W.] Bush? Was it the road map?" he asked. "It is a pity that only some progress was achieved. It was a pity that we could not conclude things the way we wanted."
He hoped, he said, that when a new government was formed, it would be a coalition for peace. He cautioned Israeli voters against voting in a government that would refuse to negotiate on key elements of a deal such as the status of Jerusalem.
"I call on the Israeli people to vote for peace and for ending the Israeli occupation," he said.
Time was of the essence, he warned, because the reality on the ground was increasingly making it impossible to create a two-state solution.
The territorial gap between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in the peace process in the last year has been 6.8 percent, said Shtayyeh, a participant in the final-status negotiations that were scheduled to be concluded by the end of this year. There was an Israeli offer to give the Palestinians 93.2% of the West Bank and a kilometer-per-kilometer land swap for the remainder, he said.
Even the United States understood that the Palestinian territory comprised the West Bank, Gaza, east Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley and the shores of the Dead Sea, but the Israelis did not recognize this, said Shtayyeh.
"All the Jewish settlements, Ma'aleh Adumim, Ariel, have to be taken away," he said.
Withdraw from the Golan Heights and the West Bank, he told the audience, and "you will make peace with 57 Arab and Muslim countries."
Earlier in the day, UN envoy Robert Serry said that the Quartet had to help sustain the peace process during this period of transition.
"It is vital that we support the parties to continue the process and not allow anyone to walk away, and that in 2009 there is a determined effort within a finite time frame to secure a political agreement," he declared.
With an eye to the future, he said 2009 could be the year in which Israel reached a breakthrough on the Palestinian and Syrian tracks.
Peres went on to speak of Israel's stance on peace, saying "we will not cease to negotiate with the Palestinians and help them with all our might in order to establish an independent Palestinian state with a real economy. The better life is for the Palestinians, the better it will be for us and we want to see the Palestinians as a neighbor and not as an enemy."
The panel, held at the Dan Hotel in Tel Aviv, was attended by world leaders, including the Croatian president, the Danish foreign minister, the former president of Cyprus, the former president of Peru, the Moroccan king's personal adviser, boxing promoter Din King and Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson.
The president praised assassinated former president Yitzhak Rabin's efforts for peace at the beginning of the 90s, and went on to say that current gaps in negotiations with the Palestinians were bridgeable. "If we come closer to the Palestinians, the Arab world will support peace. It's doable, it's possible. We have never been closer to peace than we are today."
"If the disengagement was a success, we would repeat it in the West Bank," Peres added.
Former Peruvian president Alejandro Toledo said during the panel that in order to achieve peace the world must fight poverty and unemployment. "Peace will not be achieved by silencing guns but by silencing the stomachs of the poor. The enemy is within - poverty, discrimination and inequality. We must work to invest all our resources in education."
Denmark's foreign minister, Dr. Per Stieg Møller, said peace was essential to develop the region and called on Israeli and Palestinian citizens to vote for leaders who will work to achieve peace. "The public needs to send signals to the politicians on election day that it wants peace. What is it, after all, that the citizens want? Security in all aspects: Lack of friction, good health and good prospects for their children. The younger generation is the one that will live in peace or at war and therefore they should push for peace and make it a lasting reality."
The longtime Jewish adviser of the Moroccan king, André Azoulay, said, "The spirit of peace in the Middle East is alive and well and has not faded away. Peace has never been stronger and clearer than today." According to him, Israel should seriously consider the Saudi peace initiative from 2002.
"Could we have imagined that Saudi Arabia would be the one to issue a call for Jewish-Arab dialogue?" Azoulay asked. "I think we have the power of momentum on our side, but this will not last forever. It is a dangerous situation because tomorrow the situation in the West Bank could explode and then we would need to wait for a new wave of momentum."
Jpost staff contributed to this report.
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