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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1991
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462-6126
Many Lasting Signals
To Bilateral Conferees
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor Emeritus
B
ilateral sessions for
the continuing Middle
East peace negotia-
tions are on the agenda with
the encouragements
emanating from Madrid.
There is a readiness to ac-
cede to the inevitability of
patience mingled with the
hope that the roads are now
being cleared for historic ac-
tions to create amity among
the nations.
The handshakes between
antagonists justified the re-
joicing. The quest for op-
timism takes us back 12
years to Camp David with
gratitude for the initial road
paving in the first accord
toward peace between Egypt
and Israel. That act in peace-
treaty writing remains a
credit to Anwar el-Sadat
who went to Jerusalem to
address the Knesset at the
invitation of Menahem
Begin with added impetus
from Jimmy Carter. The
messages of these three
leaders on that historic day,
March 26, 1979, remain
memorable and retain en-
couragement for continuing
action to this day.
It was at that commence-
ment of peace making that
Mr. Begin pronounced his
motto for an important ear
with these words:
I have come from the
land of Israel, the land of
Zion and Jerusalem and
here I am in humility and
with pride as a son of the
Jewish people, as one of
the generation of the
Holocaust and the
redemption.
The ancient Jewish
people gave the world a
vision of eternal peace, of
universal disarmament, of
abolishing the teaching
and the learning of war.
Two prophets, Yeshayahu
Ben Amoz and Micah
Hamorashti, having fore-
seen the spiritual unity of
man under God, with
these words coming forth
from Jerusalem, gave the
nations of the world the
following vision:
"And they shall beat
their swords into
plowshares, and their
spears into pruning
hooks. Nation shall not lift
up sword against nation.
neither shall they learn
war anymore."
Despite the tragedies
and disappointments of
the past, we must never
forsake that vision, that
human dream, that un-
shakable faith.
Peace is the beauty of
life. It is sunshine. It is the
smile of a child, the love of
a mother, the joy of a
father, the togetherness of
a family. It is the ad-
vancement of man, the
victory of a just cause, the
triumph of truth. Peace is
all of these and more.
Anwar el-Sadat added to
the significance of the event
with his speech at Camp
David by declaring:
This is certainly one of
the happiest moments of
my life. It is a historic tur-
ning point of great
significance for all peace-
loving nations. Those
among us who are en-
dowed with vision cannot
fail to comprehend the
dimension of our sacred
mission ...
In all the steps I took I
was not performing a per-
sonal mission. I was mere-
ly expressing the will of a
nation. I am proud of my
people and of belonging
to them.
Today a new dawn is
emerging out of the
darkness of the past. A
new chapter is being
opened in the history of
coexistence among
nations, one that is wor-
thy of our spiritual values
and civilization. Never
before have men en-
countered such a complex
dispute which is highly
charged with emotions.
Never before did men
need that much courage
and imagination to con-
front a single challenge.
Never before had any
cause generated that
much interest in all four
corners of the globe.
It was the spiritually
motivated message of Presi-
dent Carter that indicated
the leadership he inspired
for that Camp David achiev-
ement. President Carter's
address was both an invita-
tion to amity for all in the
Middle east as well as a
warning against war mak-
ing. It is as if he envisioned
in 1979 the road paving to
peace in Madrid in 1991.
President Carter declared:
I am convinced that
other Arab people need
and want peace. But some
of their leaders are not yet
willing to honor these
needs and desires for
peace. We must now dem-
onstrate the advantages
of peace and expand its
benefits to encompass all
those who have suffered
so much in the Middle
East.
Obviously, time and
understanding will be
necessary for people,
hitherto enemies, to
become neighbors in the
best sense of the word.
Just because a paper is
signed, all the problems
will not automatically go
away. Future days will
require the best from us to
give reality to these lofty
aspirations.
Let those who would
shatter peace, who would
callously spill more blood,
be aware that we three
and all others who may
"Our religious
doctrines — all
religious doctrines
give us hope . ."
join us will vigorously
wage peace. So let history
record that deep and an-
cient antagonisms can be
settled without bloodshed
and without staggering
waste of precious lives,
without rapacious
destruction of the land .. .
It is true that we cannot
enforce trust and coop-
eration between nations,
but we can use all our
strength to see that
nations do not again go to
war. Our religious doc-
trines all religious doc-
trines give us hope ...
So let us now lay aside
war; let us now reward all
the children of Abraham
who hunger for a com-
prehensive peace in the
Middle East. Let us now
enjoy the adventure of
becoming fully human,
fully neighbors, even
brothers and sisters.
We are dealing with a
remarkable continuation of
Camp David proposals, their
formulas, the outline for an
autonomy which was stated
in this column last week.
We can and we must now
treat the road to amity as a
reality. That which is view-
ed as bilateral in the plann-
ing for peace-formulating
can become more than a
dream. It is approaching
fulfillment. May it become
so. El