Yesterday, November 20, was the 39th anniversary of Anwar Sadat’s speech to the Israeli Knesset (Parliament), in which he declared a state of peace between Egypt and Israel.
You can read his entire speech by clicking here. But let me show you just the beginning (translation is a bit clumsy, but you’ll get the idea):
Peace and the mercy of God Almighty be upon you and may peace be for us all, God willing. Peace for us all on the Arab land, and in Israel as well, as in every part of this big world, which is so complexed by its sanguinary conflicts, disturbed by its sharp contradictions, menaced now and then by destructive wars launched by man to annihilate his fellow man. Finally, amidst the ruins of what man has built and the remains of the victims of Mankind, there emerges neither victor nor vanquished. The only vanquished remains man, God’s most sublime creation, man whom God has created – as Ghandi the apostle of peace puts it: to forge ahead to mould the way of life and worship God Almighty.
I come to you today on solid ground, to shape a new life, to establish peace. We all, on this land, the land of God; we all, Muslims, Christians and Jews, worship God and no one but God. God’s teachings and commandments are love, sincerity, purity and peace.
And, while we’re on the subject of middle east peace, last month marked the 22nd anniversary of Jordanian King Hussein’s speech heralding its peace treaty with Israel, which he made at the at the Wadi ArabaCrossing (also known as the Yitzhak Rabin Crossing) between Jordan and Eilat, Israel:
Peace be upon you, God’s peace the greeting with which Muslims and Arabs receive their guests, exchange amongst each other the greeting that has been taken to every part of the world over a long and cherished history and past.
It is with a sense of enormous pride, a sense of fulfilment, that I stand here before you today, together with President Clinton, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, President Weizman, and all our distinguished colleagues and friends. An unusual day, a day like no other in terms of the hopes, in terms of the promise, and in terms of the determination. God willing, and with God’s blessing of us all. To remember this day as long as we live and for future generations Jordanians, Israelis, Arabs, Palestinians all children of Abraham; to remember it as a dawning of the new era of peace, mutual respect between us all, tolerance and the coming together of people of generations to come beyond this time to build and achieve what is worthy of them.
Why have I posted these two milestones in the quest for Middle East peace?
Because, every now and then, it is good to know that Arabs and Israelis – even Arabs and Israelis who have warred against each other in the relatively recent past- can, and do, come together in peace.
In the 39 years since the Israel/Egypt peace was agreed to, and the 22 years since the Israel/Jordan peace was agreed to, there has not been so much as one attack by these countries on the other. Not one.
Does this mean Egyptian Arabs, Jordanian Arabs and Israeli Jews like each other. No it does not. But it does mean – empirically and undeniably – that they can be at peace with each other.
It proves that Arabs are perfectly capable of living in peace with Israeli Jews, and Israeli Jews are perfectly capable of living in peace with Arabs.
That’s something worth remembering, as Israel – which made and kept the peace with Egypt and Jordan – continues to get nowhere in its efforts to do the same with with Palestinian Arabs in Gaza and Judea/Samaria (the west bank).
