His Royal Highness Prince El Hassan bin Talal
Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

"Challenges and Opportunities in Resolving Regional Conflicts"

Ladies and gentlemen, at the outset let me say that I did not come here to make a speech but to promote the noble art of conversation in the best traditions of my late brother, King Hussein, and I recognize and express my gratitude for the words of condolence and sympathy that I have heard from many of you whom I met before lunch.

I want to mention that eighteen days ago, on the 17th of October, I was invited to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and spoke at the colloquium marking the fifth anniversary of the Jordan-Israel treaty of peace. The signing of that treaty represented the culmination of many, many years of relentless hard work by great men and women. I recognize among the audience the coordinator of the Israeli negotiating team, and I just want to say that so many people today dedicated to the cause of peace have contributed, and have contributed, with the ultimate sacrifice, that this treaty of peace is not another treaty. It is a cornerstone and a threshold and indeed, as Bruce mentioned earlier, it is also a model catalyst for others, not to follow in time but to continue toward the form and the process of peacemaking.

However, as we move from peace-making to peace-building, it must be said that when marking such occasions we should look to the future and not only to the past. The scoreboard of the last five years of peace building may not be as remarkable as we had hoped, and here I would want to add that blaming one party or some event will not change the past. But we can, and we must, work together to change the future. Change it to a better future, better than the last five years. As a person committed to justice, peace and prosperity for all the people of our region, I believe in one world and 10,000 cultures. I believe that time is our most valuable asset. How can we use every minute of it to move ahead, and to continue with the agenda and with the vision of both the departed leaders--the late Majesty King Hussein and the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin? Throughout the three years of bilateral negotiations on the Jordan-Israel track, we were motivated by the noble goal of reaching a just and lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East. It almost became a mantra: "just, lasting, and comprehensive peace in the Middle East."

We all remember, of course, that Egypt, which was also present at Madrid, and Israel were the signatories of the first Arab-Israeli peace treaty in 1979. In Madrid further bilateral negotiations were launched simultaneously on three separate but parallel tracks between Israel and each of the co-parties to the conflict: Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the Palestinians, who were able to join the international peace conference through a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation. I’d just like to comment here by saying, relevant to our conversation, that the meetings in Oslo have taken place. They have been so well covered [by] the blasé press--I understand the Los Angeles press is as blasé as they come and has chosen not to come to this event without television cameras, which means, I suppose, that when we move to interactive conversation we can be a little bit more frank than the press warrants.

But I do not want to comment here on the achievements or the non-achievements of Oslo. I recognize the reference to the importance of avoiding provocative statements and, as I usually deal in that kind, I will try to behave myself. As a background note to peace-making, I’d like to mention once again what those ingredients are. Taking a leaf from the Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty, they include borders and security [and] water. Bruce and I were talking a moment ago about qualifying industrial zones, that is to say, the stuff of peacemaking. I’d just like to point out the importance of trade. For 600 years...from the Euro-Atlantic Moroccan Coast to Malabar on the Indian Coast, Arabs, Jews, Christians and Muslims traded peacefully for six centuries, and then one day Vasco deGama arrived off the coast of Malabar and said "You will expel these traders, Arabs, Jews, Christians and Muslims, or I will kill you." And the Jain king, the Jain by definition is pacifist, sent back one question: "What is ‘kill’?"

History has changed dramatically since that time. Today, the concept of investment, both international as well as regional, in peace-building includes a score sheet of industries that ranges, as I often say--to the charging of our business community and, to their credit--from underwear to software. The list is comprehensive. Civil aviation, telecommunications, economic relations, but most important to me in this process is the human dimension. I’d like to point out that in ten years time the per capita of the average Israeli may exceed $25,000. My hope is that as we speak of refugees, asylum seekers, stateless persons, alien migrants, displaced peoples, that we can talk about moving from the universal to the particular. About developing a comprehensive understanding of the human condition in our region because it is only through understanding the human condition that we can talk seriously about the question of security.

There are so many who speak about extremism and I would like to point out very clearly that it is the economics of despair and the politics of despair that is the breeding ground for the extremists. It is, therefore, important to put people back to work. Poverty and unemployment are color- blind: they do not discriminate. I think the time has come to recognize that. In 1993 we met at the great donor conference in Washington. I remember distinctly seeing Warren Christopher hosting that conference, and I came to speak at the donor conference for Palestinian refugees. We had not yet signed the peace treaty. I was, in a sense, a supernumerary participant to that conference. I looked behind Warren Christopher and then I saw a red light and amber light and a green light. I was meant to speak for two minutes--I insisted on having my share.

The fact is that one cannot speak about the question of refugees in situ in a Palestinian context on Palestinian territory without recognizing the tremendous efforts of the host and donor countries. My country, Jordan, has contributed annually the equivalent of 300 million dinars, I think it’s 1 to 3 with the dollar, and I think that it is important to recognize that this process should lead to a process of integration of population of refugee origin. Now, let me make it very clear that when I say "integration" we’re talking about mobilizing human resources. We’re talking about recognizing the fact that poverty and unemployment are nondiscriminatory. We’re talking about human dignity. I’m not talking politics here. I’m talking policy. The politics is very clear. The governments of the region will say on the Arab side "Yes, to the right of return." On the Israeli side "No, to the right of return." I’m not talking about that and I’ll just make a footnote by saying that the "no" does not invalidate the "yes."

People have to live with their dreams. It took over half a century in the context of Europe to be able to move from the free movement of goods and capital to the free movement of labor. Why should the Middle East be any different? One may see a day when Jews return to their homelands, to Morocco, to Yemen. One may see a day when dual nationalism, dual nationality might be invoked. So I hope effectively that these remarks have not been too provocative, and I hope that the constraints of peacemaking between now and the production of FAPS--I don’t know how many of you are familiar with "FAPS:" the Framework for an Agreement on Permanent Status--has now, I understand, become the framework agreement for permanent status. Anyway, what is important is that principles are clearly defined and that we adhere to the continuation, not only of the process, but of the substance.

Going beyond bilateralism, there is a desperate need for a fresh and innovative framework to deal with the multi-faceted problems of regional security and cooperation. Our Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty specifically calls for an CSC, Conference for Security and Cooperation in the Middle East, and I sincerely hope that the day will come when we can address the broader issue, the fact that our region is bereft of any conflict prevention or conflict resolution effort. We do not have a single initiative along the lines of what Vaclav Havel speaks of in Prague when I saw him only a few short days ago at the Forum 2000. He said, and I quote, and it applies to Eastern Europe and Central Europe as much as it applies to the Middle East. "The common denominator," he said, "of the important task we should concern ourselves with now is the creation of a genuine open and multi-led civil society." I remember some time ago in the presence of a celebrated television producer, may I say, sitting in the presence of my late brother and the late Prime Minster of Israel, I think it was in Aqaba, and someone came to me with a microphone and said "what do you think of all of this?" I said "I think it’s wonderful, but is peace-making only about talking heads?" Peace-making is about people. People have to prevail, civil society has to develop, and the participation, what I call the "culture of participation," has to be recognized.

Speaking of culture, I have to say that unfortunately the opponents of these regularly produce new dirty alphabetical words: the dirty "n" word--normalizer; the dirty "p" word--"pluralism." I would like to point out that, in my understanding, pluralism is the politics of difference. So long as I respect what is sacred to you and you return the civility, what is sacred to you is sacred to you and what is sacred to me is sacred to me, then I think we can develop that conversation. Melting pots do not necessarily melt and having visited the Balkans alongside our 15,000 peace- makers during that horror of the Balkans, I have to remind you that the alternative to the state system, as lousy as it is and as much as we criticize it, is, God forbid, Balkanization, a polarity of hatreds and this is what we have to avert. If the state system had been responsible for signing peace treaties, then I think it is important to bear in mind that it is people who have to live with that peace and give it the innovation and the inspiration that it requires.

I’d like to point out that in terms of my contribution to bridge-building, I go from here to Washington to attend the World’s Faiths and Development Conference, hosted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Archbishop Carey, and Jim Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank. I call them "Cash and Carry."

In Jordan, we shall be hosting the World Assembly on Religions and Peace from November 25 -30, in which we have the participation of representatives of the world’s faiths. This is a bridge- building exercise, but the bridge-building of culture is not only limited to humanity-centric or spiritual-centric, but it also includes science and technology-centric initiatives. There I want to point out that, to my amazement, I was chosen quite recently, elected, to chair the Policy Advisory Commission of the Intellectual Property Organization, WIPO. So you might say, "What does intellectual property have to do with culture?" But it is quite interesting to try to answer this question to an Indian delegate, or a Chilean delegate. When you focus on creativity, on involving the young, on involving the participation of farmers who maybe don’t know anything about the fact that ethnic botany is an important contribution--the food stuff that raises our sheep, for example, may well have been known to the Bedouin for centuries before it was introduced into medication of one kind or another. I have to point out that even the photography in Petra which we do free, I think other countries tend to have a certain restriction on historic places. You refer to the history of the Pharaohs of our neighbor to the west and I won’t comment any further, but I think it is important to bear in mind that the new civilizational paradigm is not only about joining WTO and WIPO. It’s about total quality management, which we now call "governors."

In Arabic we’ve removed the word "govern" from "governance." We talk about the administration of the public good. It’s about creating participation from the bottom up and that, I think, is my singular theme here today. That if peace is to take root, it has to take root on the basis of an understanding of the mentality of "the other." I was privileged yesterday to visit the Museum of Tolerance of the Simon Wisenthal Center and I was interested to note that you people are not so different from us, in particular when I visited the sections on the dynamics of racism and prejudice in America. We all look to the United States in terms of tremendous achievement and tremendous advances, but I would like to say that the eye-opener that I saw yesterday alongside the ultimate example of man’s inhumanity to man--the reference is to the Holocaust--were extremely moving. They also helped me to make the point that I have been trying to pursue for some time.

Programs as such as Erasmus or Socrates, programs to promote conversations between people, including in the media--I am searching for this intermediated media. Programs that provoke direct conversations in universities, in endowments, in chairs of learning are the way forward. In [post] World War II Europe these programs effectively introduced to a German an understanding of a Danish point of view and, I believe, introduced to a German and to an Israeli an understanding of corresponding positions. It is extremely important to talk about creating an environment of peace, and that begins and ends with the psychology which my dearly departed friend and sometime mentor, Yehudi Menuhin, used to refer to in terms of promoting a parliament of cultures, a council of cultures. In the Barcelona process, the so-called European Mediterranean process, we speak about security, we speak about economy, and culture is an afterthought. I think in California, with the diversity represented here, you have much to offer us and I hope effectively that this conversation can continue with many of you in this rich community.

I know that as you look across the Pacific you don’t necessarily consider that that is one way of looking at the Middle West--we’re referred to by the Japanese as the "Middle West." But being here on the West Coast of the United States reminds me of concepts of Asia-Pacific economic cooperation. I’d just like to remind you that APEC stops at the border of Turkey. Europe stops at the border of Greece. Central Europe, Southeastern Europe, border that enormously important energy elipse from the north of the Caspian to the Arabian Sea, 70 percent of the world’s oil and 40 percent of its gas.

I hope, effectively, that we can also in our cultural understanding promote extra-nationalism. I’m not terribly keen on nationalism, I’m quite keen on patriotism, but I would like to talk about extra-nationalism, to talk about the importance of that cluster of water, energy and the human environment. It is important, yes, to look at the spaghetti junction of oil pipelines, water pipelines. But we have to ask ourselves the question, as the Japanese Diet, the parliament, did in the late ‘80s: Can you have stability in the Gulf or in the oil-producing regions without stability in the hinterland to those regions? Can you have a situation whereby countries who export manpower, and I recall attending the International Labor Organization in the early ‘70s, which I understand has now been addressed by the President of the United States, speaking of the importance of labor compensatory facilities.

[Regarding] the importance of interaction between the cost of education: we invest in over 60,000 students in public universities and 40,000 students in private universities. These people are effectively graduates who go to the American Embassy and 70 percent of these people do not return. Their concern, as with many of you of Arab extraction, is with the green card. They are looking for jobs. Why can they not find these jobs in the region in a complementary arrangement between the sources of energy and between the contribution that they can make in the region, thus stabilizing the region? It is their idiom, their creativity and their mentality that can contribute; otherwise, we leave the vacuum to the sloganeers and to the extremists.

I think it’s extremely important to bear in mind that in this great country you have extranational commissions. [Also,] in the Great Lakes, for example, the Danube Commission, these are commissions that have taken the issue of the management of water, energy and human resources to a higher plane. They’ve preceded normalization between Eastern and Western Europe, and I think they can be there as an alternative for bringing down barriers in our region.

Speaking once again of peace-building, I recall with satisfaction the participation in 1994 in the Middle East-North Africa Economic Summit. We envisioned the development of a decade of infrastructure projects from Morocco to Turkey, inclusive, ten years of building roads, railways, pipelines.

Last year, the world spent one trillion dollars on weapons. I say this not to shock, but to express sadness over the fact that peace cannot develop through an act of faith. It has to develop in participatory forces, in a culture of survival, a culture of participation and a culture of peace. I hope effectively that the contribution of the United States, committed as it is to building confidence among the parties to acting with fairness but without favor to any side, will be the clearest boost to consolidating peace in the months ahead.

The global prospective that I spoke of will not be kind to us if we are not effective in real time. Can we speak of a Middle East and Eastern Mediterrean, a Black Sea community? Can we speak of that vacuum between the energy elipse and the Western Hemisphere, the Euro-Atlantic which those traders were so creative about with their limited means for 600 years as a region of peace with a vision of 2010, 2015, 2020? Can we speak of the ... interdisciplinarity of what it is going to take? This, I hope, is the seed for further thought and further conversation, and I welcome your questions and wise counsel.

God bless you all.