The World from Down Under by George Negus

Author:George Negus [Negus, George]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-730-49391-4
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2010-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

PART THREE

WAR, CONFLICT

AND DISASTER

‘War not only confirms that we learn nothing from history, it also proves that it’s nothing but a filthy rumour that the human race is intelligent!’

Shimon Peres — a Man of War and Peace

The famous Arab bazaar in the Old City of Jerusalem, near the even more historically famous Jaffa Gate, is one of the author’s favourite places in one of his favourite cities in the world. Just to be there for a while to soak it up is worth the trouble and the trip.

In its own madly colourful, maddeningly bustling way, the souk symbolises the ridiculous contradictions, complexities and ultimately the absurdities of the entire Middle East conflict. Every hour of the day and night, in its labyrinthine maze of narrow lanes and stone squares polished by time, you will see Jews and Arabs — ostensibly deadly enemies — living, moving about together, coping on a frighteningly normal human basis, despite everything negative and violent, including relentless conflict, that goes down between them. In fact, that’s the confounding riddle, the baffling paradox that’s been befuddling the rest of us since the creation of the state of Israel back in 1948.

For all of that time, Shimon Peres — Nobel Peace laureate, former Prime Minister, former Foreign Minister, now still the President of Israel — has been deeply embroiled in the politics of this region. Basically, his country is a Jewish homeland surrounded by hostile Arab Muslim nations — not to mention the ultimate key to unlock the door to any lasting peace, not just between the Israelis and the Palestinians, but between the Arab and non-Arab worlds.

As it turns out, I have met and talked with Shimon Peres in his various political incarnations. We met soon after that historic handshake by PLO boss Yasser Arafat and the then Israeli leader, Yitzak Rabin, when they signed the Oslo Peace Accords, arguably the closest to real peace and co-existence ever in the Middle East. Peres played a huge, almost secret role in getting the Norway-initiated Accord onto paper. The irony is that ‘Oslo’ was eventually undone, dead-in-the-water, after Rabin was assassinated — by a Jew! As a 25-year observer and visitor to the region, my long-held view has been that had an Arab-Muslim, not a Jew, been the assassinator, ‘the mother of all wars’ — World War Three indeed — could well have broken out, starting in the explosive Middle East and Gulf and spreading.

Throughout that entirely dangerous period, the influence of Shimon Peres, now eighty-nine, has been positive and often measurable. The last time we met — at the Presidential Palace in Jerusalem — was in early 2009 immediately after the worst ever Israeli bombing of the Palestinian enclave of Gaza. Both sides have subsequently been accused of war crimes, including by the UN.

We greeted each other warmly. You can usually tell whether individuals like Peres mean their apparent warmness. He is either that sort of guy or good enough for an Academy Award for sincerity! ‘Good to see you again, Mr President,’ I said taking his welcoming hand as I did.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.