When I am working in the comfort of my own study, like today, I find it all-too-easy to get distracted and find myself scouring the Internet. It's strange how everything always seems more interesting than the work in front of me.
Today may be fairly uneventful, but exactly 16 years ago in the desert north of the Red sea, two former enemies signed an historic peace treaty which ended 46 years of animosity. It was on this day, under the gaze of the then US president Bill Clinton that King Hussein and the Israeli prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, offiicated at a historic ceremony at Arabah in front of a live audience of 5,000 and a global television audience of millions. I distinctly remember watching it at Amsterdam's Schipol airport and was very moved to see only the second Arab nation after Egypt, make peace.
Mr Rabin, who was assasinated just a year later, led the Israeli army to the 1967 victory which cost Jordan the West Bank and East Jerusalem, spoke passionately of the peace of soldiers and the peace of friends. "The peace that was born today gives us all the hope that the children born today will never know war between us and their mothers will know no sorrow," he said.
King Hussein, who died in five years later, seemed the most emotionally affected at the brief but highly charged ceremony held in the Rift Valley, said the peace was supported by an overwhelming majority of his people.
Hence, once again the impossible was acheived, This time, Israel made peace with Jordan. And the impossible WILL happen again. One day, long before you are old enough to appreciate my blogs, I hope that Israel will make peace with Syria and with the Palestinians, concluding the last chapters in the story of your nation's struggle for peace.
Grandpa Jonathan
Prague, Czech Republic
