Bridges of Understanding

Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid Al-Hussein, Jordan's ambassador to the U.S., gave a wide-ranging speech spanning "the arc of the Middle East," touching on issues from the war in Iraq, to U.S. relations with Syria, to technological advances in desalinization. But he reserved his most urgent, and dire, remarks for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, lamenting that "we in the region really are a sorry bunch" for allowing the conflict to suck the life out of the Middle East for so long.

"I cannot think of one major initiative divorced from the Middle East that the Arab world or Israel have come up with," Prince Zeid said, noting that when it comes to tackling issues such as poverty and sustainable development, the region has become a "global non-player" because of the perpetual focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Speaking to a packed audience at the Ronald Reagan Building on March 31 for a discussion hosted by the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations (NCUSAR) and the nonprofit Bridges of Understanding (founded by former Jordanian Ambassador Karim Kawar), Zeid was eloquent but direct in his criticism of the stalled peace process.

Questioning whether the region even deserves peace given all the "lost opportunities" that have slipped away since 1967, the ambassador blamed both Israel and the Arab world for intransigence, complaining that while one side often fails to acknowledge the horrors of the Holocaust, the other side fails to grasp the "degradation" of occupation.

"This situation is simply intolerable," he said, pointing out in dramatic fashion just how much the all-consuming conflict has drained the area's resources - and potential.

Citing a report last year by India's Strategic Foresight Group, Zeid said the conflict has cost the Middle East a stunning $12 trillion over the last 20 years. The study also estimates that if peace talks had succeeded after the 1991 Madrid Conference, the region's citizens could have been twice as rich today.

"So it can be argued that we are a burden unto ourselves and a burden unto the entire planet," Zeid bluntly said.

Moreover, he warned that Jerusalem is "a constant threat to the international community." The city that is sacred to all three Abrahamic faiths remains a volatile powder keg today, with clashes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian worshippers erupting in recent weeks following announcements of Israeli construction in East Jerusalem, which Palestinians want to make their future capital.

Indeed, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's insistence on building anywhere inside Jerusalem has jeopardized U.S. efforts to revive moribund peace talks. The settlements dispute has also driven an unusual wedge between Israel and the United States, especially after the Obama administration was blindsided by an ill-timed housing announcement during Vice President Joe Biden's March visit to Israel.

Yet Zeid warns that Jewish expansion in the holy city is much more than an embarrassment for the United States - it threatens to forever alter the dynamics of the entire conflict.

"We feel we are in a position where if we don't halt what is happening now in East Jerusalem ... we will find ourselves in a situation where peace is not possible," he said, adding that unilateral construction creates "facts on the ground" that lead to a "state of terminal crisis." And then Jerusalem could irrevocably become into a battle between "Israel versus the entire Islamic world."

Yet the ambassador says it's not too late to step back from the brink. He pointed out that Arab countries remain committed to the so-called Arab Peace Initiative proposed by Saudi Arabia in 2002, even though Israel has largely rebuffed the offer.

He also stressed that Jordan "is deeply supportive of President Obama?s vision of two states living side by side in peace - and it is doable."

And although "one cannot underestimate how difficult this has been for George Mitchell," Obama's special envoy to the region, Zeid said the former senator "has laid the foundations for launching the discussions on final-status issues and that should be commended."

Likewise, when it comes to the seeming lack of general progress in the region, Zeid called for patience and urged critics to consider the larger picture. Jordan, for example, has made economic strides but is still a developing country.

"We are a tribal society [trying to modernize] over the last 80 years," Zeid explained. "We want to maintain our tribal traditions but not at the expense of the state." He noted that under King Abdullah II, Jordan has embarked on programs to curb religious fanaticism, training mosque preachers for instance, while boosting economic development to wean the country from its dependence on petroleum imports.

And while acknowledging the importance of economic opportunity to prevent religious extremism, the ambassador said it is also crucial to recognize that we just don?t have all the answers yet to the ever-evolving "war on terrorism."

"I would contend that many so-called conclusions are conjecture," he said, musing about the mysteries of the human psyche. For instance, Zeid pointed out that the suicide bomber who killed a Jordanian agent and seven CIA officers in Khost, Afghanistan, this past January was a highly educated physician who was married with two young girls. "His material advantages had no bearing on his decision," Zeid said, drawing a parallel with the Columbine High School massacre. "There's a pathology about us humans that we just don't fully understand."

Which is partly why it is so important for all actors in the Middle East to renounce violence. "We cannot continue to inflict massive suffering on people because we think we are right and they are wrong," Zeid said, alluding to the actions of Israelis and Palestinians alike.

But the ambassador largely brushed off questions about Jordan's own sizable Palestinian refugee population, dismissing proposals that instead of their own state, Palestinians simply be integrated into Jordan - describing the notion as a convenient excuse to avoid the hard work of achieving lasting peace.

And as for the argument that the Palestinians themselves are too fractured between the Hamas and Fatah parties to negotiate a permanent peace, Zeid similarly dismissed those concerns, pointing out that political infighting is not unique to the Palestinians and that even the United States is bitterly divided within itself.

Still, with the Palestinians split between Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Fatah in the West Bank - while the Israeli government remains intent on expanding its control over Jerusalem - hopes for peace are clearly fading.

Nevertheless, Zeid insists the unpredictable is always possible. Recalling his time in the mid-1990s as a U.N. political affairs officer in the former Yugoslavia during the Balkan wars, he said, "We thought there would be conflict in Bosnia for another 10 years and we simply could not see a way out. If someone said in six months ... the killing would stop, I don't think anyone would have believed that was possible."

But the window for a resolution to the festering Israeli-Palestinian conflict is closing fast, he adds - likening it to the famous 1969 cases of catatonic patients in New York who were briefly awakened with the experimental drug L-Dopa, before falling back into darkness. "You can't help but think that future historians will look back at this moment of peace as a brief awakening ... one that came as quickly as it went."