There Is Hope

Good news may come in small doses, but when it happens, there's cause to celebrate. Well, perhaps celebration is a little precipitate in instances such as this. But it gives pause to hope for the future. Amidst all the chaos, the bitter recriminations, the outrages, the military assaults, the religious machinations, there is cause for hope, when two Middle East Arab regimes like Jordan and Egypt, the only two Arab countries to have established peace agreements with their neighbour, Israel, dedicate themselves to forging a wider peace agreement for the region.

That other Arab countries like Saudi Arabia have given their tentative assent to the process, even while placing what appear to be additional burdens toward acceptance of a peace plan, also gives hope for the future. As long as everything or at the very least, some things, remain negotiable. But the very fact that once-intractable enemies, outraged at the very presence in the region of a perceived outsider, a vestige of Western politics and society, a country representing an entirely different religion than that which prevails in the Middle East, now have relaxed their enmity to the extent of potential acceptance, there is hope.

There is no denying that the geography has been in a position of imminent, incendiary crisis for far too long. There is no denying that one portion of the geography has focused the attention of its neighbours for far too long, as an unwelcome interloper. The upheaval in so many parts of the MidEast doesn't auger well for overall peace in the near future. If one small corner of the region can finally accomplish an agreement to lead to peace and full sovereignty for Palestinians it can only help to advance the humanitarian agenda of the entire region.

King Abdullah of Jordan, like his honoured father before him, appears dedicated to helping to bring about a peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Long may he reign. While his father, in the political atmosphere that prevailed generations earlier, had to meet in stealth with his Israeli contacts in the interests of establishing relations, the son now meets openly with his political counterpart in the interests of establishing regional peace.

That Jordan has hosted a conference of Nobel Prize laureates in Petra in additional attempts to advance the peace agenda is another act of nobility. That the unfortunately devalued current Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert could state: "If we will be strong enough to force ourselves to compromise and think of the suffering of those on the other side, there's a genuine chance that we will make a step forward", gives good cause for hope.

Mr. Olmert contends that the Arab League peace plan represents a beginning for negotiations. Everything must have a beginning. Unfortunately the provision in the plan for the integration into Israel of the return of Palestinian refugees would spell an end to Israel. However, Mr. Olmert is politician enough, activist enough, sufficiently imbued with Jewish intelligence, compassion and wit to offer an olive branch of commitment to the process:

"I invite these 22 leaders of the Arab nations that are ready to make that kind of peace with Israel to come, whenever they want, to sit down with us and start to talk and present their ideas."

There is hope.