As the Obama administration’s top diplomatic brass fly to the Middle East to resuscitate the peace process, they will be inspired that 15 years ago Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and King Hussein of Jordan shook hands at the White House and inaugurated a lasting peace.
This week the Middle East will again take centre stage as an ‘airlift of American officials’, three of President Obama's most senior advisers, arrives in Israel instructed to breathe life back in to the negotiations with the Palestinians while simultaneously pushing for a regional peace plan. The difficulties and sticking points have been well documented and Obama, a man embarking on the most ambitious set of policies, will find the Middle East surely one of his most difficult challenges.
But fifteen years ago this week, the world's media was reporting a far happier outlook for the Middle East. Then Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel and King Hussein of Jordan stood on the White House lawn and shook hands before President Clinton and the world’s media. They were celebrating the signing of the ‘Washington Declaration’. It was a moment of political theatre, but also one of great material significance. Israel and Jordan had been in a state of war for forty-six years, when Rabin - who had personally led Israel’s forces against Jordan in the Six Day War – shook the hand of King Hussein – who had led his country in the attacks against Israel in 1967. The Washington declaration formally ended hostilities between the two states, and committed each to peace and the full normalisation of relations. ‘After generations of hostility, blood and tears,’ it states, ‘and in the wake of years of pain and wars, His Majesty King Hussein and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin are determined to bring an end to bloodshed and sorrow.’
At a time when a cynical sneer is too often used as a badge of credibility for those writing about the peace process, it is worth recalling this moment, and what made it possible. Israeli and Jordanian negotiators had been meeting formally for some time under the Madrid process initiated in 1991. But it was not some sudden breakthrough in talks over the technicalities of border adjustments or water resources that brought the two leaders together. Rather it was the mutual commitment and trust of two men who saw, in the wake of the Oslo Accords between Israel and the PLO, an opportunity for peace at that moment. The Washington Declaration was not itself a full peace agreement. Many details still had to be worked out. But with the two leaders publicly recognising each other as a trusted partner with a shared vision, the job of the negotiators was transformed.
The text of the declaration itself reflected the insight that it was a change of mindset, and not just circumstances on the ground, that made peace possible. The leaders declared in the statement, ‘that steps must be taken both to overcome psychological barriers and to break with the legacy of war.’ The leaders had met before in secret; part of a legacy of covert contacts and cooperation between the two states. But they knew that real peace could not be built through secret rendezvous in London hotel suites. Ultimately the process has to carry the public with it.
Indeed, the Washington declaration was greeted with joy in Israel. ‘The entire state of Israel is shaking your hand,’ Rabin told Hussein. The excitement of the Israeli public reflected their hunger for peace and for recognition from their Arab neighbours. Indeed, King Hussein became not only trusted by Israel’s leaders, but beloved of the Israeli people. When a Jordanian soldier shot dead seven Israeli schoolgirls in a terror attack in 1997, Hussein came personally to the families of the victims to ask forgiveness. Israelis never forgot this gesture. During his funeral two years later, flags on Israeli public buildings were flown at half mast. Just as with the dramatic visit of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to Jerusalem in 1977, the spectacle of an Arab leader reaching out to the Israeli public, and recognising their right to live in peace and security, overwhelmed bitter memories of war and bloodshed.
We cannot afford to delude ourselves. The projects for mutual cooperation between Israel and Jordan envisaged by the drafters of the Washington Declaration remain at a much lower level than they would have hoped. Such projects, however, do exist. This summer, Israeli and Jordanian children will participate in joint summer camps. The vision of the Jordan valley as a valley of peace, with joint Israeli-Palestinian-Jordanian development projects, continues to be promoted by Israel’s president Shimon Peres, who was foreign minister at the time of the Washington Declaration. Most importantly, the peace itself has endured, despite the failures of the Oslo process. The benefits to both sides are too great to be reversed.
In the peace process between the Israelis and Palestinians, the practical issues to be overcome are clearly much more difficult, but the principle is surely the same. It is a sad fact that polling shows a majority of both Israelis and Palestinians are ready to make peace, but wrongly believe that a majority of the other side are not. If there is a shared interest, and a shared vision of peace, then the differences over final status issues can be overcome. Too much attention is focused on the technicalities of the solution, and not enough on what makes peace possible. The crucial difference will not be one side giving in to the other over the lines on a map. It will be recognition by two sides that an agreement represents their interests, and the existence of trust between leaders that can carry the public with it.
James Clappison, MP is Shadow Minister for Work and Pensions. As Trade Minister he was involved in 1996 in various trade missions to Jordan and Israel.