ADDRESS BY MR. DAVID LEVY, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER AND MINISTER OF FOREIGN
AFFAIRS OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL AT THE MULTILATERAL TALKS
Moscow, January 28, 1992
Mr. Chairman:
Our meeting here, in Moscow, as representatives of countries from around
the world, pursuing the specific, declared goal of distancing the menace
of war in the Middle East and establishing cooperation between the
peoples of the region, is an event marked by the most dramatic symbols
of our age.
Only yesterday, no one would have thought possible such a gathering,
motivated by a shared international desire for fundamental change in
patterns of life and thought, and the creation of an atmosphere of trust
on the road to peace. We lived then in an entirely different
geopolitical world. Moscow and other Eastern European capitals were
ruled by centralized Communist regimes. The Cold War between the
superpowers thwarted any attempt to promote peace in the Middle East.
Uncompromising hostility reigned between the Arab countries and Israel,
fed by six wars in the course of only two generations. Western and
Eastern countries alike were helping to arm and encourage Saddam
Hussein. A year ago today most of the countries gathered here joined
forces against his aggression, but now he is again gaining strength and
threatening peace in the region.
The lesson to be learned from these events is that we must build
confidence in the need, as well as the ability, to turn the specter of
war into a vision of peace and cooperation, even in the Middle East;
confidence that nations and rulers have sobered up after their
intoxication with delusive power; a confidence that draws from the
desire and determination to begin a new way of life, born of weariness
with the agony caused by war and destruction.
Mr. Chairman:
I thank the ministers and delegations who have gathered for this
historic occasion. My deepest appreciation goes to our host, the
government of independent Russia, and to each of the republics in the
Commonwealth of Independent States which want to establish a new way of
life.
My special thanks go to the American people and their president for the
courageous example of leadership which they have set for the world, and
to U.S. Secretary of State James Baker for his contribution and
determination in setting the wheels of this historic peace process into
motion.
The region to which we want to bring good tidings is the one which that
gave the world its message of culture, faith, and peace. It gave
humanity the Bible, the Koran, and the New Testament. The word peace is
the essence of the teachings of the People Israel and the Arab peoples.
Both greet each other with the words "shalom aleichem," "salaam
aleikum," and respond "aleichem hashalom," "aleikum asalaam." This
greeting, deeply rooted in our cultures, has withstood all tests of
time. How tragic and paradoxical it is that peace itself, like the
rainbow, is so close, yet so unattainable and desired.
Mr. Chairman:
The Gulf crisis has taught us many lessons, which have caused
accelerated change and coalescence of world views in international
relations. The direct relationship between the danger to world peace and
stability and the stores of weapons in the hands of tyrannical regimes,
was clearly demonstrated, as was the determination of countries to take
a stand against this danger and extirpate it. No less important from
Israel's standpoint is the lesson learned regarding the true roots of
the problems of the Middle East and the factors connected with them. The
fact that Arab countries and Israel faced a common danger from a
tyrannical dictatorship which threatened the entire Arabian Peninsula,
and that this regime was itself an Arab one, made the world and even
most of the Arab countries aware, concretely and clearly, of the need
and opportunity to bring the protracted, bitter, and fruitless conflict
between the Arabs and Israel to an end.
Mr. Chairman:
The Arab peoples and Israel have been in a state of war for two
generations. Three times in each generation, full-scale wars have broken
out, sowing destruction and harvesting ruin. Nearly 100,000 people, most
of them in the prime of their lives, have died in these senseless wars.
Among them were over 17,000 Israelis and over 80,000 Arabs. Close to
250,000 have been wounded in the wars: 40,000 Israelis and over 200,000
Arabs.
No price can be put on the loss of life, but the arms needed to maintain
a constant state of war have a high, measurable price.
In the past decade alone, up to 1990, Arab countries have allocated over
$500 billion for armaments and other military expenditures. Arms imports
to these countries accounted for 35 percent of the world arms trade, and
almost twice the cost of arms for NATO and the Warsaw Pact together,
which amounted to 22 percent of the world trade.
To better understand the significance of these shocking numbers, let us
recall that the price of one tank could pay the annual tuition costs of
1,000 students in institutes of higher education. The price of one
state-of-the-art fighter plane is equal to the cost of a year's
education for 100,000 schoolchildren.
Israel's National Water Carrier, which transports water from the Sea of
Galilee in the north to the Negev in south, costs 4400 million in
today's prices.
Egypt's tremendous Aswan Dam was built, about thirty years ago, at a
cost of $5 billion. The price of the construction of a huge tunnel under
the English Channel, which will one day connect Britain to the European
continent, is estimated at $10 billion.
These examples illustrate the magnitude of the loss to the peoples of
the region, who, for two generations, have pledged their funds,
treasuries, and human resources to this incessant arms race, a race lost
from the start, purposeless and hopeless. Not only the wars themselves,
but the mere continuation of the state of war, causes the destruction of
infrastructure, arrests progress, and perpetuates suffering and
frustration. The peoples of the Middle East, who enjoyed a "Golden Age"
of progress in architecture, mathematics, and the exact sciences, are
now on the losing side of the profit and loss ledger.
Mr. Chairman:
Our region is satiated with arms, hungry for progress and thirsty for
peace. This situation should no longer be thought of as a fait accompli.
It was not decreed by nature. Heaven forbid that we should pass through
the gate beyond which one abandons all hope. Therefore, we see great
importance in the fact that the agenda for the multilateral talks
includes monitoring and reduction of the arms race, coupled with
confidence-building measures as an essential component in the
coalescence of regional defense agreements.
We are living in the dawn of an age in which democracies are gradually
disarming and using their resources to work together for the good of
their peoples. The consolidation of the European Communities into a
powerful commonwealth is a good example of this. Countries which spilled
the blood of millions in dreadful wars are today opening their borders
to free passage of people and goods, and the exchange of information and
culture. Yesterday's enemy has become today's neighbor and partner.
Mr. Chairman:
From the town where I live in the Jordan Valley, I behold with my very
eyes how the vision of cooperation, as a way of reinforcing peace,
advances to fruition. This valley is the border between Israel and
Jordan. For years, Israel's side of the valley was green and blooming,
whereas the Jordanian side was desolate and barren. This period of time
was marked by incessant shooting and attacks against Israel from the
other side of the Jordan River. As the years passed, the Jordanians
learned from their Israeli neighbors how to raise crops; they built
greenhouses and flourishing communities on the eastern bank of the
river. They learned how to utilize the resources of the Dead Sea. Since
then, the Jordan Valley has become a quiet place, where citizens of both
countries exchange information instead of fire. Another example is the
farms set up in Egypt in recent years with advice from Israeli experts;
crop yields and the quality of the produce have been excellent. The Good
Fence policy on the Lebanese border, and the open borders policy on the
Jordan River, are further evidence of cooperation between Israel and it
neighbors and the contribution of this cooperation to stability and calm
on the borders. From these micro examples, we can learn about the macro.
Israel proposes to it neighbors extensive cooperation which can lead to
revitalization and prosperity in many areas of life. We can create a new
Middle East, not in the end of days, but today. Israel is speaking of
practical, feasible plans. Most of the Middle East is arid and thirsty.
Israel has accumulated vast experience in water-saving frugal irrigation
methods which produce some of the best agricultural yields in the world.
We will share information about the desalination of sea water, about
transporting water from place to place within the region, about the
enhancement of groundwater. We will give all countries access to the
technologies Israel has acquired in the field of solar energy.
We will work to eradicate disease in plants and animals, the causes of
which are ignorant of national borders. Neither does ecological damage
know of geographical concepts. Only one year ago, the entire world was
shocked at the death of cormorants in the Gulf waters and tremble at the
sight of the pillars of black smoke emitted from Kuwait oil wells,
polluting the air as far away as Iran in the east and the African coast
in the west.
Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt lie on the breathtakingly
beautiful shores of the Gulf of Eilat/Aqaba, which attracts thousands
upon thousands of tourists. These countries share a pressing interest in
preserving these waters and shores from ecological damage.
Let us work together to rehabilitate the refugees, whose suffering is
the price of rejection of peace. Let us also cope with the challenges of
disease and low life expectancy which mark our region. Israel has
thousands of doctors and scientists, arriving from the countries of the
Commonwealth of Independent States. May all states in the region share
in the great blessing which comes with the knowledge and human resources
of this massive immigration. May they see it as we wish it to be: as a
corps of peace and healing for the ills of millions among our
neighboring peoples. All these and more will be the building blocks, the
stones paving the road to peace. They will also be the nuts and bolts of
this peace once it is established.
Let us all work to beat our swords into ploughshares, to replace the
cups of bitterness with fountains of live and the grapes of wrath with
the fruits of peace.