Racing the Clock:
The Quest to End the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

S. Daniel Abraham's Remarks at Tel Aviv University's National Tribute Dinner

New York, NY - April 19, 2004
Thank you so much Itamar. I am very grateful to you for this honor – and so proud to be here tonight to support Tel Aviv University.

And to all of my wonderful friends who have come here to share this special occasion with me, thank you so very much for being here.

I am particularly honored to have my dear friend President Bill Clinton here – a man whose vision for peace I share and who has been a constant inspiration to me.

A special warm thank you to my lovely family – in particular my wonderful wife Eva, my sister Judy and brother in law Ed Steinberg, my brother Jerry and his wife Gail, and my Tammy and her husband Carey Wolchok.

I couldn’t possibly speak to you tonight about the Middle East and peace without recalling my dear friend, the late Congressman Wayne Owens.

I owe Wayne such an incredible debt of gratitude, and I’m so pleased that his wife Marlene and son Doug could be here to share this special night with me.

Over the course of sixteen years, Wayne and I traveled well over a million and a half miles for peace. We held over 1,000 meetings with nearly every Arab head of state, every Israeli Prime Minister and with two American Presidents and their administrations – all of them many, many times.

I say this because I want you to know that the opinions I express are grounded in long years of intense engagement with the leaders and people of the region.

I have come to know firsthand the deep and personal pain that the people on both sides feel because of this terrible conflict.

And I have come to know as well their dreams of a future when they worry about their children’s education, not their safety. When their children will dream of hope and opportunity, and not martyrdom or military service.

As all of you know, the motto of Tel Aviv University is “We Major in Israel’s Future.” In that spirit – tonight I would like to talk about the future of Israel and the Jewish people as I see it.

Israel’s potential for the future is enormous: we can develop the Negev and desalinate water cheaply to create lakes in the desert. We can create scientific advancements and technological breakthroughs. We can build a society based on values that the prophets of Israel said would make us “A Light unto the Nations.”

We can build a country where people can realize the most basic of human dreams: to raise a family, to have children, to own a home – and to live life. In peace.

But we can only realize these dreams with peace. With an end to the conflict. Our future depends on it.

The costs of failing to end the conflict are simply too great: almost a thousand Israelis and three thousand Palestinians have already been killed. Tens of thousands of people injured. Maimed, paralyzed, blinded. What a terrible catastrophe.

300,000 Israelis – five percent of the population – have emigrated from Israel in the last three years – including 60,000 Russian immigrants. They came to Israel to build a new life and a future for themselves and their families.

Now they are leaving. What will be left of Israel’s future if so many of its young and talented people leave? What a terrible catastrophe.

Unemployment in Israel is now the highest in the developed world. The streets are almost empty of tourists. Education, research, health care, social services are all stagnating.

Meanwhile over $60 billion has been spent building and maintaining the settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. What a catastrophe.

We’ve all had enough.

Some of you may not know how personal this is for me. I moved to Israel in 1972 after my first UJA mission.

I was a strong right winger at the time. I supported the JDL movement at its inception and Ariel Sharon in his first run for the Knesset after the Yom Kippur War. We are still close friends, and I share his dream of a strong and secure Israel.

I raised four daughters in Netanya, three of whom returned as adults to make homes and lives for themselves in Israel – and to raise nineteen of my grandchildren there.

But two have left Israel in the past year – with twelve children between them. They worried for their children’s safety coming and going to school every day.

They worried about the impact of being so close to death every day. One of my granddaughters in Netanya witnessed an explosion minutes after it occurred. She was so shocked and traumatized, she couldn’t get out of bed for three days.

How long must this go on? Is this our future? Is this our life? I believe in the dream of Israel, but today my heart bleeds for that country – for the lives lost.

For the young and beautiful people taken from us in the prime of their lives whose families will mourn them forever. For the tens of thousands on both sides who have been wounded – many of whom will spend their lives paralyzed, blinded, traumatized. What a catastrophe.

But there is hope – because the people on both sides are tired, exhausted and fed up with this senseless, brutal conflict. They are ready to embrace an agreement that ends the conflict on a fair basis – and we must not let this opportunity pass us by again.

We asked Dahaf, one of the most respected non-partisan Israeli public opinion firms, to ask Israelis the following: If the government of Israel brought you a referendum on a peace agreement along the following lines, would you support it?

Two states for two peoples. The Palestinian state demilitarized, and Palestinian refugees resettled in the new State of Palestine or other willing host countries.

The borders would be the ’67 borders with modifications to take into account the changed reality of large population centers, but giving the Palestinians 100 percent of their pre-67 land by including one for one land swaps.

A security fence would be constructed along the clearly defined and recognized border. And the United States would have a joint defense agreement with Israel.

Jerusalem divided by population; the Temple Mount without sovereignty, accessible to people of good will of all faiths.

The result of that poll is that 76 percent of Israelis would vote yes, including 81 percent among Israeli Arabs. Only 21 percent of all Israelis would vote against it.

The people in Israel overwhelmingly want an end to the conflict. And they want it now.

Some of you will say that the Palestinians don’t really want peace, they simply want to conquer all of Israel. I have to tell you from my personal experience that those who feel this way are in the small – but unfortunately vocal and militant – minority.

The majority want an end of occupation and an end of conflict and good relations with the state of Israel. They too have suffered enough, and they are ready for an end to this unbelievably horrible conflict.

Others of you will say that they were offered everything at Camp David, and they turned it down.

I say that just because opportunities were missed in the past does not mean that we can give up on our quest for peace and an end to the conflict.

When I was a young salesman, the conventional wisdom was that the best sales are made after the fifth visit. So we must try and try again – and we will succeed.

And now we have a new momentum for moving forward – the bold plan of Israel’s Prime Minister to evacuate unilaterally from Gaza to secure and defensible borders.

I hope that this will truly be a first step along the road map to full peace.

Will that road be easy? Of course not. To move people from their homes and villages where they have spent decades is enormously difficult. To move even one settler involves a huge human toll.

Then multiply that by many thousands of families.

This is a sacrifice that must be made for the greater good of the state and people of Israel and the people of the region – and the Prime Minister understands this.

I thank you with a full heart for giving me this opportunity to speak to you tonight. I do believe that the Jewish people are coming ever closer to realizing our two thousand year old dream to live as a free people in our own land.

And the only way to realize that dream is through peace.

Every day – at least thirty times a day – we pray for peace. We hear G-d’s promise: “I will give strength to my people; and I will bless my people with peace.”

That blessing and that promise will be fulfilled. My hope is that they will be fulfilled this year.

Let us all work together to achieve peace so that Israel can have a bright future – a future that Tel Aviv University will in fact be proud to major in.