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ABRAHAM
FUND INITIATIVE
Prince Of Peace Pleads For
Interfaith Understanding
Text:
Nina Boxer
Photos: Tim Boxer
 ECLARING
he’s “a Marxist of the Groucho kind,” Jordan’s Prince El
Hassan bin Talal waived royal protocol. The prince, younger
brother of the late King Hussein, took his jacket off, stood up in
his white shirt, and spoke for peace and reconciliation between
Israel and her Arab neighbors.
“In
bad times,” he said, “it is important to say good words.”
He
sprinkled his remarks with appropriate one-liners that delighted
the 320 black-tie guests at the Abraham Fund Initiative’s 11th
annual coexistence benefit at the Pierre Hotel in New York.
Co-founded
by Alan Bruce Slifka and the late Rabbi Eugene Weiner,
the organization seeks to improve relations among Israel’s
Jewish and Arab citizens.
Newly
installed president Ami Nahshon reported the event raised
$425,000.
The
prince said he was speaking as an NGO, which he jocularly defined
as “a nongovernmental organism.” A British officer once asked,
“I am in Her Majesty’s airborne. What are you?”
“I
am in His Majesty’s chairborne,” the prince replied
mischievously.
In
his speech Prince Hassan showed off his perfect command of Hebrew.
He
recalled the day he was at the White House to meet President Bill
Clinton. He turned to say a few words in Hebrew to Shimon
Peres. Everybody
applauded. He thought it was patronizing.
“Why
don’t you clap when Peres says some words in Arabic to me?” he
said.
He
told the Abraham Fund dinner guests how he and Shimon Shamir,
Israel’s first ambassador to Jordan, hosted a conference on
“the fear of peace.” Christians, Muslims and Jews met on
Friday, Saturday and Sunday to talk peace. “If we observed
strictly, we would never have met,” he said with a wide grin.
He
decried the “inhuman and obscene bombings” that take both
Israeli and Arab lives. And he urged both sides to “stop
demonizing the other.”
Jews
and Arabs are closer to each other than to Christians, he said.
“It’s time we reminded ourselves of our enlightened
tradition.”
Quoting
in Hebrew from Ecclesiastes that “there is a time for peace and
a time for war,” he indicated this is a time to pursue peace.
“I
believe Prime Minister Sharon is a man with whom one can
negotiate,” he said.
“He’s
a large figure. I’m not as big as he is,” he quipped.
“I
plead with you for the establishment of a new initiative – or
finishitive,” he added, to emphasize a point.
Prince
Hassan proposed the establishment of an international
nondenominational peace corps. “Shimon Peres spoke of blue
overalls rather than blue helmets.”
He
said the time has come to look afresh at the texts of history and
accept responsibility for words and actions. “We must recognize
the political and social dimension of our interfaith dialogue.”
The
prince’s vision would culminate in a center for Mediterranean
humanities to teach Latin and Hebrew, “that fusion of esthetic
and spiritual renaissance.”
“I
am jealous of the statement that Israel is the only democracy in
the region,” he said.
“Our
shortcomings – our mismanagement and corruption – are our
doing. Political emancipation is a precious right we must preserve
for Jews and Arabs. The strengthening of the Jewish spirit, Jewish
talent, Jewish power, Jewish genius is an inspiring force all over
the world.”
Shortly
after this successful fundraising event, Slifka, founder and a
managing principal of Halcyon/Alan B. Slifka & Company, a
hedge fund in New York, married Dr. Riva Golan Rivo, a
neuroscientist and child therapist, at their New York home. Mazel
tov! |
