I said I'd share some of the things Prime Minister Barak touched on during his talk at the Kimmel Center for the Philadelphia Speakers Series on January 25th 2005, so here goes. If anyone else was there and can offer up any commentary or corrections, I'd much appreciate them. i took notes throughout the talk, but I may have misheard him at one point or another.
Arafat
He said, with much conviction, that he did not shed a tear when Arafat died. Barak followed Arafat for 30 years, 20 years through his crosshairs while in the Israeli Army and 10 years around the diplomatic table. Barak never got to Arafat and I could tell that more than anything, he wanted to. He recalled the summit at Camp David with President Clinton and just how close they came to peace. Arafat was given 95% of what he wanted and he still said no. While you can say that Arafat was a man looking out for his people and wouldn't take no for an answer, I think that after thousands of years to get this much and to turn a cold shoulder to an offer with the backing of the leader of the most powerful nation in the world was not right. Barak said that he will always remember Arafat for being what he was, a terrorist.
Gaza
He said that he fully supports Prime Minister Sharon's plan of a withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. He also restated how Arafat would not come to the table for the offer even as a starting point to further negotiations.
The Global Village
He began his talk by talking about how important it was, today, for world leaders to be careful of their decisions. He said that nowadays, on a global scale, "everything depends on everything" because we are truly living in a global village. Everyone is connected to each other with the click of a button and a few keystrokes. A simple plane ride gets you to the other side of the globe. A telephone call links you to places you've never seen. Barak stressed the importance of ridding the world of terrorism because without peace of mind, bigger battles against social injustice could never be fought and won. Once we end terrorism and start working on the social injustice for the less fortunate, then is when we will reach a global equilibrium.
Abbas
On the Palestinian leader, he felt that he was much more of a moderate than Arafat. Barak felt that Abbas is much more sincere in his efforts to stop terrorism, specifically the suicide bombers. Barak said that Abbas feels that by stopping the suicide bombings, real peace talks can truly begin. He mentioned that Abbas was present at the talks at Camp David. Then, he was more moderate than Arafat as well. When it was time to make a decision, he left the premisis citing a family affair that he had to attend, but Barak felt that he left because he didn't want to be a part of Arafat's decision to turn his back on the plan.
The Fence/Wall
Barak was the person to first suggest building a Security Fence, as he calls it, many years ago. It took four years and the statistical equivalent of 50,000 American lives for Sharon to finally implement the plans. He stresses that this is not a wall, like the Berlin Wall. His distinctions lie in the facts that the Israelis and Palistinians have a different culture, language and history whereas the Germans were divided after overthrowing Hitler and the Germans had a shared history, culture and language. He said that they needed a physical separation in order to protect their future and since built, there have been no suicide bombings. He said that it will work because it must work. He also quoted Robert Frost to say that good fences make good neighbors.
Peace in the Middle East
He joked that America is lucky to have Canada as a neighbor. He said that we is optomistic, but it will take a very long time for it to be accomplished.
Iraq
He believes that in the long run, invading Iraq was the right decision. He took a long pause and then said that the ends ultimately justified the means. He thinks that the action against this dictator has put dictatorships around the world on high alert.
Iran's Nuclear Program
He firmly believes that Iran will soon be able to launch small nuclear missles to countries further than Israel. They will be capable of reaching Western Europe and Moscow; this will force attention upon Iran. Barak stated that Russian involvement in diffusing the Iranian situation is a prerequisite and for that to happen, the U.S. must open up to Russia. He further stated that the U.S. must open up to China in order to get through to North Korea and their dangerous and mature nuclear program.
U.S. Foreign Policy
The U.S. must not strive to create a global utopian society, he said. Human rights issues in places like China and Russia must be looked over, for now, in order to acheive a larger goal of world peace and the stop of nuclear proliferation. Once those larger objectives have been achieved, then and only then can we start to look at the more localized problems that plague our societies.
Some good stuff in this talk. I'm not familiar with Barak's policies and history aside from the brief bio handed out before the talk and what he said during the talk. I can't comment further on how I feel about his policies in general or where his friendships lie. I can say that he seems like a level-headed person who genuinely wants to bring peace to the entire world, not just his country of Israel. I thoroughly enjoyed the talk and I hope that I can score some tickets to a future session of this series.
