Prince Hassan of Jordan: Arab-Jewish fraternity has a long life

In a keynote address at the 12th annual Herzliya conference, Prince Hasssan called for serious efforts to resume peace talks in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, noting that the cost of conflict in terms of lost opportunity between the failure of the Madrid Conference and 2010 has been calculated by the Strategic Foresight Group as 12 trillion dollars.

“Every single country in the region has lost out irrespective of its political perspectives,” he said. “The per capita income of all countries would have been doubled, were it not for the futility of war.”

“Security through weapons cannot bring peace: only a peace with justice can bring real security,” he said. “Without a common will to move forward, Arabs and Jews will not get anywhere.”

Israeli President Shimon Peres told the same conference that the idea of two states must be translated on the ground. He described Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad as “committed partners for peace.”

“I’ve known these people for decades. I believe Abu Mazen [Abbas] and Fayyad want peace and want to end the conflict,” he said, adding that the stalemate in peace talks only strengthens radical Islamist movements.

The Israeli President said his country has achieved impressive economic and scientific development, but politically it was still mired in the old world.

Turning his attention to the Arab spring, Peres said: “Israel is not the cause of these revolutions... This isn’t an Israeli question but an Arab one. It doesn’t depend on us but it does affect us,” he said. “The only way... is to reach an Israeli-Palestinian accord like we did with Egypt and Jordan. I say this because I believe an agreement is possible.”