(Check Against Delivery)

Seize the Providential Moment to Realize a Peace in the Middle East

August 13, 2003
Tatsuo Arima
Special Envoy
of the Japanese Government
for the Middle East Peace

Ambassador Shaker, Excellencies, My friends,

   Thank you very much for giving me the privilege of sharing my thoughts on the Middle East peace with the distinguished members of your Council. Since 1979 when your country under the leadership of the late President Anwar Sadat took the courageous step to normalize its relationship with Israel, Egypt has been one major and indispensable force behind the arduous road towards achieving a just, comprehensive and lasting peace in the Middle East. More recently, your government has helped Prime Minister Abbas cabinet to achieve the cease-fire accord among the Palestinian factions and the on-going rehabilitation of the Palestinian security apparatus. Without your continuous commitment, there would be no peace in the Middle East. For all these reasons, I am all the more honored to be given the opportunity to discuss with you Japan's Middle East policy.

Japan and the Middle East

   Japan is the second largest industrialized democracy in the world. As such, our national interest is deeply woven into virtually every corner of the earth. We cannot afford to remain indifferent to any serious turmoil anywhere in the world. So our interest in the peace and stability of such a critically important region as the Middle East goes well beyond the issue of energy resources. Hosting the Arab-U.S. Summit at Sharm el-Sheikh on June 3, President Mubarak said, I quote, "We shall continue to work for a Middle East that is free of strife and violence, living in harmony, without the threat of terrorism or dangers of the weapons of mass destruction." It is such a Middle East which coincides with our national interest, with our wellbeing. And settling the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is the pre-requisite for creating such a Middle East. It is with this recognition that Japan has done its utmost to help facilitate the peace-process particularly since the Madrid and Oslo agreements. You welcomed us most heartily as a donor participant, perhaps because we have had no imperialist involvement or religious prejudices in the Middle East.

   The process, unfortunately, was derailed by the violence and terror accompanying the Second Intifada. The process was resurrected, however, by the two dramatic developments last year. One was Crown Prince Abdullah's initiative endorsed in the spring by the Beirut Arab League Summit, calling for acceptance of Israel as a neighbor living in peace and security, in the context of a comprehensive settlement. The other, of course, was what President Mubarak calls President Bush's "vision of two states solution", meaning the emergence of a new viable and democratic state for the Palestinians alongside the existing state of Israel. Since then, confronted with the vicious cycle of violence in the Palestinian territories and Israel, the United States took the initiative in drafting so-called "The Road Map" which stipulates the obligations to be fulfilled by both the Palestinians and the Israelis in parallel and simultaneously within a three phased specific time frame to realize the vision by 2005. Now for the first time what has been lacking in all the previous attempts at the region's peace making is on the table: the end-game to be the two-states co-existing in peace and security. Now that both the Palestinian and the Israeli governments have accepted the Road Map, there is a genuine hope for the future of the Middle East free from the killing fields.

Japan's Role in the Peace Process

   We are very much aware of the indescribable obstacles as yet to be overcome through negotiations: the boarders, the refugees, the settlements, Jerusalem and now the fences each with its own complicated history and accompanying theology. Still, the solution as laid down in the Road Map will end the occupation that began in 1967, based on the foundations of the Madrid Conference, the principle of land for peace, UN Security Council Resolutions 242, 338 and 1397, agreements previously reached by the parties and the Saudi initiative endorsed by the Beirut Arab League Summit. It is now incumbent not only on the two direct parties, or on the Arab states and the United States but on the international community as a whole to create an environment conducive to the vision's realization. The Government of Japan endorses it, supports it and will continue to do its best to help the process to the very end.

   As regards monitoring the evolution of the Road Map process, the Japanese government is prepared to participate in monitoring the process of the Palestinian political reforms and institutional development as we have been already deeply involved in them through financing and through our human resources development projects. I shall later explain in greater detail what the Japanese government has done to help alleviate and improve the human and socio-political condition of the Palestinians. Fortunately, the Japanese public support our at times costly Middle East policy. To sustain their interest and support, it is critically important that our government be involved in all major deliberative processes, including, of course, the international conferences as planned in the Road Map.

   While respecting the autonomy, anxieties and grievances of the two parties, we could still encourage, or even nudge them to proceed with the further fulfillment of their obligations as laid down in the Road Maps perhaps the only salvation for them in the foreseeable future.

   A precarious suspension of violence was achieved by Prime Minister Abbas. We are holding our breath praying for its continuation. In the meantime, to help Prime Minister Abbas consolidate his position and take further measures to prevent the resurgence of violence, which we all expect, Prime Minister Sharon could take such steps as to visibly improve the economic and humanitarian condition of the Palestinians thereby restoring the sense of human dignity among them. It is only natural in this providential moment for the international community to expect that the Israelis be more forthcoming in solving the issues of the settlement, the fences or the occupation of the autonomous areas since October 2000.

Blessings of Peace

   In days, we Japanese commemorate the fifty-eighth anniversary of the end of the Second World War in the Pacific. Having lost two and a half million lives, suffered two atom bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and innumerable incendiary bombings of all of our cities, to avoid utter annihilation, we surrendered after nearly 15 years of uninterrupted fighting. We were the losers. But unlike any other previous war, if the Palestinians and the Israelis this time decide to end their war, both will be the winners. If they continue, I am afraid, both sides will be judged the losers in the eye of history, the collective fate they should at all cost avoid. Their public opinion survey shows that the people are fatigued by the continuation of human tragedies being played out day in and day out. I was twelve when the war ended. For the mind set of the younger Japanese at the time the state of war was normal and that of peace unimaginable. Here in the Middle East, to put an end to the half-century old conflict must require an extraordinary courage on both sides as the domain of what follows is yet uncertain and untenable. But in Japan the return of peace has worked miraculously.

   Japan testifies to the universality of liberal democracy and to the blessings of peace. Liberal democracy with its fundamental recognition of human dignity is not an exclusive prerogative of the western civilization as some have argued. When President Mohammad Khatami of Iran visited Japan in the fall of 2000, in his address to our National Diet he stated, "at the very core of every civilization there exists longing for liberty, justice and democracy". Japan emerged as a modern nation state in the mid-nineteenth century in response to the onslaught of the imperialist powers. It was a constitutional monarchy based on a parliamentary system. Devastated by the war, Japan as you see today has re-emerged from the ashes as a liberal democracy totally committed to international peace.

Japan's Efforts to help the Middle East Peace

   So it has been with the desire to share with others the blessings of liberal democracy and peace that Japan has been at the very fore-front of international economic cooperative activities. Also devoid of any natural resources to speak of i.e., wholly dependent on world market for its own survival, in fact, Japan is the only country among G-7 not self-sufficient in food supply, only about 50%, for us Japanese to help other peoples achieve economic growths in the condition of peace and security is very much in our own interest.

   I believe I am right in suggesting that, even during the time when the final status issue remained undefined, the Japanese at heart have always believed that there would eventually be a Palestinian state created existing side by side with the State of Israel in peace and that would be the core of the Middle East peace. This underlying belief has characterized our cooperation with the Palestinians.

   Since the time of the Oslo agreement, Japan has contributed about 640 million dollars to the Palestinians for humanitarian assistance, for human resources development and for socio-economic and political infrastructure building needed for enhancing their governance capacities. Unfortunately, much of these infrastructures were destroyed or damaged during the recent years. Even after the peace-process was stalled by the eruption of violence, Japan has not stopped its humanitarian assistance to alleviate the predicament of the Palestinians. When Foreign Minister Kawaguchi visited the Palestinian territories last May, she announced a new comprehensive aid package of 22.25 million dollars to help the newly installed government of Prime Minister Abbas. This package consists of humanitarian assistance, human resources development, the enhancement of governance capabilities and confidence building measures. The humanitarian assistance projects provide, with the cooperation of the relevant international organizations, vaccines, other medications, drinking water and other daily necessities to the poor and the refugees. Human resources projects include a program to train 100 Palestinian experts in accounting, judiciary proceedings and other administrative tasks in Japan, Jordan or elsewhere. Competent human resources alone can provide self-sufficient and viable governance. The governance related projects include the refurbishing of Prime Minister's new office building, an office of the Judiciary Agency and a court house both in Khan Yunis, Gaza, the restoration of damaged infrastructures - so called the life-lines - to facilitate the movements of peoples, goods and services. The worsened environmental condition today requires immediate cross-boarder cooperation. And thus in this package we propose Palestinian Israeli joint environmental projects to improve waste-disposable capacities of local governments. These projects would help build mutual confidence as well. The package is, of course, mindful of the valuable contributions the cross-boarder NGOs and local governments have made in the area of confidence building and humanitarian assistance. We will provide them with assistance through what we call "the Grass-Root Human Security Grant Program." Almost all the projects explained here create job opportunities for the Palestinians.

   By the way, the Road Map stipulates reviving during Phase II the Multilateral Track Approach used at the time of the Oslo process on issues including regional water resources, environment, economic development, refugees, and arms control to attain a comprehensive peace. Japan was the chair of the environment working group. Let us hope the time will come on schedule for their revival. Right now, the Japanese government is deeply engaged as I earlier mentioned, in the works of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee and of the International Task Force on Palestinian Reform whose work on improving the local government competence Japan chairs.

   A few more words on mutual confidence building which international community could help promote. Last May Japanese government hosted a non-official conference entitled "Towards a Stable Interdependent Relationship" inviting five people from each side. They were past and present government officials, parliamentarians and businessmen. Several Japanese scholars and officials participated. I attended the whole sessions. Although some anxieties, fears and reservations were expressed about the Road Map and its prospect, the views expressed on the whole supported both the final vision and the procedures of the Road Map. Some argued for the need for enforcing mechanism in addition to monitoring the compliance by the parties. The truly active economic interchanges between them, to create healthy interdependence, need the participation of international businesses. The consensus was that for such economic exchanges to take place a true peace has to be first secured. I felt at the Conference that the surrounding Arab countries could and should help reduce the level of mutual distrust or even aversion prevailing in the region. The Japanese government intends to hold the conference annually as we judged that it was a valuable fora for their needed candid dialogue.

Concluding Remarks

   When a peace finally is realized in this region, so richly endowed with the historical, cultural and religious legacies, and above all with the sophisticated and motivated peoples newly committed to building their own democratic and prosperous futures, I have no doubt, there will be a flood of peoples, capital and services coming in in search of economic opportunities and in search of sharing in the sights and sound of your great past.

   It is the responsibility of the political leaders and the peoples of not only the Palestinian territories and Israel but of the entire region to seize this providential moment to bring the blessing of peace upon themselves. The Japanese will continue to do our utmost to help promote the process.

   Thank you.