Sadat's vision relevant in solving Mideast crisis

Kofi Annan, Secretary General, United Nations, Maryland, U.S.

Given the events of the past two years, it was perhaps inevitable that both peoples, Israelis and Palestinians would come to doubt, fundamentally, each other's real commitment to peace. With every passing day such doubts become more deeply embedded, and the task of renewing political negotiations gets even harder.

Somehow, we have to restore hope to both peoples, by patiently rebuilding their trust in each other. And that is what the Quartet of interested external parties -- the United Nations, United States, European Union and Russian Federation -- is seeking to do, by setting out a credible road map: A road map of synchronized steps that can lead, within three years, from the grim situation we are in now, to the peaceful two-state solution that the majority on both sides desire.

This road map is being prepared with great care. It is now very nearly finalized.

We in the Quartet fully realize that the credibility of this road map will depend on performance. But performance in turn depends on hope. Without a clear promise of the end result, and visible political progress towards it, neither side is likely to summon the will to take the risks that each must take, right from the start, to improve the security and living conditions of the other. That is why we say that the process must be "hope-driven", as well as performance-driven.

And that, surely, is where all parties can learn from the example of Anwar Sadat.

By all conventional wisdom, he should not have done what he did. Going to Jerusalem, with no assurance in advance of any concessions from the other side, seemed to almost all Arabs at the time an act of folly, if not outright treason.

Yet President Sadat understood the vital importance of psychology in war and peace.

He understood that political behavior is deeply influenced by the mental image that each side has of the other -- and that sometimes this image can only be changed by an act of breathtakingly radical daring.

By a leap of imagination Sadat understood that, while Arabs felt oppressed by Israel's seemingly overwhelming strength, Israel felt threatened by the uniform hostility of the surrounding Arab world.

More than anything, the Israeli people needed -- and still need -- the sense of being accepted by their neighbors, in order to find the courage to renew negotiations in good faith, despite all the traumas of the last two years, and to make the necessary concessions.

In the stage the conflict has now reached, I believe both sides are aching for that sense of acceptance.

Many Palestinians, seeing the devastation Israel is able to inflict on their society, find it hard to imagine that Israelis also live in fear, and that only by removing that fear can they hope to reach a new and more balanced relationship. Yet it is true.

And many Israelis believe they have already done enough to prove their willingness to accept Palestinians as neighbors, and allow them space in which to develop their national life.

Unhappily the life experience of many Palestinians has been very different, and Israel needs to do much more to win their trust. As long as the settlement building and land confiscation continue; as long as a political horizon is missing; as long as there is no real commitment to negotiate the remaining final status issues, Palestinians will never be convinced of Israel's desire for peace.

That may be hard for Israelis to believe. Yet it is true. The international community stands ready to help. Indeed, we must help both Israelis and Palestinians to break through the barrier of which Sadat spoke: "a barrier of suspicion, a barrier of rejection; a barrier of fear, of deception, a barrier of hallucination... a barrier of distorted interpretation of every event and statement".

But we can only help those who are willing to be helped.

What is needed on both sides is true leadership, such as Anwar Sadat provided in his time. Let us pray that they find it before it is too late.

(This is the author's Anwar Sadat Memorial Lecture presented at the University of Maryland on Thursday.