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SEEDS OF
PEACE
In Mideast
Conflict
There’s No Escape
By Tim Boxer
 HEN
Yitzhak Rabin and Yasir Arafat shook hands on the
White House lawn, there was Bill Clinton in the middle,
arms stretched around both men so they couldn’t escape each
other.
“I had to hold them
together with all my might,” Clinton said at a Seeds of Peace
celebrity auction at Hammerstein Ballroom in New York. The event,
emceed by Janeane Garofalo, raised nearly $1
million.
Still playing the role of
peacemaker, the former President delivered a pep talk in which he
exhorted the mostly young Jewish audience to find a way for Jew
and Arab to live in harmony.
“They can live with
each other or they can kill each other,” he said. “The only
thing they cannot do is escape each other.
“If there is one thing
I’ve learned in fights I’ve won and fights I’ve lost is that
no one gets even. The only victory is peace and reconciliation.”
Ever the optimist,
Clinton said he believes peace will happen “because there is no
option. People in power will embrace the idea of Seeds of Peace.”
He welcomed Aaron
David Miller, senior adviser for Arab-Israeli negotiations at
the State Department, as the new president of Seeds of Peace. The
organization brings teenagers from different wartorn regions to
engage in conflict resolution at a summer camp in Maine.
“Miller played a
pivotal role for the eight years that my administration was
working for peace,” Clinton said.
Clinton has settled in
comfortably as a New Yorker. He was stopped on the street by a
woman and her child.
“Don’t you want to
meet Mr. Clinton?” the woman said. “He used to be President of
the United States.”
“No,” the kid said.
“I want an ice cream soda.”
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