Editor’s Note: Jay Nordlinger attended the World Economic Forum on the Middle East last week. It took place by the Dead Sea in Jordan. Below is the second installment of his journal. For the first, go here.
Fairly early in the morning, I have a look at the Dead Sea. Things are dead, all right. Not many people about. There are soldiers on the beach (such as it is), guns slung over their shoulders. There are other military personnel patrolling the sea in rubber boats (dare I say dinghies?). There are military helicopters zipping overhead.
I must say, all this makes me feel more secure, not less. I hear people say — in situations like this — “It scares me, all this military presence around me.” It has the opposite effect on me. During these conferences, the Jordanian government takes no chances, for there are VIPs from around the world. (I do not include myself in this exalted mass, needless to say.)
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I think back to when I was in Iraq last fall, on helicopters that had soldiers scanning the terrain with guns. People said, “Was it frightening, to see those soldiers with guns?” I said no: It was reassuring.
When I was growing up, I learned that, in the military, you don’t say “gun.” You say “weapon.” And there was a jingle: “This is your weapon, this is your gun [gesture toward crotch]. One is for shooting, one is for fun.” Or something like that.
In any case, I say gun regardless, if it looks like a gun — if it is a gun.
I’m reminded that, at this conference in Jordan some years ago, I encountered the touchiest security screening I have ever seen. What I mean is this: I kept beeping as I went through the security “gate.” I had emptied my pockets. No belt. I was all but naked. Finally, a guard suggested that I take off my glasses — that did it. The glasses had caused the beeping.
This year, I waltz through, even belted.
I’ve always been impressed by the “Networking Terrace” — by the name: its sheer bluntness. This is a terrace, and you go out there in order to network. Of course, few people do, because it’s hot outside. Those who do venture out, want to smoke, primarily.
As usual, the Plenary Hall is manned — manned? — by stewardesses from Royal Jordanian Airlines. And I do mean “stewardesses,” not “flight attendants.” You could not look at these women and say “flight attendants.” They are dressed in the old-school manner, very smartly, in jackets, caps, and skirts. Some of them are Eastern European, or Russian. I wonder what their lives are like.
And many of the janitors in the building are Asian women — possibly from the Philippines, possibly from elsewhere. I wonder what their lives are like, too. I also shudder a little.
Of course, they have left their homelands in search of a better life, suggesting that life in their homelands was very unpromising indeed. Think of uprooting yourself, going halfway around the world to a region very foreign, to be a janitor, with huge uncertainty, or even fear, in your heart.
When Queen Rania enters the hall, the entire assemblage stands. I think, “Just like the U.S. press for Obama” (and not, of course, for Bush).
King Abdullah gives his welcome address, saying that he hopes the Forum comes up with bold answers: “answers that do not simply help our countries get through the global economic downturn but ensure that the region emerges as a powerhouse: the go-to place for opportunity and wealth-building . . . Answers that not only boost education and research capacity but make our region the house of genius for the 21st century . . .”
The Middle East as “the go-to place for opportunity and wealth-building”? “The house of genius for the 21st century”? A modest allowing for entrepreneurship — some individual elbow room — would be great.
The king touts the Arab Peace Initiative, which says this, basically: Israel must retreat to the ’67 (or ’48) borders, accept Palestinian refugees, and accept also a Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital. Then Arab nations will recognize Israel. The king says, “We have committed. So, now, must Israel. The Arab Peace Initiative has offered Israel a place in the neighborhood and more: acceptance by 57 nations, the one-third of the U.N. members that do not recognize Israel.”
I was struck by that phrase, “a place in the neighborhood”: “The Arab Peace Initiative has offered Israel a place in the neighborhood.” And if Israel finds it prudent to decline the Arab Peace Initiative? No place in the neighborhood? Effacement from the neighborhood? It seems to me that Israelis won for themselves “a place in the neighborhood,” long ago. Maybe the dozens of Arab and Muslim nations that surround Israel should recognize Israel as a neighbor, on its sliver.
