These meetings were not simply an opportunity to discuss young people. Young people
are the future, and we wished to tell them how to live. We live with them. We also
wished, perhaps, to find answers to the practical problems that we have been facing
since 2000, since the Intifada. It meant taking the initiative in saying: We, Arabs,
Israelis, Christians, Muslims, minorities within the state, all suffering together, torn
between Palestinians and Israelis, divided by all this suffering, we can do a great deal
more and instead of solutions, treaties, negotiations, political slogans – which are all
very well and good – let us invite people to meet each other to make peace. That was
the appeal which I launched and which drew a wide response in France from many of
you here today and from many in Israel. It meant looking at Jewish history, the
suffering of the Jews, and examining man’s innermost being, where the trauma lies – no