Alan Hart, a man of history...his views on Late King Faisal and President Arafat.

Alan Hart — a man of history Shabana Syed | Arab News

MEMORIES: The young Alan Hart meeting King Faisal. (AN photo)   If King Faisal had been allowed to live, the Middle East would not be in the dangerous mess it is today." That is the view of Alan Hart, a former ITN and BBC Panorama correspondent and the author of "Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews" — a two-volume book that tells the real story of how the Zionist state of Israel became its own worst enemy and a threat, not only to the peace of the region and the world, but also to the best interests of Jews everywhere and the moral integrity of Judaism itself. It's also the story of how American support for Israel right or wrong has generated Arab and other Muslim hurt, humiliation, anger and despair. Alan Hart was the first Western correspondent to interview King Faisal on film. More than four decades later, Alan says he can remember as though it were yesterday the conversation he had with King Faisal when they talked privately with only an interpreter present. Alan explains: "I took a deep breath and said: 'Your Majesty, may I ask you a straight question and please don't be offended by it?' He nodded his approval. 'You answered my questions on camera for more than one hour and in all that time, you didn't make one newsworthy or quotable statement. Why do you speak in such riddles?' With his piercing eyes, HM undressed me to my soul. From that moment on I could understand why US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was never comfortable in his presence. Eventually HM replied: 'You must understand the difficulty of my position. If I say the wrong thing, or even the right thing the wrong way, the Middle East will go up in flames.'" Even though Alan applauds King Abdullah's strides to make Saudi Arabia an important entity in world politics today, he believes that King Faisal could have accomplished much more if he had been allowed to live. Alan explains: "HM King Faisal was the one Arab leader who was not prepared to be intimidated by the Americans. Kissinger, for example, used all his influence to try to prevent Arafat being invited to address the UN General Assembly in 1974, but Faisal won that particular battle of wills. If he had been allowed to live, he would have won others and Lebanon would not have been torn apart by civil war and foreign interference and many of the disasters that followed would not have happened." Alan Hart has been engaged with events in the Middle East and their global consequences for many years. "The souvenirs I most treasure from my television reporting days are signed photographs of the two greatest opposites in all of human history — Golda Meir, Mother Israel, and Yasser Arafat, Father Palestine. Arafat signed with his 'best wishes'. Golda's inscription in her own hand was 'To Alan Hart, a good friend.' I think I must be the only person on Planet Earth to have enjoyed intimate access to both of them." Because of this special relationship with the Palestinian leader, Alan wrote his first ground breaking book — "Arafat, Terrorist or Peacemaker?" It was because of his special relationships with both leaders that in 1980 Alan found himself sucked into the covert diplomacy of conflict resolution. Alan explains: "President Carter had been prevented by Prime Minister Begin from involving the PLO in the peace process, an opening made possible because Arafat had signaled secretly that he was ready to make peace with an Israel inside more or less its pre-1967 borders. Carter was in despair and said, in private, that events had once again proved that it was impossible to advance the peace process by institutional diplomacy because of the Zionist lobby's influence on Congress. It was then suggested that I should undertake an unofficial, diplomatic mission to get an exploratory dialogue going between Arafat and Peres." The expectation at the time was that Peres would win Israel's next election and deny Begin a second term in office. According to Alan: "We made enough progress to get Peres and Arafat into public dialogue in the event of Peres winning the 1981 election. Unfortunately, he did not. You can find the full story in the second volume of "Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews." This experience confirmed to Alan that Arafat the pragmatist was ready, willing and able to make peace on terms which any rational government and people in Israel would have accepted with relief. It also assisted Alan to understand why it might be impossible for any Israeli leader, even a well-motivated one, to be able to make peace on any terms the Palestinians could accept. A decade later, Alan's initiative became the Oslo peace process, which might have delivered peace if Prime Minister Rabin had not been assassinated by a Zionist zealot. At present Alan is looking forward to the April publication of his book in America in three volumes. "Getting it published there", he says, "is a miracle because almost all publishers, the majors and the minors, are terrified of offending Zionism, either too much or at all." He adds with a smile: "It would be great to have an Arab publisher."   http://samotalis.blogspot.com/