King Hassan of Morocco, possibly the only genuinely moderate Arab leader, envisions an alliance between the Arab world and the Jewish world, including Israel, that within 10 years after a peace settlement, could constitute “a world power of the first order.” Such is the view of Nathan Andre Chouraqui, a 59-year-old Algerian-born Jewish writer and jurist who holds French and Israeli citizenship and lives in Israel.
Chouraqui disclosed details of his talks with King Hassan during a 10-day visit to Morocco last March in an interview published yesterday in the Jerusalem Post. He said “The King saw such an alliance as a balancing factor on the world scene that could lead to peace and progress.” He said Hassan regarded world Jewry as an integral part of a Semitic bloc based on the Arabs’ population and oil resources and Jewish technological, military and financial abilities.
Chouraqui said he had refrained from reporting his talks with the Arab monarch until now because he preferred that Hassan make his views public first. This the King has done at a press conference with French news media, Chouraqui said. And in the meantime, Hassanthe, the pro-royalist independent party in Morocco, won a landslide victory in the Moroccan parliamentary elections last Friday giving Hassan wider public support than ever before.
Chouraqui said his contact with Hassan came about as a result of the King’s interest in a book he had written, “Letter to an Arab Friend,” in which Chouraqui proposed a Jordanian-Palestinian-Israeli confederation with open borders and the creation of a Middle East Common Market. Chouraqui said he was invited to visit Morocco as the King’s guest and although he entered the country on his French passport, the King Knew he was an Israeli resident of Jerusalem. “I was invited, received and presented during my trip as an Israeli,” he told the Post.
WELCOMES VISIT BY MOROCCAN JEWS
He said he met with Hassan for 90 minutes on March 8. The King inquired about Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres and wanted to know which of the two was a “hawk.” He also showed interest in the 500,000 Jews of Moroccan origin in Israel and expressed hope for the normalization of relations between Jews and Arabs and fear of another Mideast war, Chouraqui reported. He said the monarch told him that, contrary to recent reports, Morocco was not urging Moroccan Jews to leave Israel and return to the land of their birth. On the other hand, Hassan said Morocco would welcome visits by Moroccan Jews and other Israelis.
According to Chouraqui, his meeting with Hassan was significant. “It is very important that a King as strong as the King of Morocco extends his hand in peace to us,” he told the Post. “He is very important to the Arab world and is a close friend of King Khaled of Saudi Arabia. This gesture has a very deep significance for Israel and the Arab world and the world in general. We have to recognize the courage, the cleverness and political honesty of the King to do so openly,” he said.
Chouraqui added: “I believe that one of our deepest weaknesses is that a large part of our people don’t believe in peace. Most of our people don’t believe in peace. Most of our people don’t know the Arabs except from the negative side of war and persecution and propaganda. In painting them all black we play the same game as those Palestinians who paint us all black…If you don’t believe in peace you don’t make peace.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
